liquid plumber

I am new to lobstering this season, just grabbed 5 traps and all the gear needed. I Just want to hopefully catch some lobsters on the way back in when I get skunked tuna fishing. Gonna keep my 5 traps out of the way from the guys who need to do this to make a living.

I have a question. I attached a picture of a curved lead weight that was sold to me with my setups. Does this weight get cut down some and just electrical taped to the bottom concaved part of the bouy stick on one side?? Also, does the weight just go on one side of the bottom of the buoy stick, or do I need a weight on each side to balance it for a total of 2 weights per stick?

Any information is appreciated. Thank you.

freddy063

do you want that hitting your boat when you come upon it? I always just used 1/2 or 3/4 inch PVC conduit pipe and ran a 3/8 pot line in it with a loop. What size floats you got, see what pipe fits in it. drill a hole just above the float, pull out the line and knot it. you have to keep up with the laws, might need a 600 lbs break in the line, just add it before you run the line in the pipe. The only reason you want weight on the float is to make it harder for other boats to get your gear stuck on their boats. I've seen some people use 1-gallon oil jugs as floats.This can be cheap and simple or expense and hard. The line going down to the trap will hold the float up, what weights do you have in the pots? You should have 3 bricks or so.

what are the weights made of? I see a hole in it, I've never seen anyone use anything like that for lobstering, might just use
them for tuna fishing sinkers.

AntCoastie

liquid plumber

Thanks, ive been told im an over thinker, only if I could be an over achiever.....😁

TTaxi

At least in MA, you need weighted top warp anyway. You are likely to find this hobby makes a bit of a mess of the boat.
You are going to fish the pots in state waters, right?.

Good luck with the bugs

liquid plumber

Thank you....ill take any luck I can get. I did buy the roll of 3/8" sinking rope from new england marine to use. I read up on all the regs before even buying the gear and got everything needed and marked my numbers on all my traps, buoys, and red marking on the trap rope halfway up.....also have the breakaway link. Im definetly not worried about the mess, it's a 25 foot walkaround fishing boat.

Yes, ill be fishing the pots in Massachusetts somewhere along plum island, im out of Newburyport.

Good luck to you this season also.

TTaxi

Sounds like you will be all set. Hope the bad guys and sharp propellers leave you alone.
And thanks! I don't lobster ( non-comm. only) any more though.

porthole2

liquid plumber

Thanks for the heads up. That is such bullshit if they cut them if they are completely out of there way . It's a big ocean, nobody owns it. I completely understand these guys make a living doing this and thats why I intend to find my own area where they are not.....im doing this for fun, not to earn a paycheck like they are, so I understand the respect thing. But if commercial guys are gonna cut rec traps just for the hell of it thats just wrong. I will respect what they do and will stay out of there way, but there needs to be respect back. Ive been fishing my local waters for 22 years and have always respected and stayed out of the way of the people who make a living at this.

DirtyMikeAndTheBoys

Ill preface this by saying I'm also new to lobster fishin (5 trap rec) but because of this I have been doing a lot of research/reading and this subject of cutting trap lines keeps coming up. I can picture things getting territorial in the offshore lobster game, when commercial guys with 10 trap trawls dont want people setting on top of them but I feel like this trap cutting stuff has got to primarily happen offshore . Rec traps are normally one trap set ups and are within sight of shore. Is it really worth getting caught cutting a rec trap so you can have the best spot next to the jetty? I also plan to stay away from folks but I think it would take a set of nuts to cut lines that close to shore and risk getting caught tampering with traps. But Im new so what do I know

The Autumn Hunter

I did rec lobstering for a few years. It is fun, especially when you catch enough for your families dinner. The kids enjoy the whole process too.
But there are downsides. As stated, it makes you and your boat an absolute mess, and it only seems to get worse as the season goes on.
You become a target for the green police. Not that you have anything to hide but it becomes time consuming when you're checked three weekends in a row.
In NH it can become difficult to find open water and not be in the way of other traps.
Hopefully you'll have fun but there are things to keep in mind.

liquid plumber

Thanks, my nephew just turned 6 and will really enjoy pulling up some traps, thats what its all about!. Also its an excuse to get to the boat to check the traps a few times a week. Im gonna wait til a lot of guys get there traps in before I find my spot to drop mine.

Ill be dropping them in mass waters, but the green police are just as tough there to, but I play by the rules and have nothing to hide from them.

Enjoy your season and tight lines!

thejtdude

A lesson I leaned as a rec lobsterman is to keep the cost of your setup (traps and trap gear) as low as you can. I lost a few traps last year. Even though my traps were set in the same spots all season and were out there the first day I could put them there, a local commercial boat decided to lay the start of his string right in the mix of my few traps which resulted in (educated guess) his line getting wrapped in my buoy line and him cutting my buoy (a neighbor found it on a near by island and the rope was clearly cut) as well as his string being set on top of my buoy lines causing me to break a line (bad link at the breakaway) and loosing a trap.

So going into this season, I skipped all of the fancy pvc pipe I had on the buoys as well as a few other extras I thought would be helpful or that I needed and tried to reduce the cost of each trap and line setup to as low as possible. Because as many others will tell you here, it is inevitable that you will loose gear. So with keeping that in mind, I just prepare to replace it in the future by spending less money and effort in it now.

Same goes for all the time I spent painting my buoys last year. They looked great! but took forever and got covered in slime and faded. So in the end, I had to paint them again this year. And in reality, only I ever looked at them so who cares how good they look and how well the lines look on them. Now I just spray paint the three colors on there as good as freehand gets and call it a day.

Good luck. Lots of fun! but can be frustrating when fighting with the commercial guys.

And the commercial guy who was messing with my gear was doing it 40 feet off sure of a public park and fishing pier in the neighborhood so lots of attention all the time. If they can find an excuse to make it look legit like its effecting their commercial fishing, they may just do it.

Hunky Dory

I just read the last post and had to laugh. He tells of how he lost gear and how much effort he put into having to paint bouys and such. A commercial guy is painting over 500 bouys and loosing more traps than you even fish every year. They are to busy trying to make a living to screw with your gear. If you set where they are fishing and your gear gets into their trawl they usually cut and tie your line so they can keep working. They NEED to haul about 200 traps a day to make a living fooling with your gear cost them money. They do not intentionally try to screw with you. They set from where their chart plotter said they did good same time last year not where you decided you wanted to set.

mystery

There was a big thread on THT a year or two ago about a commercial guy screwing with a rec guy

Great that they have a spot that did good the year before does not give them the right to cut someone else's, that attitude is part of the problem

thejtdude

Never stated they intentionally were screwing with me. But they did choose to fish right on top of me putting both our lines at risk and being a rec fisher, I will always loose that battle. That is the message I am sharing with the OP. Keep the cost low because if a commercial fisher wants the spot your in, they will take it and if it puts both your lines and their lines at risk of tangles, the rec fisher will loose the battle.

Agreed, the commercial fisher was not intentionally messing with my gear but did choose to overtake my chosen area with their gear causing me to loose gear. No cut and re-tie done on my lines. Just cut and throw the buoy.

Not intending to start the argument all over again of commercial vs Rec lobster fishing. Everyone has their own view and side on that. Most of the commercial lobstermen are my neighbors so I assure you I often side with them. But to the OP, not all commercial lobstermen will respect your attempts to try lobstering and will give you zero mercy. So keep your costs low.

TTaxi

100% right on.

But of course there are also plenty of low lifes with no permit at all who just rob pots for dinner or illegal sales . Not to mention all the unmolested ( rec & comm) traps with perhaps short warp and too few bricks that end up on the leeward beach after storms.

porthole2

Not how it works in Jersey.
They cut each others warp if too close and if they see divers anywhere near the pots they at times 'wreck' havoc.
They drop their pots over wrecks on the reef then bitch when the pots get moved.

I've watched Manasquan CG inspect catches at the dock and do nothing more then throw shorts over (which will not survive in the warm water).
Some time ago a few miles off our coast between Shark River and Manasquan two "professional" lobstermen had a shoot out! What a radio conversation that was.
And not long after that a lobster boat in Shark River and Manasquan were torched at the docks.

We had one local guy who was so disliked by the community that when he got his leg wrapped and pulled over and was killed, no one cared. And he wasn't fishing alone.

gregb5220

In NY commercial guys cut rec guys pots all the time, your nuts if you think they don't have time to mess with someone else's gear. To them every dollar counts, and those three lobsters you pull in when your just out having fun with your kids or something is three less than they got. I've been on both sides, commercial and recreational. Most of the commercial guys are total scumbags with no respect for the water or people on it. I've had a few traps cut, and my pots are incredibly hard to find. Half buoys, painted blue and set at low tide. I've also pulled my traps and found a 6 pack in one, and one baited with mackerel (I use bunker or racks).

Check out these lunatics, this was a few miles out from my marina

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/26/n...-li-traps.html

liquid plumber

He must of been a "Red Sox" fan😁. Thats just savage that someone would actually open fire over a few lobster traps. Like I said, some people think they own the ocean.