"ULB" wrote in message
...
Hi there,

I am not sure if this message is in the correct place. So if not,
well, sorry.

I want to try my luck with crawdad trapping. I was looking at traps
and well there are quite a few. I see some that are tubular and some
that are rectangular, etc.

What are the pros and cons of using these different geometric shapes?
I will be trying in a fairly slow moving river, it appears to be some
sand with some fairly large rocks. Rocks being couple feet across.
There are places that are swift and othere that are slow movers. But
still some current.

I don't want some cheap traps, but I would like to get the traps
within a week or so. Who's should I look at? I don't want a massive
trap either space is somewhat limited, and I sure as heck don't want
to make one, but I guess I can modify one if necessary.

I see Cabelas and Bass pro have some, but they get mixed reviews.

Any pointers? How about bait consideration? fish heads? cat food
canned? My grandpa used salami, he swore by it, but he's not around
to ask now.

How long to soak these guys? I was planning on throwing a couple out
at mixed places and well, fishing other places with a rod and reel for
fish. so overnite would be nice,

I lived in Louisiana for a long time, and here's how they do it.

They take rubber coated chicken wire of about 1" mesh, maybe slightly
smaller. They roll it into a tube about 18" long, and 16" around. They
squash it flat, and make a cone out of the wire for one end going in. The
other end is held shut by a strip of old inner tube and a hook made out of
coat hanger wire. Emptying requires taking off the rubber, shaking the
trap, and tossing in dead fish and resetting. The design allows for many
traps to be stacked and bound into bundles. Sometimes they need to be
puffed out a little, but when they are about 8" high, that seems optimal.
Make a bridle out of one piece of cord about three feet long, and tie it to
diagonal corners. That way, the trap can be lowered, and lands flat. Tie
to nearby tree, or put a jug on it.

Locations are identified by the plastic ribbons engineers use. In
Louisiana, messing with another man's traps is grounds for shooting, no
questions asked, and no witnesses willing to testify. Or at least one shot
to your boat at waterline to put the message across. Second shots usually
are delivered to the motor, and you can imagine where the third shot goes.
It's up to the shooter's personality how many shots they will fire at the
same offender.

Some jurisdictions require you to have your name and fishing number on the
jugs, or somewhere on the line, so check that. You WILL also have a lot of
nosy people pulling them up and messing with them, so they need to be
tended. If you leave them overnight, the crawfish monster may eat them all,
and in the morning, there's no traps! Or they will be empty, but at least
they don't steal them.

I'm going to make some for a lake near me, and all I have is 1/2" hardware
cloth. A lot of it, and free, so I'll make a dozen or so and see how that
goes. That will not smush down like coated chicken wire, so I'll have to
handle them a little different. Probably make them squarish, and stack them
inside the boat.

Crawfish are good eating. Put them to soak in flowing water so they can
discharge some of the mud, and agitate occasionally.

Let us know how it comes out.