I was fishin the west coast last week and noticed more stone crab pots than I've ever seen before. They started in the surf just 25ft. away from the beach where people swim! Every beach from Venice to Boca Grande was litterally a minefield of crab pots. Its gotta be great for tripletail fishing but not sharks from the beach.
What I'm wondering is will those crab pots stay this thick all the way until May 15th when the season ends and are these crab pots all over SW florida? I wonder if there is some Government law thanks to the oil spill that allows the stone crab fisherman to fish harder and put out more pots than ever before. I ain't gonna be fishin down there for a while if those pots will stay that thick. I'll just head to the east coast and brave the rough winter surf rather than get broke off every time I get hooked up.
That's no fun, sorry to hear that. Maybe you could ask the crabber(s) if they could move a few from a particular spot so you can put a line out there.
I fished on top of one for a while and I had one tail rope attached to the pot ready to pull it in when I hooked up. Just an idea, might give the crabbers a hint.
Good luck
I've lost 2 nice sharks to crab pots in the past month. I fish mostly from south Bonita area to south Naples/Marco Island area. Those assclowns have them spread out all over the place.
It's heaven when you can find a beach with all the right conditions for shark fishing and probably # 1 on that list is a beach free and clear of markers, crab trap bouys and lobter trap bouys.Years ago there was one nut out on the pier that would go out late at night and cut all the lobster pots that were set too close to the pier and on more extreme measure he would cut the swim bouys that marked the deep end of the beach with a bolt cutter (it was held down by poured CBS blocks attached to galvanized chain)the lifeguards never did figure out what the hell kept biting thru there thick chain.Jaws Maybe lol 
!!!!!
There might be some laws that limits how close to a beach they can set there traps,,,,it's worth calling FWC and finding out.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Was that nut you Will??????????????
Not I, although I did run into a trap or two on occasion ,,,,knife in hand it was always a temptation.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
i can relate i had the joy of hooking a shark then it got wrapped in 4 crab traps and had to drag all of them in and the best part was it was only about a 5 ft lemon