Anyone visiting Mobile Bay and in particular, Dog River, (Mobile, AL) needs to be very careful when traveling during low tides. The reason? This area is full of crab traps, some with re-rod reinforced cages, that have had the markers cut off because of accidents or on purpose. Most of the crab traps are marked with white floats, and easy to see. And, for the most part, they are out of the marked channels. However, when you enter Dog River, or drift out of the channels, you are on your own and in dangerous waters. There are no marked channels when you enter Dog River and we do get a lot of transient traffic from the Tom Bigbee waterway at the mouth of the river. Several years ago, during our annual Christmas on Dog River boat parade, seven of the eleven boats entering from further up in the river suffered thousands of dollars of damage from hitting unmarked crab traps. The unofficial way (I have been told) to get rid of errant traps is to drag them out of the channel, but please, please do not cut off the markers. When visiting the Mobile area, and it is a beautiful place to visit, just do not wander out of the channels in the Bay and do not go up the river past the marinas unless you have a guide (or forward sonar) to keep you in deeper water where you will miss the abandoned crab traps. Thanks, Larry & Linda MV $UMDAY