fish traps

[Newt]

MLD:

Traps for fish! My god, whatever next.

Errr - if she fails to tell you what is next (or tells you but gets it wrong) you could try a crystal ball or tea leaves next time.

 

I'm interested in how you think a discussion of ways of gathering bait is out of place on an angling forum though.

 

[ 21. July 2005, 11:58 AM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[MLD]

Being a sea angler, I havn't come accross such things before, so I assume they originate from course fishing. I was thinking of a trap to catch bigger fish. Silly me.

[Salar]

MLD:

Being a sea angler, I havn't come accross such things before, so I assume they originate from course fishing. I was thinking of a trap to catch bigger fish. Silly me.

I think sea anglers use them more, but usually for crabs and prawns. No reason why we couldn't try for bait fish though.

[MLD]

Suppose not.

[Jaffa]

Hi Salar, I bought one of those collapsable traps you have.Tried it out on the West Coast last week and it was great fun but could become very addictive !

 

Best day saw it catch two edibles, twenty odd velvets, and a lesser spotted doggie; bait a tin of catfood!

 

Nice and easy to carry and use from the yak too.

[Salar]

Jaffa:

Hi Salar, I bought one of those collapsable traps you have.Tried it out on the West Coast last week and it was great fun but could become very addictive !

Very addictive! I wish I could play with mine more but I need to go out on consecutive days and that is rarely possible I used them earlier this year but all I got was about 50 whelks, not very appetising

[Salar]

This is the $3 one from Wal-Mart (it might have been as much as $4) . Steel mesh, coated. Splits in half for baiting, two funnel entrances. Ideal for prawns and blennies I reckon.

 

[Newt]

MLD:

Being a sea angler, I havn't come accross such things before, so I assume they originate from course fishing.

I'm not that conversant with the coarse/freshwater UK rules but I suspect traps are pretty iffy and maybe even outright illegal for them.

 

Slightly surprising to hear that sea anglers don't do more with the little traps though along with more using of small cast nets to 8-10 ft diameter for catching bait.

 

I know if you plan to use larger fish as bait you can fish for them first with rod/reel but how do you get smaller bait fish? Errr - that's a generic 'you' rather than specific to MLD.

[big_cod]

All you have to do is put a bunch of peelers in the bait band in a crab pot leave it over night full of codling next day.

[Salar]

Newt:

I know if you plan to use larger fish as bait you can fish for them first with rod/reel but how do you get smaller bait fish? Errr - that's a generic 'you' rather than specific to MLD.

The main bait fish used here are sandeel (lesser and greater), pouting and joey mackeral. Lesser sandeel are caught with a seine net in sandy areas. Launce and joeys are caught with small hokkai lure. Pouting are caught with light sea tackle on bait. In fact the most popular baits are worm (much cheaper here than in the USA), frozen suid and what you would call cut bait - mainly mackeral - and peeler crab. The most popular live baits by far are sandeel, but I would guess anglers using worm and cut bait outnumber live bait users 50:1 in the UK. Lures are gaining popularity, but still used far less than in the USA.