PC Crab Theft

So last week, my brand new McKay trap went missing South East of Haystack.

Another NWKA member told me he had two go missing the week before, same spot.

A NWKA member who is on the water as I type this, said he saw a light blue dory pick up and empty his pot, in the same spot, and that they fled when he tried to approach them. 

ODFW and sheriff have been notified. Bob said it was a light blue dory, six people on board, center console, crab winch, and large back deck.

Sherrif said there was not much he could do without a boat name or #, whch Bob was unable to get, before the boat ran off into the fog. Sheriff recommended putting some sort of difinitive marks on our traps themselves, not just the buoys.

If anyone else has any other info, please let us know!

Probably call the sheriff  back and let him know that he should make an effort to do his job before he has to recover a sunk blue dory later.

I am certainly not suggesting that you do anything dangerous or stupid, as a crab pot isn't worth endangering someone's life, but if they are stealing yours, they could certainly get caught stealing someone elses that lacks self control.

In the mean time, do what you can to mitigate any future thefts.  Shy of sitting on your buoy all day, or having someone with a spotting scope, power boat and a sting operation setup, you will probably be risking it again regardless. 

Crab theft, and crab pot theft has been a known issue all up and down the coast for many years.
As a kayaker, we are really at the mercy of just trusting our fellow fisherman out there. 

I was my 2 brand new Mckay traps that went missing in the end of July.
2nd time they were used.
I had a plastic plate zip ties to the traps with my contact info as well as the required buoy marking.
I am beyond pissed.
I'll be posting this on IFish as well.

I thought there was nothing worse than the Sea Lions in Oregon City. At least they have a plausible excuse. These a---holes are right down there with the meth heads that are cutting the catalytic converters our of our vehicles. Which has now become a major consideration of where I am able to fish. Probably going to consider just crabbing in the bays versus tossing $75 in the ocean for blue dory dufus to just steal them. Sad stuff

I was in Pacific City as well today and when pulling our traps we saw that same light blue dory going from pot to pot. I was busy focusing on our own pots but my wife said she thought it was kind of suspicious how they pulled pot after pot (going in all directions in between, without having a systematic approach). In addition she felt the people on board were staring at us.
I didn't think much of it, but now that i see this post am not so sure anymore.

Obviously I don't know if the pots they were pulling weren't theirs. There were quite a few people on board and if each has three pots then they would have a lot of pots out.

At least my 2 pots were still at the location where i dropped them. First time using my McKays....would have sucked if they had disappeared....

I saw them passing by my pots earlier on Tuesday near the line of traps I was at and didn't have any crab to show for it either. I had the traps soaking for about 8 hours. I got my traps back but was a bit suspicious of them.

On another note, there was a red Stryker boat connected to a dark truck in the estuary that actually took another boat's crab pot and was called out right there on the water. That dude high tailed it out of there after handing over the pot that had the other guy's name on the floats! "Dude! That pot has my name right there on it! You stole my pot!" Nobody told me I'd get entertainment along with my filleting of fish...

Fred "True" Trujillo

This makes me wonder. About a week ago my crab pot only had six crabs in it and I was suspecting that someone checked it before. My pot is cheap Danielson brand so that's probably why they did not take it.

Our pots were fairly empty as well yesterday: 5 keepers and 3 or 4 females/undersized crabs for 2 pots combined.

I dropped a Pot at PC yesterday.  6 males, 5 keepers. All good size, but soft.  I saw a light blue dory, but farther out so not sure if the same guys.  Guy I was kayaking with dropped his pot about 200 yards from me and had 13, with 12 keepers.

Well, that sucks! There is a special place in hell for crab and crab pot thieves stealing from kayak fishermen. We have to drag the crab pots and other crab gear/bait along with the kayak to get to the water, deploy and pull crab pots by hand, bring everything back again... it is fun for sure, but certainly more work than using a motor boat and/or mechanical pullers. So it sucks when after all the effort you found that your gear or catch is gone... I am sorry to hear about it.
In 15+ years of crabbing from my kayak (mainly Puget Sound MA10) I got 2 crab pots stolen and numerous times where my crab pots were clearly checked and males cleaned out, including two times where the thieves left "gotcha" tokens: empty beer cans or beer bottles wrapped inside the crab traps...
Good thing here is that you have a good lead about the culprit and an engaged community that can keep eyes out and report back, having pictures would be great to document what's going on, that conspicuous dory has to go to land somewhere eventually...

I think it would a good idea to call them out on ch69 if spotted. That way if they are monitoring that channel they will know they are exposed and everyone is aware of them.

I think it would a good idea to call them out on ch69 if spotted. That way if they are monitoring that channel they will know they are exposed and everyone is aware of them.

I have no skin in the game but if it were me I'd rather lay low, pass the info on to DFW and pray that LEO is able to hook 'em up.

I think it would a good idea to call them out on ch69 if spotted. That way if they are monitoring that channel they will know they are exposed and everyone is aware of them.

Unless you had definitive proof that the people in question were pulling traps that werent theirs this could be a dangerous game to play considering false accusations.  I would call the TIP line and give a description of the boat and reg # if possible and let the LEOs handle it.   A personal anecdote that is related:

I was duck hunting out at Sauvie a few years back.  Someone had called the TIP line to say I had taken 3 pintails (limit was 2 that year).  OSP officer came out, inspected my ducks and gear and went on his way.  Was it intrusive and annoying? Sure! Was it annoying that the LEO treated me like I had done something wrong? Also yes, but I understand that he was taking the TIP call seriously so he was treating it as such.  In the end I was happy to see they took those calls seriously and investigated them.  It took a bit of my time, but in the end it was all good.

I would suggest taking a pair of compact binoculars along and if they are spotted try to grab the boat number.

Another suggestion: If they are spotted pulling a trap, cleaning it out and then dropping it back in the water, why not head over to that buoy and grab the name off the ID. If one of the people in the boat is the owner then you would have the ID of one of them. And a name to pass on to LEO as a "possible lead" if thefts continue. They may be fishing their own traps as well as those of others. 

I think it would a good idea to call them out on ch69 if spotted. That way if they are monitoring that channel they will know they are exposed and everyone is aware of them.

Unless you had definitive proof that the people in question were pulling traps that werent theirs this could be a dangerous game to play considering false accusations.  I would call the TIP line and give a description of the boat and reg # if possible and let the LEOs handle it.   A personal anecdote that is related:

I was duck hunting out at Sauvie a few years back.  Someone had called the TIP line to say I had taken 3 pintails (limit was 2 that year).  OSP officer came out, inspected my ducks and gear and went on his way.  Was it intrusive and annoying? Sure! Was it annoying that the LEO treated me like I had done something wrong? Also yes, but I understand that he was taking the TIP call seriously so he was treating it as such.  In the end I was happy to see they took those calls seriously and investigated them.  It took a bit of my time, but in the end it was all good.

I'm really surprised to hear that story. I have tried to use the TIP phone line and web form multiple times and had exactly zero response. The only way I've ever been able to get a response is by contacting a sheriff directly who was interested in what I was reporting. Either they don't care about fish stuff or I'm cursed or something, but from my point of view, the TIP line is a complete joke and waste of time, and I hope someone that can do something about that is reading this.