First Pots in the Water !!! Yea !!!

The skies are spitting chilling rain with brisk NE winds.  The moon is full, creating high pulling tides, and the temperature is dropping.  Perfect time to test the stability of these stone crab pots.

Sarah reports that her hands were so cold that she had trouble writing on her ( lest you forget ) "waterproof" data sheets.

When the water pulls hard during these full moon tides, it can cause the pot to unseat from the bottom and begin to roll.  As the pot rolls along the bottom, it will spool the cord around the pot pulling the buoy below the surface, making the pot undetectable and non-retrievable.  Sometimes a reverse tide can unspool the cord.  I have had pots suddenly reappear months later, generally full of mud and debris.  But most times, the pot is lost.  Lost traps are called ghost pots "be-claws" they can continue catch crab.  The typical commercial crabber will rig his traps with 35'-40' of cord.  I rigged these pots with 70' of cord to lessen the risk of loosing gear and creating the ghost trap scenario.

The type of pots I have chosen to test are a Florida style.  Josiah will have more about the differences in conventional blue crab pots and stone crab pots later.  Anyway, Southern Florida, the Keys, and the Gulf Coast areas have tide changes of 3' to 4' whereas here in the Carolinas, we can have tide changes of 5.5' to 7.0'.  Huge difference.  And, my concern is that these Florida style pots will roll in the strong Carolina currents.  If they are going to roll, tonight's the night.

We set out three prospect pots along the rocky edges of the Wappoo Cut, ( LAT 32 45.97 N / LON 79 58.62 W ) not more than a stone's throw from one of our sponsors, Charleston Crab House.  This narrow channel generates some particularly treacherous currents.  I have several stories about folks getting caught in the current along this stretch, but I'll save them for a "slow news day."

The Post & Courier's writer came by to interview the infamous "Stone Crab Kids" today.  She wants to get photos of the kids pulling pots and harvesting stone crabs.  The plan is to pull these prospect pots next weekend.  So, with a little extra 'pig foot action', a little sagacity in pot placement, a little break in the weather, and a "raising Lazarus from the dead" size miracle; we should have a stone crab or two for her story.