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I snagged an unmarked crab trap while trout fishing the other day and was wondering.... Can you keep an unmarked trap for personal use as one of the five allowed for recreational fishermen or should you just leave it in place or move it to deeper water where an outboard can't hit it? I'm guessing it may be illegal to keep one since that may open an opportunity for thieves to cut marker buoys from traps and claim they found them unmarked but just leaving them unmarked and in place can be a hazard. I've learned that the hard way.

Man that's ugly,,, looks like the old outboard, right?

Salty Gator wrote:Man that's ugly,,, looks like the old outboard, right?

Yep.. I did that a while back

Good reason to keep diagonal cutters on board....

I was researching your question about ghost traps over the weekend for a project that the Snook and Gamefish Foundation is working on. The bottom line is it is against the law to "molest" any trap, even if it is unmarked, derelict, has no buoy, and is full of crabs, lobster, etc. with no escape provision. According to FWC:

"Tampering with traps, trap contents, lines or buoys that do not belong to you (even if the traps are derelict or in the water during a closed season), may result in a third degree felony conviction, fines of up to $5,000 and the permanent revocation of your fishing privileges."

Limitless wrote:I was researching your question about ghost traps over the weekend for a project that the Snook and Gamefish Foundation is working on. The bottom line is it is against the law to "molest" any trap, even if it is unmarked, derelict, has no buoy, and is full of crabs, lobster, etc. with no escape provision. According to FWC:

"Tampering with traps, trap contents, lines or buoys that do not belong to you (even if the traps are derelict or in the water during a closed season), may result in a third degree felony conviction, fines of up to $5,000 and the permanent revocation of your fishing privileges."

Uh oh Rick, you shouldn't have tampered with that trap

Salty Gator wrote:

Limitless wrote:I was researching your question about ghost traps over the weekend for a project that the Snook and Gamefish Foundation is working on. The bottom line is it is against the law to "molest" any trap, even if it is unmarked, derelict, has no buoy, and is full of crabs, lobster, etc. with no escape provision. According to FWC:

"Tampering with traps, trap contents, lines or buoys that do not belong to you (even if the traps are derelict or in the water during a closed season), may result in a third degree felony conviction, fines of up to $5,000 and the permanent revocation of your fishing privileges."

Uh oh Rick, you shouldn't have tampered with that trap

I'll be sure not to drop the soap!
Thanks Limitless, that answered my question. I just hope I find the next one with a lure and not the prop.

I did that too a few years back. The trap had drifted into the channel serving a marina and became my personal booby trap.
Took forever to get it cut off.

So all the nice looking traps all over the bars out of St Marks will remain to kill who knows how much of wildlife cant be reused? That law needs to change.

There is a removal program that you can volunteer for:
http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/trap ... r-program/

Another example of laws without common sense. They can come get me, but I've moved some out of channels before.

leonreno wrote:There is a removal program that you can volunteer for:
http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/trap ... r-program/

That is a bunch of hoops to jump through to try to clean up a little bit.

I have participated in the coastal clean-up efforts in the past. Satisfying feeling but a great way to really trash the boat. Strange though, I never noticed any commercial fishermen taking part?

Actually there is a new program being launched by the Snook and Gamefish Foundation (SGF) and FWC to report lost traps. Please go to http://snookfoundation.org/ to view an article about this new project. The project is a result of the huge number of ghost (lost) lobster traps in the Keys, but is certainly applicable to any derelict traps. The important info from the article is below.

To help FWC with this issue, SGF has set up a lost or abandoned trap 'email hotline', losttrap@snookfoundation.org, where boaters and anglers can report the location of any and all derelict traps they see. GPS coordinates are best, as SGF will be formatting the locations and sending them directly to Estes at FWC.

Limitless wrote:To help FWC with this issue, SGF has set up a lost or abandoned trap 'email hotline', losttrap@snookfoundation.org, where boaters and anglers can report the location of any and all derelict traps they see. GPS coordinates are best, as SGF will be formatting the locations and sending them directly to Estes at FWC.

Is this for the entire state or just the Keys? I found another one today, not 50 yards from the other one I found last time out but they're in Panama City's East Bay and in 3 ft of water where they could be easily hit. I'll get and email the gps coordinates the next time I hit that spot if the program includes the PC area.