Fish Trap

[vthompson]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Thats a nice looking trap Jay, can't you make a new funnel?

[canid]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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... Went with a different camera.

[canid]

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]

I've also seen traps woven with brambles and thorn bushes. Easier to obtain but harder to work with.