Crabbing Question

[Wacenturion]

Ok....I give up.  Tired of looking.  Here's the question I have.

Myself and someone else in my boat.  I have two traps with my name on it as I'm allowed.  The friend has no traps.  We both have crab licenses.  Obviously I can harvest my limit.  Question is can my friend harvest his limit from my trap pulls?

Unless I missed it somewhere in the regulations......why the hell don't they explain it.  Seems like something that would happen almost all the time.

Thanks for the help.

[jaymark6655]

Unless I missed something (haven't read fishing regs for three years now)  can fish using someone else's traps,  would be like fishing with someone elses pole.  Just not allowed to have more than four pots on the boat, I think the name on the gear is mainly for trying to reclaim/return  lost gear.

[Limhangerslayer]

I think jaymark on that one.  What you could do is have the extra bouys with his name on them, cheap quick fix.  Then you know you're legal.

[wraithen]

The limit thing is per person.The name on the bouy is instant tattle-tale if you're caught stealing gear, or if someone finds your lost gear.  Bunch of guys I used to work with would pool their pots. Whatever number of people wanted to crab, they took out twice that many pots. Never got questioned about wrong names on the bouys anyway. 

[steeleywhopper]

You are both legal to crab off of your pots. I had this discussion with a LE last year and my buddy also had the same chat with one as well, he got the go ahead as well. As long as you are not over your allowed pots per person you are fine.

[Wacenturion]

Unless I missed something (haven't read fishing regs for three years now)  can fish using someone else's traps,  would be like fishing with someone elses pole.  Just not allowed to have more than four pots on the boat, I think the name on the gear is mainly for trying to reclaim/return  lost gear.

No limit on number of pots on the boat, but there is a limit of two pots per person with his or her name and address on those two pots.  Just wanted to clarify that.  That was clearly evident in the regs.

[lokidog]

Put some duct tape over your name on one of the pots and put his name and address on the pot. They are extremely strict when it comes to crab.

Don't worry about it!  As mentioned above, you can have two crab pots with your name on it and ten people can get their limits out of them.  The only restriction on number of pots is for shrimping, four in a boat no matter how many people, but there again, any number of people can limit out of those pots.  Just make sure that the person who's name is on the buoy is in the boat.  That is about the only way I think they can get you if you are following size restrictions and limits.

[RB]

The best thing to do if you are the only one with crab pots is to let your buddies get their crab first, because once you have your limit technically you are done and can no longer have your gear in the water. 

[groundhog]

I think you need to have his name on one of the pots to be legal. We use rubbing alcohol to wipe off one name and add another.

[fishinmike]

You can fish as many people as you want with the two traps. Just make sure that when you pull the pots the person whose name is on them is in the boat. That way there is no question on ownership.

[Encore 280]

One thing I don't agree with and I know that it's optional is the phone number and the address is fine as long as it's a PO box. With some of the sick *censored*s out there and they come upon a lady's name and address and phone number, bad news from the get go. Glad I have a PO box that my wife can put on her buoys. She has nice buoys. Just a word of caution.

[sirmissalot]

You can fish as many people as you want with the two traps. Just make sure that when you pull the pots the person whose name is on them is in the boat. That way there is no question on ownership.

  Bingo

[Wacenturion]

You can fish as many people as you want with the two traps. Just make sure that when you pull the pots the person whose name is on them is in the boat. That way there is no question on ownership.

  Bingo

Thanks all for the responses!  Appreciate it.

You would think that WDFW would add one or two sentences to clarify that.  Not like the pamphlet doesn't have room....good grief.

[huntnphool]

 If you need a couple more pots you can borrow a couple of mine.

[Wacenturion]

phool....thanks for the offer.     Have plenty, just irritated over lack of explanation in regs.