Normally I wouldn't put pictures of fatalities on here, but this weekend we only had one and it was a Dodge. There were quite a few people trying to die in some abysmal weather but they were lucky. At least Herman and Rokefin were able to walk away from this one. With the wind gusting up over 30 knots the dispatchers sent 24 fire crews but a couple of tractors, a water truck and a bit of shovel work got the brush fire out before it got real exciting. If only the crabbing was as interesting. At least we get some calmer weather this week and with it some better crab reports.

    Our Friendly Commercial Fisherman sent a note about crab trap line: "Not only will unweighted yellow ropes result in lost pots, but instead of cutting the rope props can get bound up and cause the boat to drift helplessly into bad situations.  Every crab rope should have a line weight about 20’ from the float, long ropes need another lower down. The line weights are made to have the rope run through them, and the weight hit with a hammer to make it stick in place.  But i’s easy to use a short strand of rope to attach a weight, just splice it about 4 times, run it through the weight, and splice on the other side. Let’s keep it safe and also present ghost pots" In a pinch I've used monofilament to tie a sinker on the rope, or wire. Anything to sink that line. We call the floating rope gear near the mouth of the bay "murder pots" as winding one up on your prop while trying to cross the bar on an intermittent break will result in death.