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I made a new crawdad trap this week based on another trap that is out there and had some really good points.
What I used:
1x roll of 1" x 1/2" wire mesh 10' by 30" from Lowes - $16 (can make two from it, 3 if I use 9" rings)
2x 12" metal rings from a craft store - 1.50 each
2x 2" metal rings from a craft store - 0.60 each
2x replacements fishing nets for 18" hoop from Sportsmans - $3 each
3x mini bungee cords from any store.
Wire to bind everything together was wrapped around the mesh roll.
So about $18 in parts. $5 more for black rubberizing paint.
I will make some more detailed step by step instructions later, but basically I used a drummel to cut the roll of wire. Split the rings and threaded the nets onto them. Folded the netting back on itself after making the hole in the bottom to make the small part of the tunnel darker and thicker. Wired the big ring to the mesh so the netting was evenly spaced. Cut a door out and then attached it using wire for the hinge and a bungee to keep it closed. With the door I could get my hands inside and attach the bungee to hold the small ring suspended. Went out and painted it black with rubberized paint, which made the whole thing darker and the netting thicker and tackier.
So we'll see how it does, I'd still like to put in a piece at the end of the tunnel to help keep the crawdads in, if I do I will post it.
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looks great and very well made!!!!! if it works well maybe you found a new calling in life!
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Yeah, I want to try some salmon heads, called over to freddy's, albertson's and a restaurant that I do computer work for and no one really gets whole salmon anymore. So I may have to go catch some chubs or suckers to try it tonight. I had pretty good luck with the little perch I tried in my old trap too.
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Looks great. Very professional looking finish.
Windriver
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very professional !
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Well, we caught a nice 16" sucker out at blacktail last night and then made the drive over to rose ponds at about 10:30. Cut the sucker into 4 big chunks, put my new trap and my small sportsman's trap in the willows about 10 feet apart and then went to some other parts of the pond to wade and net more.
Around 12:30 we went back, the sportsmans trap was completely full, with 7 or so crawdads around it and on the ramps that we grabbed with nets. My trap didn't have as many inside, but underneath there were 20-30 bunched up hiding, I think because they could get to some of the meat through the bigger holes and they could drag the meat through a hole in the ramp and eat without going in. Grabbed some of those with nets and went back to the car.
So I decided that I need the sucker suspended, so they have to come inside to get to it, it isn't a problem on the sportsman's trap because the mesh is so small. So I suspended the sucker head in the trap with a metal rod and we tried again while we went and cleaned up a little.
Came back an hour or so later the sportsmans trap was slightly less full, with only a few on the outside, and my trap had more than before, maybe 18 compared to 13, but only 4 or 5 were under the trap this time. So I wish I had secured the meat the first time, because I think we fished that area out a bit. We'll see how it goes when I can get out again.
All total we caught 108 crawdads, probably 80 in the traps and the rest with nets. We only tried for the medium to really big ones and they filled a 5 gallon bucket up to maybe 4 or 5 inches from the top.
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Nice job it is very professional looking. It and the other methods must have worked well if you filled a 5 gal bucket. Good eats!
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build a seperate cage inside for the bait and keep it suspended that is what all the upper model traps have in them.
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looks good ,if you don't mind I'd like to throw in an idea,I noticed the holes are a little big,just thinking,what if you put screen around the openings leading to the center,that way they have an easier craw until they drop down into the center..a litlle extra work so its up to you,securing the sreen will take some time,a bit of line securing it at several points should do.I have a castnet 6' ,I sewed on sreen to the inside,now I can catch minnows and shrimp,mosquito fish,flag fish,anything that used to go through the net..net sinks slower but I haven't added extra weight.I caught a red Devil cichlid as she tried sucking up her babies .got her and the babies raised them and let them go.I made a trap too using a wire frame and screen around it with two opening,square shaped and only about ten" by ten" very creative. A man can dream,a man can dream.
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I have thought about catchin some but was wondering how you get them home in good shape and what preparations you need to take before you cook them?[fishin]
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Yeah, I will probably make both a bait box and a wire rod that you thread the meat on and secure inside. The wire rod for normal short times so they can eat and stir up the scent of fresh meat, and the bait box if I'm going to leave it all night so they don't eat all the bait and leave.
Since it looks like it is OK to take them home alive in Idaho (just not fish with them alive in another body of water), I keep them in a bucket, sometimes pouring water in and then dumping all but a few inches out. I think if you get them shipped to you they come in a moist burlap sack which keeps them wet and colder. When I get home I have a cow trough that is clean and have a hose with a valve spraying a little water in to airate it. The trough has a hole from an ice melter, so it can only fill about half full and they can't get out.
You could also use a siphon hose and a bucket to make a drain for the trough that would always keep it below the top while still running water into it. Place the top of the bucket at the level you want the trough water to stay, then fill a hose and put one end into each container. When the water gets too high in the trough it will travel up over the side of the trough through the hose, into the bucket, and out onto the ground.
The last two times we have cooked them we haven't done the saltwater purge because they were already really cleaned out. Some were good, some had a nasty taste to the guts, but the meat was fine. I don't know if it has to do with a couple dying here and there or needing to purge.
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I make my own traps as well. I put a bait box in and zip tie 2 liter plastic bottle to the bottom to keep the crawdads from getting to the bait from the outside. I also put a 4 oz weight tied to the bottom and some foam on the top to help orientate the trap and usually catch between 25 to 40 crawdads in the trap with an overnight soak. I have found that 1 piece of raw chicken and 1 piece of fried chicken bones in the trap to be better than fish or any other bait I have tried so far. I also made a box type trap last year that slays the crawdads but you need to use it off of a dock as it is to big to cast.One Over night soak last summer pulled 196 crawdads.Another pulled 152. I will try and attach photos but haven't done much of that so hopefully it works. Also you can but the precoated wire mesh in the green just an FYI thats what I did anyway.The last picture was my bath tub filled with crawdads that we purged before we had a crawdad feed.[cool]
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Those are awsome traps. I think may have to make another box type trap, and I wish I had hidden mine better last time. I am deffinitely going to do something to keep them from getting to it from the outside.
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Nice work on that trap! Looks totally pro! 
I jerry rigged a couple and used one up last weekend at a reservoir my girlfriend and I had caught a monster crawfish on a hook and line at a few weeks back. Finally found a good spot after a few tries and broke down and just bought nine more from the store to round out our trap limit; at $9 - $17 each it seemed less than economical to keep making them myself unless I'm experimenting with an outlandish design.  Anyways, over probably five or six test sets this weekend we had about 30 lbs of mostly large to jumbo size craw. I'm completely caught up in this whole crawfishin' thing now
I'm planning on trying Ririe and Rose soon too... Are the craw decent size at Rose? Any other crawfishin' addicts know of other area reservoirs with monster craw?
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We got a bunch of traps from Catfish Connection http://catalog.catfishconnection.com/ several years ago. They had the best prices. Then Idaho changed the size limit and these are now on the small side. But they work good.
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I would like to see your square trap a little more closely.
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Yeah, 8 cubic feet is a lot. A round trap could be 12" by 12" by 10 feet long, but that probably wouldn't work very well. I'm actually not sure why they say the trap can't exceed 2'x2'x2' and in the next sentence say: anything non-standard but less that 8 cubic feet is ok.
The extenders on Catfish connection might be nice. Gives you the option to make some traps longer without buying all new ones.
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Here are a few pics of the biggest ones. The one with a single huge claw is my favorite. The dollar bill in there is to get them frisky, they like it when you throw singles at them.
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2X2X2 is 8 cubic feet.
We got a few of the extenders. They work, but I think the bait ends up being far from the entrance. I prefer the trap without the extender, and check it more often.
Next time we go, I am thinking of taking a crab ring. They are about 3' diameter with a smaller ring under it. I'm thinking to hang the fish bait on a float a few inches above the ring so crawdads won't get under the net to eat, they will have to get in it. Then pull up quick when it's full.
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[font "TimesNewRomanPSMT"][size 2][font "TimesNewRomanPSMT"][size 2]
"and the minnow or crayfish trap does not exceed two (2) feet
[/size][/font][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 2][font "Times New Roman"][size 2]in length, width or height. If the trap is of irregular dimension,
but its volume does not exceed the volume of an eight (8) cubic
foot trap, it is also legal to use."
So basically they say, you can't exceed 2 feet under any circumstances... unless you want to.
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