1200' of BAITED line!

[Dave7]

Was talking to an old waterman (mid 80s) the other day.
I sometimes duck hunt out in front of his place,and he likes to watch us.

Started talking about crabbing,and he brought up something interesting.

Said law allows recs to use 1200' of BAITED line.
"Ever think about how much you're losing with every bait?"

Sure enough he took a piece of light rope,made a couple loops like he was baiting,then said "measure it now!".

Think I need to add a couple hundred feet to my line!
Them old boys are sharp!

[Antman40]

I'm a little confused(imagine that) as to what you are saying:confused:

Per Comar 08.02.03.03;

"B. The length of a trotline is measured along the bait line."

That would mean (to me anyway), that your lines would be "measured" from the first bait to the last.....so if you had an additional 100' on each end beyond the last bait that would not count as part of your 1200'...

Tony

I'm sorry Dave, I went back and read your post again and I think I got it now...
You are talking about the length you lose with the knots etc......I get it. But, with that said I've got a bunch of 1200' lines and also 1000' lines and to be honest NONE of them are the same length....some more obvious than others...You make a good point for those of you that want to get the most out what you are allowed to use.

Good Luck!

[Dave7]

LOL,I START out with 1200' every year BEFORE I bait it.
Then during a season of snags,breaks,birdnests,etc ,it gets progressively shorter!
(well,they both do)

This year,I'll start with 1400'.

[Antman40]

LOL,I START out with 1200' every year BEFORE I bait it.
Then during a season of snags,breaks,birdnests,etc ,it gets progressively shorter!
(well,they both do)

This year,I'll start with 1400'.

Dave, I'm not even talking about the "drama" that happens sometimes......
I had 4 - 1200' sections of softlay and NONE of them were the same lengths off the spool!.....never even been in the water!......so if you want to do your thing.....bait your line, stretch it, measure and go from there! Good luck!

Tony

PS.....after you measure it the first time, make sure you ALWAYS use the same size baits...:D

[b.dog]

so if ya want to get most line thats baited out of 1200 ,a snood line would have no loss due to loop? and are you sure offoicer would not measure knot?

[JimRockfish]

Curious, how many feet do you use between baits? Jim

[Dave7]

so if ya want to get most line thats baited out of 1200 ,a snood line would have no loss due to loop? and are you sure offoicer would not measure knot?

I can't see him unbaiting the line to do so,but if he wants to,hell, he's welcome to come by after I'm done!:D I'll even let him rebait!

I usually go about 4' between baits,sometimes more,sometimes less.
If I'm getting near the end of the line,and have a lot left,they go closer together.
If running low,they go farther apart.

Heck,back in the 70's I tried 2 baits about 8" apart every 4 feet or so.

[Antman40]

This whole thread is funny.......NO WAY IN HELL the DNR man is gonna measure lines......PERIOD.......
don't get me wrong.....you got a mile of line and no numbers.....PROBLEM.....but for the most part....1000'-1400'.....I can't see a problem. They (DNR) can't even show up when you CALL EM', much less for this type of bulushlt .............

Tony

[rgminer]

Whens the last time any of you ever had the NRP ask you to pull your line for measuring?

[Dave7]

Whens the last time any of you ever had the NRP ask you to pull your line for measuring?


Never.

But I DID once have one ask me what kind of fish "that"was,and "is there a size limit?" !!!!

(it was a blue)


Don't think they'd need to pull the line.Easier to measure it while layed out.

I think you'd have to be WAY over to even draw a look,BUT,I want to be right and I sometimes want to have the max in the water.

[Capt. Dale]

On the South River DNR checks both comm & rec crabbers for various reasons.
I personally know of incidents where rec crabbers had there lines measured by DNR Officers using GPS coordinates.

[Clark W. Griswold]

I thought about the loosing length with knots last year when I was replacing my line. I used a 20' piece of #4 loktite and "baited" it with something I thought would be a smaller diameter than lips to be safe. I forget what I came up with for loss per bait, but after I figured everything out I estimated I could safely add 150' to my 1200' line. On my third trip of the year I took a handheld GPS with me and marked the frist and last baits as the crossed the stick. The GPS showed them as .27 mi apart. Even with errors in the GPS or my reaction, that's at least 150' to long. I did not measure the supposed 1000' spool that I started with. I ended up removing 200' just to be safe. Next time I measured it with the GPS, I came up .23mi. Still a hair longer than 1200', but well within the error for the GPS which is how I always figured they would measure it. (Thanks Capt. Dale for confirming that's how they do it)

I still think you would have to be blatently over length to get ticketed, but I'm not interested in finding out how long it has to be for that to happen.

One question though, would a GPS measurement hold up in court or would they have to pull the line and measure it some other way?

[donp]

Is the length of a line from weight to weight? Float to float? Or from the first bait to the last bait?

I would say if the DNR Police thought you were running a 1300’ line they could measure it with a GPS unit.

[SteveL]

The measurement that DNR uses for rec trotlines is 1200 feet from the two end baits--bait to bait. Seems like if checked by DNR with a GPS they would mark the GPS coordinates at each end bait as the line is set.

I use medium/long anchor lines so my floats are way longer than 1200 ft apart.

[SteveL]

The measurement that DNR uses for rec trotlines is 1200 feet from the two end baits--bait to bait. Seems like if checked by DNR with a GPS they would mark the GPS coordinates at each end bait on the line.

I use medium/long anchor lines so my floats are way longer than 1200 ft apart, except when I split the line into 2 seperate 600 ft lengths.

[done workin]

Hey Dale

If you really want to mess with the GPS coordinate theory, Deliberately lay the line in a big arc or bow. They can measure between the floats all they want.

Although I try not to do it, sometimes I can't help myself and I start a little early, especially if there are not other boats around to interfere with. One morning, on the South, I really pushed the limit (About 20 minutes or so) and got checked by DNR as to how many traps I had out and how I was doing. My answer?? "29 traps, and the first run was only 6 crabs or so, but this run was starting better. It was only 2 minutes after legal starting time."

Here's your sign!!

Chris

[flats cat]

Hey Dale

If you really want to mess with the GPS coordinate theory, Deliberately lay the line in a big arc or bow. They can measure between the floats all they want.

Although I try not to do it, sometimes I can't help myself and I start a little early, especially if there are not other boats around to interfere with. One morning, on the South, I really pushed the limit (About 20 minutes or so) and got checked by DNR as to how many traps I had out and how I was doing. My answer?? "29 traps, and the first run was only 6 crabs or so, but this run was starting better. It was only 2 minutes after legal starting time."

Here's your sign!!

Chris

You probably crab on Wednesday too don't you!

[done workin]

Actually what if I was crabbing on Wednesdays? As long as I am handlining It's OK. Also I was playing along with joke about the way they could measure the line.



As far as starting early, like I said I rarely do it. If there are no other boats around that will be effected by one run early, then yeah I might. Where I normally crab there is usually a commercial guy right along side and I will not lay early to give him the full benefit of his earlier time. Would I ever start early to prohibit someobody from getting in there, NO!! Like I said, if I am not intefering with someone else, then maybe. It's not worth the $75 fine or having to pull my stuff up or have to relay it again in 10 minutes. By the time I pull it all up it's time to start again. My whole point of the story was that even when DNR checks they may not be fully aware of what's going on.

Early is early and it's never right, 'nuf said.

Chris

[MT Pockets]

If you want to misconstrue the rule even further, why not say the only BAITED line is what is touching the baits, i.e, about 1 inch So if you have 10 baits 4 feet apart, thats 40 feet of line, but only 10 inches of BAITED line... I'm sure DNR would be fine with that.:D

Better be careful, like Capt Dale said. I have heard of laser range finders being used for rec measurements.

[Dave7]

Not trying to misconstrue the law,or get away with anything.Just pointing out an observation.
A lot of officers these days do not even know the letter of the law, much less the intent or intricacies.I've had one ask me what a fish was (a blue) then ask me if there was a minimum size limit! Seens to be more of a problem with some of the younger officers,esp. the ones without an outdoors background,which unfortunately,is all too common these days.And getting more so.
Not knocking the Dept,just an observation.A CLOSE observation.

[MT Pockets]

I hear ya Dave... and you are right... I've been checked by a few officers over the years, and some don't know their own rules! One guy said, do you have a commercial license.... yes.... then he pulls out a checkist of what I need!:o

[mbgeaz]

i got checked once and the officer did not know how many i was allowed to keep. there was 3 people on the boat and they thought i could keep 3 BUSHELS!...i didn't tell him any different, seemed like he would have been annoyed since it took so long for me to find my license. and he was quite young also. just an observation.