Pots As told byTim Malchoff to Herman Moonin Jr. Audio
	You use a 6 x 6 pot and 75 fathoms of line. At the bottom of the ocean the pots the pots weigh 400 to 500 pounds. Plus you always get junk fish, and crab that are undersized. The shell of the crab has to be 7 ½ inches long at the widest part in order to keep it. If they are not large enough, they are called junk fish. You throw them back over and save them for next year. You also get things like bullheads, flounders and halibut in our pot. It is also very easy to lose your pots. The pots cost $500.00 each. In 1978 I had 73 pots and I lost 4 of them. You can lose them when you’re pulling them up. The lines could snap because of too much crab, or when you have them out those big boats can run them over and cutting your lines. You’ll lose some crab also if you’re not checking your pots regularly. Some people can pull your pots up and take the crabs out or the crab can leave themselves. Because once they are in the pot they are not necessarily caught. They can also get out! If you don’t have enough fresh bait they leave out and go to another guy’s pot. So you check your gear every day and put new bait in. You can either have hanging bait such as bull heads, flounders, halibut, or you can put the bait in jars but put the holes on the top or something. The crabs come in seasons. During summer Dungeness. Then tanners come, and then after tanners are king crabs.
		Copyright 1981, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. All rights reserved Volume 1