Cray Pot Dimensions
Hi All,
With the weather starting to get better it won’t be too long before we’ll be getting the pots back in the water. I know fisherman should never blame their gear but I think there is an issue with my pots, mainly the depth/size of my hatch.
Last season I had my pots over at Rotto with mates with their 4 pots and they all fished the same areas. They had a combination of plastic and wooden pots. My mate’s pots generally did pretty well whereas mine failed to catch barely anything – in which I drew much criticism and derision from the skipper and other deckies.
After the Rotto stint I tried my pots closer to home off Hillarys with no more luck, although one time I pulled one of my pots up to the surface and a decent sized cray managed to swim out the hatch just as I was lifting it out of the water. So my theory is, the crays are getting in there ok (my bait seemed to deteriorate the same as the other pots over at Rotto) but due to either the size of the hatch and/or the depth of the pot I think they are getting out when they want. I checked the escape gaps and they are all standard sizes and there is plenty of weight in there.
Photos attached. The size of the hatch is 250mm x 190mm, the slats go down 180mm with 180mm gap down to the base of the pot. All up the pot is 390mm high. The pots are actually built pretty well but a suspect I might be wasting my time using them in their current configuration based on the results of the last two seasons.
Any advice on what the optimum hatch dimension and depth/clearance from the base of a cray pot should be would be much appreciated. Cheers.
wifecallsmegrumpy
Posts: 145
Date Joined: 09/01/12
I never had much luck with
I never had much luck with the wooden finger pots. I can't help you with dimensions other than what's on the fishery's website, but what about changing to plastic necks ?
SpotHound
Posts: 439
Date Joined: 06/02/14
Wooden Fingers
Wooden fingers help crays climb in being more natural, they also help them climb out, plastic necks dont.
still trying
Posts: 1051
Date Joined: 27/06/17
I think your pots are very
I think your pots are very narrow at the top I think your finger neck size is normal.
rather be fishing
scubafish
Posts: 962
Date Joined: 15/08/12
try a sled on them
Sea lions maybe getting into them.
https://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/additional_fishing_information/sea_lion_exclusion_devices.pdf
http://img.gg/BQ91Sys
Matches11
Posts: 12
Date Joined: 27/10/13
Plastic necks
Thanks Guys. From memory the other pots I was fishing with over at Rotto all had Plastic Necks so maybe that's something I can try. Cheers.
West Coast
Posts: 331
Date Joined: 10/12/07
Weights?
Just go get some propper made 3/4 sized pots off Hezzie or someone similar with decent weights in them. If you are going to go to all the effort use proper gear. You're are wasting your time with those pots.
Matches11
Posts: 12
Date Joined: 27/10/13
New pots
Hi West Coast, I was seriously looking at getting new pots and cut my losses with these ones and I do feel like I’m wasting my time I bought them new off a bloke on gumtree in my area who made them himself and they are rock solid. Other than making sure the escape gaps were right and I doubled the weight they looked like perfectly solid pots. But there must be something amiss with the configuration as they have been duds. Maybe they are a bit too shallow. I’ll look into Hezzys pots.
Cheers