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crab trap set-up

27K views 36 replies 33 participants last post by  adamg 
#1 Ā·
I have used crab rings in the past and bought some danielson traps on sale today and would like some recommendations on how to set them up. Would appreciate any help. Also any suggestions on where to get floats and rope. I'd like to find used floats if possible to save some money. Thanks for any help.
 
#2 Ā·
Unless you plan on crabbing from the docks I would go with leaded line. Fishermans has 50-100 rolls on sale super cheap right now.

As far as floats go, I've heard people say to space your two floats about 10' apart and then secure onto your line, that way if one does go down it keeps the other buoy up at the. surface
 
#8 Ā·
You'll need to add weight to the trap proper and weight to the doors. Rebar is cheap and easy to install. Tillamook Sporting Goods sells used floats when available. You won't save much but if that's what you're looking for......they sometimes have them.



One thought I have when I look at this picture is that you could potentially be creating an electrolysis problem by simply throwing rebar on your traps. When you have dissimular metals in salt water, it creates a battery so to speak and depending on what metals are involved, could make your pots hot.

Check out a galvanic corosion chart to see where the different metals stack up. Zinc is on the anode side while gold and platinum are on the cathode end with everything else we use for crabbing/fishing in the middle.

I have heard both school of thoughts state that "hot" pots do not perfrom as well and then it doesn't matter at all. Regardless of the crabs sensitivity to electrolysis, it will ruin your pots over time. Now with these cheaper, light weight pots, it may not matter as they can be replaced easier than adding a zinc anode. However, if the crab are sensitive than you wouldn't want this phenomenon happening in either case.

Personally, I have experience though the years of certain pots consistantly performing well and ones that do not. I started noticing that the ones that perform poorly had more rust and the rubber coating had broken down quite a bit over the years. This would expose the steel frame to the stainless steel cage wire creating my electrolysis.

I am by no means an expert but if you simply coated the rebar with rubber tape before adding it to your pots, it would help to mimimize any electrolysis.
 
#7 Ā·
I use the bait cage zipped tied to the bottom over the bait bag Have had the bait bag get stuck on a door and keep it open and the crab have escaped The rebar for the door weights is a great idea cheaper then lead most definitely figure out a way to weight them down they love to walk trust me lol Lots of good info here on ways to do that Just run a search Englunds in astoria has good prices on lead line and floats But learn the buoy knot
GOOD LUCK BE SAFE
 
#9 Ā·
I've had a couple traps that stopped fishing when rebar was added. A couple others it had no effect. Some may not have had the rebar actually touching the metal of the pot due to the wrap, when others may have because the wrap/coating was gone or degraded. If the rebar doesn't have a clean connection with the metal the pot is constructed with would it not create a "hot" pot? Either way, the rebar has been removed from all of them and they have lead for weight now. I'm not a big fan of rust.

In grassy bays such as Tillamook, the weighted doors seem to help the most.
 
#10 Ā·
You KNEW you were going to get a variety of answers didn't you!!!:flowered:

To me, it depends on how you plan to fish the traps. If you plan to let them soak for hours at a time the rebar / weighted doors and added weight on the trap are a good idea, they work great like this.

My wife & I usually only soak our traps for about an hour between pulls. Fished like this our Danielson's are "stock", no weight of any kind. We attach the rope in the middle of the trap so it comes up level and we catch our fair share of crab. We DON'T us lead line, it's easier on the hands to use poly rope, but I DO tape a couple of pieces of pencil lead into the line so it sinks.

:twocents:


Just to add to the confusion!!!

Good luck!
 
#11 Ā·
I used a littlte pencil lead on the doors as I witnessed a time or two that the door stuck open. I connected a "harness" to all 4 corners and hooked them up with a clevice that I then could easily disconnect from the line for cleaning and storage. I preferred not to collapse the traps after every use so I used heavy zip ties and did all the corners except one side to open and marked it for easy identification. They stayed firm and solid that way. I used a little rebar in the bottom, about two two foot pieces. I also tied up a bait box on the bottom even though I mostly used a clip and fish carcass dangling from the top. Sometimes I had to use bait until fish were caught. I did not use lead line but the small stuff because it doesn't cause so much drag, two floats spread a little and I always attached a clip weight about 5 to 6 feet below the floats to sink the line. That was enough but I also only crab in the ocean, not the rivers or bays.
 
#12 Ā·
Is adding weight to the doors an absolute must?

I never have and I think I'm usually pretty successful. Do you think this would improve the productivity of the pots?

I have these 4 pots that consistently don't produce as well as other pots. I have tried weight to the bottom, different cages, and adjusting the ramps. Has anyone noticed a night and day difference when weight was added to the doors?
 
#15 Ā· (Edited)
I get a piece of pvc pipe of proper length and size. Glue a cap on one end. Put the rebar in and fill the rest of the void with sand then clue the other cap on. Should last forever with out rusting. SV
+1

Easy on the boat as well. :twocents:

If you are staying with your pots and pulling often weighted doors are not needed. If there is bait left the crab won't leave.

I have switched to mostly Eagle Claw pots. Simular to Danialsons but they have 6 doors.
 
#14 Ā·
Last July, I sent my GoPro camera down in my Danielson and have a small posting here: http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=370989 In the lousy pics you can see how they can bury them selves in the sand. FYI, some of those pics were used in North West Sportsman Magazine September 2011 issue. After seeing those pics, I folded up the bottom two wires on the door. My thought is those wires will get stuck in the sand and even worse, be jammed open after a strong crab pushes the door open, sorry no pics. I add about a five pound barbell weight to my traps, a couple 5/8" stainless nuts to the doors (for weight) and tie bridle to one side of the trap, so when you pull in to the boat the un-zip tied side is on top. Used to use cheap floating line but after fowling another boats prop (Sorry :flowered:) with it I'm converting all to sinking line. I also tie my floats like the ones pictured in this thread: http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=273548
It's very easy to do and so nice to be able to remove floats for yearly painting. I'm fortunate that where I work we toss out short pieces of line by the garbage can full, have more 1/2" line then I could ever use :excited:

Good Luck and have fun !!
Dan
 
#16 Ā·
I would echo the pencil lead on the doors. I don't add weight to the pot and crab everywhere except the ocean and have only lost pots due to my dads inability to read the depth finder.

Make sure you take the rubber bands off the doors before using. They have gotten a few folks with those.

I set mine up to be non collapseble. I zip tie top and bottom on the corners of three sides. I leave one side un zip tied. Tie a cheap bungee off on the side that opens to secure it shut. I pinch down the normal hooks used to keep it closed.

Zip tie a bait cage on the bottom, make sure it opens towards the side that opens. Buy some 6" bungees to secure bait cage door.

Attach the harness to two points on the top so that when you pull the pot the side that opens comes up towards you. That makes the crabs settle away from the opening and the pot will have less drag when pulling.

Finally if you are new to pots- I start at one hour soaks, if the bait is gone go 45 minutes, if the bait is good go 75 minutes.

My pots are in storage or I'd get a picture for you.
 
#17 Ā·
Deadstik, Where do you find the Eagle Claw traps? I have a couple old ones and am with you those seem to work better, than the Danialson traps. And I too put weight on the doors, put if you take a 2 ounce egg sinker and cut a slice on one side you can spread the sinker and push it over the cross bar on the doors. Also if you think your pots are HOT, Englands sell small anodes that work well for crab pots. I also put weight in the bottom of all my pots just so I know that they will be where I put them!
 
#18 Ā· (Edited)
6 to 8 inches of solid core 1/4 pencil lead will hold the door shut against weeds or current. Just wind it around the horizontal bar in the door a few times.

I use lead poured into a 3" angle iron, 20 inches long for extra crab pot weight. Either bury the iron in sand to cap the ends or weld a 6" piece of angle iron on each end to make a stand. Cast stainless crabpot wire into your lead weight at each end to make it easy to attach to the pot.

Using two of these in my offshore pots makes sure they dont move. About 20 pounds. The interesting things I learned about danielson pots are that they work great if they are weighted. With enough weight a trap will not move and a big swell will not lift the trap or bounce it. I think getting banged around by big waves really cuts the trap effectiveness.

The one heaviest trap I had (2 bars) outfished the other 5 all last summer. Especially when the north wind blew up a rough ocean during the week between checking them. I upgraded all of the rest and they all started catching almost a limit each whenever I checked them. Even when set for only a few hours.

And the other thing is that weighting the doors helps keep the crabs in when the bait is gone. A weighted door is less likely to jam open when you are pulling the gear. I often see crabs falling off the pots as they come up. These were sitting on top. Sometimes they are grabbed by the crew before they can bail and get added to the crab pile.

If you are doing long soaks like all day while fishing offshore or leaving them in the water and checking whenever you go by in the boat then your bait is pretty important. I use a net bag which I cram full of shad, tuna or rockfish carcasses or halibut trim. Zip tied to that I have a plastic cup with lots of 3/16 holes in it full of crushed cockle clams or squid or salmon bellies or old eggs or whatever. You have to hang that in the trap so that they can't get it from outside. The net bag makes that easy. The idea being to attract the crabs with the loose bait and keep them there while they try to get at what's in the cup.

After a week long soak the net bag will have only big chunks of bone left in it but the cup will still have something in it. After a week almost all of the crab in the pot are legal and usually on the large side of that.

For the money and with a few tweaks that cheap box trap is the best. It fishes as good as a heavy protoco and I don't wince too hard replacing a lost one.
 
#21 Ā·
I use a brick attached with zip ties at 2 of the corners for weight, making sure they are secured tightly so they don't shift and keep doors from opening.

I also attach rope to a "y" at 2 corners like terrymcd mentioned. Dropped 3 danielson traps this past weekend and pulled them up 20 minutes later with more than my limit. They can fill up fast.

A friend of mine mentioned that a persistent sea lion will shred those danielson traps to get at the bait. I'm thinking this would be a pretty rare occurrence... anyone out there experience this?
 
#23 Ā·
I use Protoco's for most of my traps. No adjustments or re-work necessary. They work great and last forever. Plus, they are a local company.

I've never lost any of them. I use 75' of non weighted line with 3 buoys for each pot. Pay attention where you throw them. I always set my pots in a straight line. It makes it a whole lot easier to find them in rough water conditions.
 
#26 Ā·
I have used crab rings in the past and bought some danielson traps on sale today and would like some recommendations on how to set them up. Would appreciate any help. Also any suggestions on where to get floats and rope. I'd like to find used floats if possible to save some money. Thanks for any help.
I set mine up with four pieces of 3/8" rebar squared off from below the bottom of the trap. Weight added to each door is about two ounces of lead, just below and across the horizontal of the door.

I use the leaded line. Best price for bouys and line was at the sportsmans show.:twocents:

Edit: The great thing about these cheaper traps is the rust out factor. If lost; they decay quickly.
In my downrigging endevour for Winter blackmouth I scratch the ball along the bottom. The pots are toast but I'm sometimes able to return the lines and bouys to the owners once the bouys relax and expand to reveal the writing.
 
#27 Ā·
So who got in in the 9.99 sale on Black Friday with the glow in the dark doors? :excited:

Here is how I set mine up, I basically echo what everyone else is doing with some minor differences.

1. I use 1 oz. egg weights on the door, just drill it out a bit and slide over the middle rung. I then bend my bottom rungs up approx 45' to avoid the snag issues on the bottom. This seems to help when seaweed is heavy in the bay. I tie white cord to the access door for easy reference since they all look the same.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/002.jpg
http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/010.jpg


2. In stronger tides I find that weight helps the inexpensive traps a LOT. I don't use rebar, I use .29 cent paver bricks zip tied to the bottom. I'm not sure about the electrical issue but why chance it. And, more importantly cement does not rust creating a mess in my boat and garage. Finally, the pavers are cheap- far less than the rebar and pvc option and perfectly sized to fit between the wires for a secure fit.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/006.jpg
http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/004.jpg

3. I use a bridle on my traps-put the links in the middle of the trap above the doors not the corners. I zip tie my traps into a solid form and leave one door open. The snap link on the bridle secures the operating door and keeps the trap level when launching or pulling. When things are going well I get riders a lot. I bought the bridles sold by manufacturer but they are light weight para cord with regular steel snap rings-they rusted up and are not worth beans. Now I build my own bridles out of 2 pieces of rope and 4 of the aluminum snap links.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/007.jpg

4. Aluminum Snap links are king. :meme:My traps use a ton of the .98 cent aluminum caribener style snap links found at the orange big box store. They often are free at fairs etc. as promo key chains. I scored a ton at the last sportsman show from an insurance booth when I told the rep what I used them for, he handed me about 10. (same company that handed out the nice tote bags.) The aluminum ones don't rust and are dirt cheap, rated stronger than the rope on the pots. I use them to make bridles, snap weight to the lines and secure the bait cages etc.

5. I use the thicker yellow poly line. It does not rot, is easy on the hands and is also inexpensive. The key is to tie a loop approx 8' down from the float and snap a weight to the line to keep it from floating and getting snagged in someone-possibly yours- prop.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/005.jpg
http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz354/beaverstaterich/009.jpg


6. Plastic electrical cord winders, again .98 cents at the big box store are perfect to neatly store the line. No tangles. These things suck for electrical cords but work great for rope-who knew!

7. Snap link my bait cages to bottom of trap between bricks. Forces crabs to come into the trap for dinner. Bricks hold the cage in place in the middle of the trap. Cages seem to be easier to get bait into and out of vs. bags and are the exact same price at bi-mart. I use velcro ties on the cage doors as the rubber band "S" hooks seem to always rot and break. The velcro wire ties at the big box store come in rolls of approx 50 ties and has 1000 uses in the boat.

8. I put one of the little football floats at the end of my big float to make mine stand out from the rest. I am thinking about going to a flag system as even with the weird double float it still makes it hard to spot yours in a crowd.

9. Canned food wearhouse has tuna cat food for .20 a can, poke some holes in the top of the lid and bottom and it seeps out all day. Seems to increase the catch last 2 times I have tried it when using chicken in Newport.

My pots rigged this way fish every bit as well as the $100 pots, It takes 20 min to rig one up and about an extra $3. Line and floats not included of course.
 
#29 Ā·
You bought the Danielson's traps. Danielson also sells the weighted doors, they are located at Fishermans. You can buy them seperate then the trap.

I myself have never weighted down my danielson. I have added the weighted doors though. My old Danielson's would always get the doors stuck in the open postition.

When I go crabbing, that's all we do, is CRAB. When we would go fishing or something else, the traps would end up missing. I thought the tide was taking them out to sea, but on the last one that came up missing, I got a phone call. A guy had picked up my trap and called me to let me know he had it, and that it was not a deralic. He had no intention of returning it to me, just wanted to let me know he had it. :mad:

So from that day on, we only CRAB, when we go crabbing. My traps are not down for more then an hour at a time, and I watch the floats.

I put 2-3 floats per trap. One, then the other two about 5' behind the front one. That way if the first float goes under, the other two will still be out of the water. I also use weighted rope, so no one runs over my rope and gets hung in it, and possibly die from it. I refuse to be responsible for someone's misfortune. :pray:

Now if you like pulling up a pice of plywood from the bottom of the river, I would only attach the rope on one side of your trap. Remember, the doors are weighted, so they will stay closed. I attach my rope on the oppisite side of the trap, where the access door is. So when you pull your trap, all the crab fall down to the access door. making it easy to get to the crab, and you are not lifting the whole trap, at one time, just the corner.
 
#30 Ā· (Edited)
I use one .98 cent aluminum caribener style snap links on my doors, I found they have a spring that rust, and fail to spring back to the close position after one season or less
--The red link in one of my pics is 3 years old-I have not had rust issues with this system so far.

I did spend some bucks on SS snap links one time and the springs were not SS and rusted overnight. That was NOT cool.

I do hose off my traps every trip including lines etc. to prevent odor in my garage--no doubt this helps with rust a lot.

--As far as the manf. weighted doors why buy them when adding the egg weights takes 30 seconds and costs less than a buck?
 
#31 Ā·
YELLOW LEAD CORE LINE tied to your traps, if your new to crabbing you will soon learn that sinking line from the trap to the float is the safe way to play. 50ft of rope will float crabing in 15ft of water times 20 boats in your area makes for a dangerous day be safe and have a crew.
 
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