It strikes me that having a small weight attached to the potline, mabye 10' or 15' from the float, would keep the line submerged. The problem being the slack on the line floating at the surface. I have caught a line myself, it stopped the boat dead in the water, was an anxious few minutes unravelling the rope off the prop and finding out whether you just killed the gearbox or not.
I have had the same experience in my previous boat. Now that was an inboard diesel with the prop in a prop tunnel. Wasn't easy to disentangle ourselves. My son had to go overboard with a snorkel on.
All this happened about .5 mile from The Needles lighthouse in September - chilly.
A good reason to carry a strong knife in the safety kit.
