We had alot of wind a few days ago and I had the garage door open. The wind blew through and blew over the bucket that I had 3 trotlines in. I had One 15 hooker, and two 7 hookers. I tied, swiveled and knotted them all. When it tipped over most of the hooks came off the rim and were laying with the stageing lines and the main line in the bottom of the bucket. Its happened before but I didn’t have the time to undo this potential mess right then. When your out on the river and putting trotlines out you always want to have about an inch of water in the bottom so the line comes out of the bucket easier because its wet.
I set the bucket behind the house because I knew it would probably rain before I got to untangling it. It rained here all last night and just quit a couple hours ago and there was 3″ of water in the bottom of the bucket and I had nothing to do so I went to untangling it. I thought to myself If I would have only had water in the bottom of the bucket the wind wouldn’t have blown it over, it would have maybe evaporated but atleast the attempt would have been made and were fishing right now and I should have had a couple inches in the bottom of it anyway.
I got the line untangled and rehung the hooks on the sides and their ready to go again and theres 3″ of water in the bucket. The reason they should be kept wet is their less apt to tangle because the line is heavier and lays and slides better in the bucket and then comes out of it easier when your in the boat. Few things are worse then untangling trotlines in the middle of the night in the boat. (Note to self) Always try to keep a little water in the bottom of your trotline buckets and if they dry out make sure there’s water in them and the stagings are wet when your setting them out, it makes it a whole lot easier.