Few thoughts and a viz report.

[ralphthehalibut]

Viz. first: Dove Laguna area yesterday and despite the swell, vis was still decent 15' once you got past the surf. Surgey, but definitly diveable. Lots of bait, calicos, and a few nice goats swimming around.

Now a few thoughts on hoopnetters and hoopnets:

First: If you want to try hoopnetting, don't buy any, simply do a dive along any breakwall in socal, and simply pick as many as you want from the tangled mass of lost nets hung up along the bottom of the wall. It's getting downright dangerous with all the chunks of rope wrapped up in the rocks.

Second: 3-4 years ago, while I saw a bunch of lost nets, they were all the "lay flat" kind - not the rigid kind that is favored now, and I never saw a hung up net with lobster stuck in it. This year, The rigid nets with the smaller top rings outnumber the flat nets probably 5:1, and heres the real bummer: The bugs get stuck in them. I've seen several that while it was obvious they had been lost for a while, still had dying and dead bugs stuck in them. These rigid nets are so hard to get out of that they are becoming ghost traps just like lost commercial traps are.


Final thought: Hoopnetters aren't as bad as the illegal trappers I've seen setting homemade traps inside the walls at Dana point, MB, and Newport.

[Waterman07]

You got some Good points there Ralph

[Mike Morgan]

Great points Ralph...

What should the answer be to taking care of these ghost traps sitting on the bottom killing bugs for no reason?

[ralphthehalibut]

Great points Ralph...

What should the answer be to taking care of these ghost traps sitting on the bottom killing bugs for no reason?


if it's an illegal trap I eithier destroy it or call caltip. If it's simply a lost commercial trap (no rope, cut rope) I take the bait out, open the doors and check again in a week or two to see if it's been re-baited and then call cal-tip if it has.

On lost hoopnets I find, I add them to the stack in my side yard.



On a completly unrelated note, does anyone want to buy some slighlty used hoopnets? I've got a bunch to choose from.

[deckhandmike]

Are commercial guys required to use a "rotton cotton" conection on the trap door? Does anyone know what the dfg says in reguards to what you should do when you come up across illegal commercial traps.

[MACKFISH]

That realy sucks.The animals have to pay for the NEW and IMPROVED hoop nets(with thier lives).

[dave_k]

Hopefully these report cards will put some strict rules on bugs, which will reduce the amount of people going after them, mainly hoop netters. The amount of bugs taken these days is ridiculous.

I know someone that might be interested in your nets, shoot me a PM with details.

[bluesquids]

heres the real bummer: The bugs get stuck in them.

still had dying and dead bugs stuck in them.


Those dead bugs act as bait for more bugs and so on and so on. Total death trap.

[Nekton]

La Jolla LG's are pretty good about pulling out traps from the surfline with their boat. It's dangerous for local stick surfers, bodysurfers and swimmers when these things wash into the lineup.

I've never seen so many commercial traps... about one every 20 -30 ft off Point La Jolla.

[So Cal Shaggy]

Dave, Thanks for the report and your input regarding hoopnets I have never had a problem with hoopers in fact my father due to lung problems can no longer dive so I have taken him out on my kayak a couple of times to go hooping. I did not understand why they had to create those new style of hoopnets in my opinion the new style of rigid nets are even more unsporting they are almost like a trap the bugs crawl in but cannot climb out. I have not dove the local breakwalls in some years so have not seen the tangled mess but this season I might go out to Newport for a underwater cleanup session.

[Nate Baker]

If it's simply a lost commercial trap (no rope, cut rope) I take the bait out, open the doors and check again in a week or two to see if it's been re-baited and then call cal-tip if it has.

Whenever possible, I try to tie a ghost commercial trap off to a nearby commercial float. Some lucky commercial guy will get a free trap, and the bottom has one less piece of litter. These days, the traps are often so close together it's not that hard to find a float with enough line to do the trick.