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vthompson
01-21-2009, 02:37 AM
Has anyone here ever made a fish trap from tree limbs and saplings? I read an article and it had photos along with it showing you how to do it. It looks like something that I would like to try. I just thought that I would check with you guysto see if you thought it was hard.

Runs With Beer
01-21-2009, 04:10 AM
Ive never made one from sticks, But have made out of fencing,Check out the sticky in making stuff by Grey Wolf It hase just what your looking for, hope it helps. If you make one post a pic.

Jay
01-21-2009, 09:50 AM
Here's one I made a long time ago! unfortunately I cant find the upper funnel. this is made from the bark of a tree. Hope this gives you some idea of how to go about it.
J

RBB
01-21-2009, 10:25 AM
Have made them from rocks - in small streams. East of here is a long winding forest road. When I was a kid, there were usually several washouts on the road. and travel required a 4 wheel drive or a bicycle. There were two bridges over branches of the same stream. Large 10 to 12 pound steel head would come up river above the bridges and we would build funnel shaped fish traps with rocks, and when we had several steel heads we'd wade in and kick them out on the shore. This is not, nor was it then, legal.

They've now "improved" the road. They took out the bridges and put in large culverts. The steel head won't go through the culverts. The forest service is very good at screwing things up in this manner.

I've seen fish traps made of watape (split spruce root). I've made watape for binding the gunwales on birchbark canoes. You go out into a spruce swamp with an 18 inch wrecking bar, dig up spruce root and follow it, digging, and prying it up with the wrecking bar. Be careful to remove any cross roots that "your" root goes under. You go for the root that is about pencil size.

You can sometimes get root as long as 30 feet, though they are usually half that length. You loop them up in coils. When you've got as much as you can carry, you head for home.

To remove the bark, make two square sticks out of dry maple, about 5/8 inch square and eight inches long. Hold these tight together in one hand and pull the spruce root between the sticks with the other hand. When all the bark is off, use a jack knife to start a split in the root.

Once you have the split started, you hold half the split in one hand and half in the other. If one side starts to get to thick, bend that side , and the split will go back to center. Soak the splits (or watape) in water before using it. Wet it will make bends, and you can even do "trapper" type knots. It dries stiff and hard. Dry, it is somewhat brittle, but if you have it woven together, it would make a good, and light weight, fish trap.

Runs With Beer
01-21-2009, 03:16 PM
Here's one I made a long time ago! unfortunately I cant find the upper funnel. this is made from the bark of a tree. Hope this gives you some idea of how to go about it.
J

Nice job Jay, Got any more pics like that?

vthompson
01-21-2009, 03:57 PM
Thats a nice looking trap Jay, can't you make a new funnel?

canid
01-26-2009, 01:35 AM
i've made them from suckers/shoots, and from cattail. one tip i can give is to make the spacing as wide [and the spokes as small in diameter] as you can get away with if using them in flowing water like creeks because the current tends to get quite a hold on them.

where i live, you can only use traps for baitfish, so i don't trap for fish myself.

i just finished a new crawfish trap out of chicken wire. i find that so easy to work with that i can't imagine why anybody would buy a commercially made trap.

Gray Wolf
01-26-2009, 02:33 AM
Here's a How To with pic's and a great step by step (from my Making Stuff Sticky).
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/DIY/Fish-Trap.html

vthompson
01-26-2009, 03:06 AM
Gray Wolf, thank's for the website on the fish trap, but I already found it and downloaded it. I am going to use the pictures and instructions to make me a trap with. I will let you know how it turns out.

Gray Wolf
01-26-2009, 03:13 AM
V, I have made 3 of these, from those directions, and they came out great! Take your time, do it their way, and you'll be a happy camper, that had a good fish dinner!

Runs With Beer
01-26-2009, 07:47 AM
i've made them from suckers/shoots, and from cattail. one tip i can give is to make the spacing as wide [and the spokes as small in diameter] as you can get away with if using them in flowing water like creeks because the current tends to get quite a hold on them.

where i live, you can only use traps for baitfish, so i don't trap for fish myself.

i just finished a new crawfish trap out of chicken wire. i find that so easy to work with that i can't imagine why anybody would buy a commercially made trap.

I would like to see how ypu make the crawfish trap, Got any pics?

Jay
01-27-2009, 01:33 AM
Thats a nice looking trap Jay, can't you make a new funnel?


VT,
Sorry for the delay in replying...I was out for a couple of days. yes I can make the upper funnel if necessary. This one has been laying around for a long time and I remembered it when I saw your post. As I had a friends camara with me at the time I thought I'd post a pic. I have lots of odd and ends lying about from experiments and trials. Maybe I'll photograph a few and post them when I have some time.
Cheers.
j

canid
01-27-2009, 02:03 AM
i'll get pics up as soon as i'm satisfied my camera is dry. i dropped it in the river on my last fishing trip.

Ole WV Coot
01-27-2009, 11:45 AM
The ones I made years ago were illegal. In small streams I like the funnel into a holding pool. I have used poke berries & stalks, leaves to poison them in still little coves, illegal of course. We made them out of most anything and you can catch almost anything with fins or fur with a funnel type trap.

nell67
01-27-2009, 02:12 PM
i'll get pics up as soon as i'm satisfied my camera is dry. i dropped it in the river on my last fishing trip.


Bury it in a bowl of dry rice!

crashdive123
01-27-2009, 02:25 PM
When I unexpectedly went swimming with mine, I dried it out real good. It left some spots on the inside of the lense, but that can be taken care of. The bigger problem for mine was that it fried the electronics in it.

canid
01-27-2009, 09:18 PM
that can happen, but i pulled the batteries out asap and won't return them until it's bone dry inside, and until then i won't know if anything fried.

i just bough the thing for christmas, so i hope i don't have to get another one.

crashdive123
01-27-2009, 10:11 PM
that can happen, but i pulled the batteries out asap and won't return them until it's bone dry inside, and until then i won't know if anything fried.

i just bough the thing for christmas, so i hope i don't have to get another one.

Yep - did all that - no luck. I had picked it up on a pretty great sale - replacement cost over $900...:mad: Went with a different camera.

canid
01-28-2009, 12:46 AM
haha, i bet. i don't mean to laugh at your loss. yeah, it's a gamble whether anything fried or not. i got the cam for $50, and could probably find another one for such price again if need be, and if i can come up with the money to spare.

snakeman
01-28-2009, 08:33 AM
I've also seen traps woven with brambles and thorn bushes. Easier to obtain but harder to work with.

chiangmaimav
01-29-2009, 02:45 AM
Fish traps are very popular here. I saw an exhibition of several different types here a couple of weeks ago. Mostly made from bamboo. If I talk to someone who knows how to make them I will pass along the information.

canid
01-29-2009, 08:39 PM
well, the cam is still fine. the lense cover sticks more than it did before, but it never worked quite right since i got the thing, i just have to click it open by hand.

here is the trap, though not the best picture. i started by making a 12" tall band of chicken wire about 2' long and 12" wide. i cut out and wired on an ovoid piece of chicken wire as a bottom, to which i attatched an ovoid section of rebar as weighted rim.

i next cut about 3' into the rop rim of the chicken wire band at the ends, and at two points where the bends start on each side. i folded these parts of the sides in about 45 degrees and wired together, so that the top sides would be domed. to this i wired a pre-cut top piece along one side, so it could open like a hinge. i'm putting small hooks on the other side so i can fasten it closed better.

after this, i cut small 3" round holes at the ends near the bottom, fastened tapering funnels out of spare chicken wire, tapering from 3 to 2" and wired these onto the holes pointing inward and up, so they rise to half way up the height of the trap. this lets the crawfish enter from ground-level but makes them jump down to enter, making the funnel traps more effective.

all that remains is a little bait cage in the center, and maybe a bit of foam flatation material at the top so that it sinks upright if i throw it out.

crashdive123
01-29-2009, 08:42 PM
Thanks for the explanation and picl

Oh, and congrats on the camera. sob, sob.

Runs With Beer
01-29-2009, 10:58 PM
well, the cam is still fine. the lense cover sticks more than it did before, but it never worked quite right since i got the thing, i just have to click it open by hand.

here is the trap, though not the best picture. i started by making a 12" tall band of chicken wire about 2' long and 12" wide. i cut out and wired on an ovoid piece of chicken wire as a bottom, to which i attatched an ovoid section of rebar as weighted rim.

i next cut about 3' into the rop rim of the chicken wire band at the ends, and at two points where the bends start on each side. i folded these parts of the sides in about 45 degrees and wired together, so that the top sides would be domed. to this i wired a pre-cut top piece along one side, so it could open like a hinge. i'm putting small hooks on the other side so i can fasten it closed better.

after this, i cut small 3" round holes at the ends near the bottom, fastened tapering funnels out of spare chicken wire, tapering from 3 to 2" and wired these onto the holes pointing inward and up, so they rise to half way up the height of the trap. this lets the crawfish enter from ground-level but makes them jump down to enter, making the funnel traps more effective.

all that remains is a little bait cage in the center, and maybe a bit of foam flatation material at the top so that it sinks upright if i throw it out.

Thanks, Ilike it, and the pic. Is the trap of your own design?

canid
01-29-2009, 11:10 PM
it is a trap of my own design in the sense that i didn't copy any other trap in making it, or the first one like it i've built, but it's fundamentally similar to many other traps made by others.

Styric
03-04-2009, 07:33 PM
Here's a How To with pic's and a great step by step (from my Making Stuff Sticky).
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/DIY/Fish-Trap.html

Great fish trap and well made. Thanks for the link.