modern grady rod holder strength

[luckydude]

I run Scotty downriggers and a crab pot puller in gimbal mounts that go in my rod holders. A while back we discussed this and people thought that the rod holders were not strong enough, the fiberglass is not strong enough.

So here is a report back. I was pulling crab pots, got 3 out of 4, the 4th did not want to come up. I've heard about this, it is like a snag, you try pulling from different directions to unsnag it. No joy. So we cleated the line and pulled that way, I could move it at 4mph on the GPS but it wouldn't come up. Pulled again, put it back on the puller and pulled with me and my buddy pulling. We pulled so hard that we bent the Scotty gimbal, it leaned over.

I looked today and so far as I can tell, the Grady handled it fine. I have a 2020 so it may be that they have beefed things up, but those rod holders are tough.

 

[glacierbaze]

Just curious, how deep are your pots?

 

[luckydude]

Just curious, how deep are your pots?

170 feet with a 300 foot leaded rope. Our first wanna be belief was the pot was so loaded it was that heavy but the previous three had 0-3 crabs each, so a 40 crab pot was not a thing. I'm sort of a n00b, only been running my boat for 14 months, not a total idiot, I've got 940ish miles on my main engine and that is about 40 trips, I don't run that far. I've put fish and/or crab in the boat for all but two of those trips. So not a total n00b but still new compared to most of you.

This was the first time I had to figure out a hooked up crab pot. I let go of the "full of crab" idea pretty quick. Then I was just grasping at straws and one of those was a sleeping whale. I've heard what a whale can do to a boat if you tangle it up your downriggers, so when we were pulling it on a cleat I started thinking what if it is a whale and it wakes up? I made my buddy cut the rope.

Talking to people more experienced than I am, they think I got fouled in some trawler net and that sort of feels like what it was. Live and learn, I'm not sure how you avoid that. Cutting it was the right answer.

All things considered, for the first year crabbing, I got a bunch. Crabbing is weird because two dungies and I'm done, so anything more than that I'm giving them away. I bet I gave away at least 40 crab this year. It's just fun to get them, but that's true for any catch.

 

[glacierbaze]

Be careful pulling from cleats. Boats have been sunk by trying to free stuck anchors, pulling from the stern cleats. If the rope is nylon, and remains stuck, the rubber band effect when you back off the throttle can pull the stern under. The more line out, the more stretch in the line. You may be using poly for your traps.
There was a guy killed here in North Carolina this year, trying to pull a boat off of a sandbar. The cleat on the stuck boat pulled out, and came back and hit him in the head.

 

[Doc Stressor]

Use your sonar when you are setting your traps. Avoid rocky or foul areas. Dungeness crabs like to forage over sand.

 

[luckydude]

Be careful pulling from cleats. Boats have been sunk by trying to free stuck anchors, pulling from the stern cleats. If the rope is nylon, and remains stuck, the rubber band effect when you back off the throttle can pull the stern under. The more line out, the more stretch in the line. You may be using poly for your traps.
There was a guy killed here in North Carolina this year, trying to pull a boat off of a sandbar. The cleat on the stuck boat pulled out, and came back and hit him in the head.

I hadn't thought of that so thanks. Definitely was worried it was wrapped around a whale but there was no movement, just dead weight, so I'm thinking net.

 

[luckydude]

Use your sonar when you are setting your traps. Avoid rocky or foul areas. Dungeness crabs like to forage over sand.

I do! Well, what I lean on more is my latest Garmin software update added a shaded relief view for the bottom. It's not real time, so far as I know, I think it is a bunch of scans and they just loaded the images on there. Dunno for sure. It seems pretty accurate. So I always drop over sand/mud.