Quote:
Originally Posted by cajun_poboy
Looks simple enough... Steering the boat and netting at the same time may be a bit challenging. I would think that if you set that prop stick in the right spot relative to the controls, then it should be very doable by yourself. May take a little repetition to get the technique down.
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believe me when i say... it's more difficult than it looks...
you want your boat to be on the "downwind" side of the line (any shadow falling on the crabs when they are coming up will make em drop to early, also then you dont have to fight runnin over your line) i strongly strongly suggest that for your first line you DO NOT build a "snooded" line.. instead simply put the baits on the line with a simple slip knot (the type that when the bait is gone it pulls out) like this
http://www.kategilbert.com/howto/slipknot.html
space your baits out about every 20 - 30 feet to start... trust me when you are running the line that is very quick... once you get better and have the hang of it..... then space em about every 15 feet.
when you are running the line... basically throw the line over you roller / prop stick on the boat... and then just put the engine in gear and idle down the line on the downwind side... its best if you have someone running the motor and another person running the net to scoop..... after you get the hang of it you can do both at the same time.
Bull lips can be used for 4+ trips, chicken necks usually good for 2 trips, everything falls between those two.
Keep your net in the water.. if you have a couple crabs in a row you can leave the net in the water.. the force of the water moving (since your boat is moving) will keep the crabs in the net as you scoop.
you want your end anchors to be about 20lbs or so.. from them run a rope to a float.. then from the float run a line to your chain... you want 3-4 foot of fairly beefy galv chain.. something like you have as your towing chains. then use a brass snap to connect your line to the end of the chain.. run your baited line out (EITHER 90 degrees cross wind, or with the wind) when you get to the end... connect again to your chain on that side... then drop the second anchor taught enough so that it "pulls" your float on that side down a bit... in other words you want the line to be fairly tight (natural line tension from the floats will pull the anchors back enough so that the line will lay on the bottom)
Here's an absolute pro tip... bait your line before hand... and store it in a 5 gallon buck.... but when you put it in the bucket DO NOT TRY TO COIL IT.... just use a technique called "faking" (in other words just let the line lie in the bucket as your baiting it as it wants to lie... if you coil it with baits on it... you will have an EPIC rat's nest..... ) trust me on this one.