Home-made crayfish trap
Hey guys, thought you all might be interested in my home-made crayfish trap.
I started with a section of galvanized garden fencing, it has 5/8" square openings between the strands. I rolled it into a tube approximately 4' long and 15" diameter. I crimped the whole way down the joint using a crimping pliers and some wire. I then fashioned a triangle and rolled it into a cone shape. I opened the tip of the cone into about 2.5" opening to allow the crayfish to crawl through, then crimped it, cone pointing into the trap, with the crimper. The other end has a small flip-open door kept shut with bungees. Inside, at the door end, it a metal wire strut spanning the width of the trap. Attached to the strut, is a wire leader with a large musky-type hook. I am using two whole sunfish as bait. My usual lake is iced over, so I chipped an opening in the ice using a concrete drill-type chisel. I have it set in about 30' of water. I checked it yesterday after only about 6 hours of soak time, it only had 1. Left it overnight and will check it tonight after 24 hours of soak. We are allowed to keep 50 per person, per day. In the summer I would use these as bait but in the winter, I will freeze them until I have several dozen, then have a large crayfish boil.[:)]
I started with a section of galvanized garden fencing, it has 5/8" square openings between the strands. I rolled it into a tube approximately 4' long and 15" diameter. I crimped the whole way down the joint using a crimping pliers and some wire. I then fashioned a triangle and rolled it into a cone shape. I opened the tip of the cone into about 2.5" opening to allow the crayfish to crawl through, then crimped it, cone pointing into the trap, with the crimper. The other end has a small flip-open door kept shut with bungees. Inside, at the door end, it a metal wire strut spanning the width of the trap. Attached to the strut, is a wire leader with a large musky-type hook. I am using two whole sunfish as bait. My usual lake is iced over, so I chipped an opening in the ice using a concrete drill-type chisel. I have it set in about 30' of water. I checked it yesterday after only about 6 hours of soak time, it only had 1. Left it overnight and will check it tonight after 24 hours of soak. We are allowed to keep 50 per person, per day. In the summer I would use these as bait but in the winter, I will freeze them until I have several dozen, then have a large crayfish boil.[:)]
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Good luck on trapping the crawfish! 0 -
Well the trap has been a bust so far. Several days ago we had heavy wind, drifting fresh snow all over the lake. I went out with a friend to check the trap. When we found it I bent over to start brushing snow away from the hole, only to step directly on the hole and fall through up to my hip! Luckily it was only about 1.5 miles walk to the car, although my pant leg did freeze in that time.The next few days afterwards, were bitterly cold, dropping into the mid -20 range at night. I lost the trap after that, had to walk a large grid looking for it. Finally found it after an hour or so. Spent another .5 hours chipping through the ice. Got the hole opened up and was working on freeing the rope. Well would you believe, I chopped right through the rope and lost it. I have the hole marked and have been trying to snag the trap without much luck. Sheeit!
I recently bought a wetsuit and have flippers and a mask so I may try free-diving for it this summer, I would have to mark the location on a GPS. SOB! With any luck I will be able to find it before that. One the plus side I checked out a tree sitting within casting range of the shoreline, and found a like-new, Heddon Baby Torpedo in frog pattern. So the day was not a total lose.0
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