Mudded In

 A Spring Tide is a tide just after and just before a new or full moon where the difference between high and low tide is the greatest.

During spring tides, the creek where our landing is located gets very low. Yesterday, we tried to pull some traps early before going to church ... but we couldn't get back to the landing. Although the kids could walk on water ... we missed church anyway!

Another thing that happens when the tides pull hard is that the water fills our traps with mud, trash, and silt.  This 'mudding in' of the traps reduces the catch as well as seating the traps to the muddy bottom. Some traps can get so deeply set in the mud that we have to tie the buoy line to a cleat and use the boat to pull the trap free.

Soak Time, the length of time that a trap stays in the water between pulls, can make a difference as well. In Florida they soak pots 7 to 14 days. Here in South Carolina, if we let the pots set that long they will get seated to the bottom.  So, we try to work on less than 7 day soak times, two and three day soaks if we can. However, work and school schedules play a role in how often we can check pots.





Editor's Video Comment: I believe the correct nautical term for my children's behavior is .... mutiny !!!