Crawfish Traps?

[Rivercamp72]

Hello, I've looked at traps on line and would like to purchase here in WA State. Trapper Arne sells out of AZ, but again, I would rather purchase locally. I've also seen the website of a guy that apparently is not selling any more because of his wife having a major illness and I believe he is in WA State, but sales have been stopped. Can any one give me a lead for some quality, legal to fish with traps? Thanks in advance for any type of response.

[Bodofish]

Buy a couple rolls of hardware cloth and have at it. If you have wire cutters and a pair of pliers, your good to go.

[racfish]

Yup .Bodo has that correct. I used chicken wire rolled into a tube shape. On either end I made a funnel opening.Tie a rope to it and drop it down.I use a can of catfood for bait. Easy.....

[saltyseadog]

ill bet by the time you take the time and money to build it you could go out and buy one:-"

[nickbell]

I know that my neighbor just uses a star trap and lined the inside walls with chicken wire so that they cant escape when pulled. The spaces in the trap are normally so big that the craws would escape.

[Jay K]

Yup .Bodo has that correct. I used chicken wire rolled into a tube shape. On either end I made a funnel opening.Tie a rope to it and drop it down.I use a can of catfood for bait. Easy.....

If you read the regs - your trap isn't legal. There has to be an escape door secured by a tie that can rot within a reasonable amount of time, so that if your trap ever becomes lost or delinquent, it will not continue to trap and kill indefinitely. That's why many commercially-sold traps are not legal in WA.

[sharpshooter223]

Yup .Bodo has that correct. I used chicken wire rolled into a tube shape. On either end I made a funnel opening.Tie a rope to it and drop it down.I use a can of catfood for bait. Easy.....

If you read the regs - your trap isn't legal. There has to be an escape door secured by a tie that can rot within a reasonable amount of time, so that if your trap ever becomes lost or delinquent, it will not continue to trap and kill indefinitely. That's why many commercially-sold traps are not legal in WA.

Well he never really said how he attached the funnel ends or if he put a door in or not. The frabill traps as sold are not legal to use but are very easily modified to be legal. What I did was attach a split ring on either side of the hinge part and hooked my rope onto those with the spring hook sold with it. The other side with the loops where the spring loop usually hooks, I just tied together with cotton string, so if the string were to rot the two halves would fall open. another way one could modify them is to just cut a square and reattach it with cotton string but that takes more work and means more parts to keep track of.

[Rivercamp72]

OK guys I appreciate the response. I think I will just follow the regs and make my own. The first one will take the most time, but after that the other 4 or 6 will get churned out fairly quick.javascript:insertsmiley('[thumbup]%20','/Forum/images/emoticons/msp_thumbup.gif')

[racfish]

Mine does have a door on top.Its tied with string and will desolve eventually in water. I patterened it after my crab pots.Plus my funnel ends are open.They do not have doors on it.Where I fish for craws is on a private dock.In my 50 years of life I've never been checked on Lk Wa Once only during sockeye.I find my best crayfishing is right off a dock. I dont even use a float.

[Bodofish]

Of course my traps are legal. Do you think I'm some sort of hack or something? Come on, just because I didn't lay out a blueprint with a big arrow pointing to the door with the break away latch...nevermind I forgot there's a bunch of people here that are way to quick to jump to conclusions.

The funnels can be attached with the little wire stubs left from cutting the hardware cloth. If you need to zip ties work great too, especially for the hinges. I strap a couple pieces rebar on the bottom of them so they land right side up. If you need plans there's about a million of them on the web.

[Matt]

Hah, they told you Jay K

[racfish]

I like the rebar idea.Besides nothing is illegal till you get caught. Muahaha