Crab thief

[Birdblaster]

Okay so yesterday sat the 5th I set 2 pots inside the bay in a spot I have always had luck with rocks and dungeoness not all are keepers but there is always lots of crabs. So I let em soak about 12 hours and went to check em and guess what the bait was gone, no crab and believe it or not a 17lbs ling carcass was completely gone head and all HMMMM. I have never seen a crab small enough to escape the pot eat a ling head bone and all then get out of the pot. The pots were set all tight no flipping and the doors were still in tact with the gates and all......

Anyone ever seeen this??

I do believe that someone snaged my crab....

[matanaska]

Lots of thieves in the bay.  It has happened to me a couple times.  You pretty much got to camp on your pots to keep an eye on them.

[Seagipsy]

Last year I had the no bait and no crabs...I did see tons of small crabs falling though the mesh on the pots that still had bait (short soak) though. 

[Tortugaphil]

We were drifting the jetties last sunday and dropped 2 pots in the bay in a spot we like and we had 8 keepers and a lot of rejects. They soaked a couple hours before we pulled them. We never pulled an empty pot with the bait gone. It looks to me you had a visitor. We close the pots with a zip tie, that way we know if we had visitors. It does change the result but at least you know and I beleive it may deter some.

[Banana Luck]

Practice good hunter safety make sure down range is clear when you open fire. If you see a crab pot forsale with 441-1099 burned into the float drop me a line please it was taken from my boat when I lived in Eureka.

Mick

[Birdchaser II]

Its four years now but I had three pots takes at night just below the outside the south jetty and my ID wason the floats.  They probably destroyed the floats

[fishkisser]

That has happened to Me before ...
I always figured it landed upside down ...