Daytime crabbing not going so well

[DoubleJ]

Looking for your opinions.  I think my pot may be getting raided but I'm not sure.  I have it far enough off shore that it wouldn't be people taking it from shore like I thought when I had it tied off to the dock.  Put the pot back at 8am this morning and just pulled it at 7pm.  Had one crab.  This was after having 10 in there at 7am after a 12hr overnight soak.

Either my pot is getting raided during the day or the crabs just don't like the area during the day.  This is not the first, second, or even 4th or 5th time we have not had many crabs after the pot soaking all day.  Where it sits is in 50-60' of water.  Could it be that the crabs just don't like the area during the day?  Too bright maybe?

[oldcamper]

Interesting problem, you wouldn't think it would matter but are the currents/ tide changes different at night?

[DoubleJ]

I'm thinking it is bait related.  I haven't kept a record because, well, why would I?  But I think I haven't been exactly following the "If it's not fresh enough for you, it's not fresh enough for crab" rule.  My big 10 crab haul yesterday morning came with fresh flounder and bullheads in the pot.  Yesterday afternoon, those fish would have been old and the salmon heads I got from my dad that I added were rotted.  I added more rotted salmon heads last night and only had 2 crabs in there this morning.  Going back to catching fresh fish and putting them in the pot.

[lokidog]

Unfortunately, from my cynical POV, there are a lot of POS's that have no problem taking crabs out of traps.  Often it is these huge boats that will pull them and then just move on.  Usually they even leave your gate open or dump the bait out as well.  In the Seattle area, a friend says he has watched a certain group of people just go from one pot to another pulling crabs out.  When questioned, they suddenly speaky no english....

You can zip tie your pot shut and would know if it was messed with, unless they were taken out through the gate.

Not sure it is a bait issue as I used bait for two days, pulled it out, stuck it in the freezer and used it for another two days catching crab the whole time.  If you can, you should hang your bait from the top of the pot as some areas have huge numbers of the little crawly shrimp type things that will eat all of your bait if given the chance.  I've caught crab with freezer burnt goose legs as well as other freezer burnt stuff.  Fresh is probably better though

Light should not be an issue in 50+ feet of water.

Another thing folks here will do is set their pots at low tide with a lot of weight and just enough rope to reach the surface.  When the tide comes up, noone can see the buoy to pull it, then they pull it the next day at low tide.

Sometimes it does seem a mystery why there are no crab in the same spot where you got a bunch the previous day.

[oldcamper]

The POS's that are taken the crabs should have their boat confiscated on the spot.  I would even say make em swim back to shore. 

[FC]

I've done well crabbing in full daylight and less than ten feet of water many times, usually I would say that either your spot/bait sucks or you are getting raided.  You are mainly catching rock crab though right? Rock crab like to have close cover and it may be that they are feeding further from their rock-pile at night. Find their rock pile and put your trap next to it during the day and your catch will go up dramatically. If you have no other way to find the rock pile you can use a cast-able trap from the dock until you find the area where you start catching more rock crabs, drop your trap there.