Crawfish Trap Pt1.

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Last summer I decided I wanted to try my hand at catching crawfish.

Now when I was a kid I remember my brothers and I snagging these elusive little buggers, one by one out of the lake, with our make-shift fishing poles (which we cleverly made out of sticks and old, used fishing line found on the banks of the lake).  With worm-baited hooks we’d all patiently wait, watching as these skittish little creatures would slowly crawl out of their rocky, underwater hideaways, and make their way over to the delicious worm dinner that was on offer.  As soon as the crawfish grabbed that fat worm with their claw we would pull the line up and BOOM, he was caught!  It was all a fun catch-and-release game that we played and had hours of entertainment doing it 

This time I wanted to make a trap to see how many I could catch.  Surprisingly, it was pretty easy and inexpensive to make!

Supplies:

§  A 2ft x 3 1/2ft sheet of chicken wire (use the type with 1/2in x 1/2in square holes)

1.    Two rubber bands

2.    Small chain about 6in in length (used to make handle for carrying trap and also for hooks to close trap door)

3.    Package of zip ties

4.    Strong string or rope (to retrieve trap from water)

5.    Plastic water bottle (to serve as a ‘bobber’ for locating traps)

6.    4in piece of wire (for securing water bottle to rope)

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Tools:

§  Wire cutters

§  Needle nose pliers

I started by cutting out a piece of chicken wire that was 48 squares x 43 squares in size

I rolled it up lengthwise to make a cylinder

…and zip tied it together

…making sure to cut the ends of the zip ties off

I then cut 2 more pieces of chicken wire that were 21 squares x 21 squares in size.  These were to be the end pieces of the cylinder.  Each piece would be shaped into ‘cones’

To shape each piece into a cone, I marked an X with a marker to find the center

…then cut one corner up to the center

(Continued Pt2)