GopherHunter
New member
Hello,
We have a Deeper Nearshore and Nearshore Permit with a Trap Endorsement.
We mainly want Gopher Rockfish but are having trouble catching them this year. We are green in experience but have done well at times. We typically drop fifty traps in a line over rocky bottoms typically 6-15 fathoms. We used to drop the fifty and take what we can and pull back in to sell. Now we are using 28 traps in a line and picking up and redropping with 1/4 fresh bait added to original bait prior to re-dropping until we run out of fresh bait. Today we dropped 28 traps twice, and ten more after that, totalling in 66 total drops. It was one of the worst catches yet. $496 in pay with about 12 gophers, 10 cabezons, 4 lingcods, 1 Treefish, 1 Blue, and a few Black and yellows. We did great last year prior to the closing of the fishery for that short/long period. However, we have never brought more than a 150lbs of Gophers in yet, but hear of 300lb catches. My dad and I are very curious as to what we are doing wrong. I say we drop ten in a line. Pick up the ten. Decide which trap had the most, and cycle traps in that 100-200 yard square area…
What would you suggest we fix?
We have a Deeper Nearshore and Nearshore Permit with a Trap Endorsement.
We mainly want Gopher Rockfish but are having trouble catching them this year. We are green in experience but have done well at times. We typically drop fifty traps in a line over rocky bottoms typically 6-15 fathoms. We used to drop the fifty and take what we can and pull back in to sell. Now we are using 28 traps in a line and picking up and redropping with 1/4 fresh bait added to original bait prior to re-dropping until we run out of fresh bait. Today we dropped 28 traps twice, and ten more after that, totalling in 66 total drops. It was one of the worst catches yet. $496 in pay with about 12 gophers, 10 cabezons, 4 lingcods, 1 Treefish, 1 Blue, and a few Black and yellows. We did great last year prior to the closing of the fishery for that short/long period. However, we have never brought more than a 150lbs of Gophers in yet, but hear of 300lb catches. My dad and I are very curious as to what we are doing wrong. I say we drop ten in a line. Pick up the ten. Decide which trap had the most, and cycle traps in that 100-200 yard square area…
What would you suggest we fix?