So i’m creeping into hobcaw creek which is only 2.5 - 3ft in the channel at low tide going to a little fishing spot with the wife an the motor sounds like i’m digging oysters and cuts off. trim up motor some more and try to crank and it sounds reel bad. pull up motor and a huge crab trap is wrapped around the prop. I pull out my side cutter and start breaking it loose when OOOOOOPS in the water they go. Luckily a guy pulled up that was teaching a sailing school and got some cable cutters and helped me get it off. motor ran fine after that, but i will be checking my gear oil to make sure i didn’t bust a seal. Thank you much to the fellow that helped me out.
why is was not marked is beyond me, but i hate crab traps now.
Pulled a few off props myself when I boated in NC. Ropes would deteriorate or get cut by another boat and I would manage to find the “ghost pot”. A real PITA…especially when in rough water and the boat has a stern drive!
No excuse for a pot not to be marked if it’s being worked by anyone, period the end. We always marked our pots when we’d spend shrimping weekends in McClellanville. Names matched licenses, and we followed the rules precisely. This year, we’ve had our personal pots robbed right off our dock at home! No commercial pots in the creek where we are this year, so we’re baffled… That’s pretty darned gutsy.
Hope everything checks out with your motor. Bummer on the cutter.
