Crab Trap Modifications | How to improve your cheap collapsible / folding crab trap (Danielson)

Alright guys, we're going to show you how to take a nice

cheap

Danielson

crab

trap

and make it much better. Pay attention. Okay, let's review our equipment list here. We have a

crab

trap

cockpit harness that I have already attached. and you can buy all kinds of different of these we have rope and a buoy we have a smaller buoy our bait bag our pipes threaded caps we are going to fill them with sand we will show you how to do it here in a little bit and we have our zip ties, tape and flags to put everything together and then some lead core fishing on our fishing weights we're going to put weight on the doors and keep them from opening and then we're going to make a little adjustment to the doors, we're going to cut the bottom off so that do not get caught in the neograss.

Okay, let's get to this guys, so we've got one end of the cap screwed to the PVC and now. uh, Jerry is just filling the PVC with sand using a funnel and he's going to fill it almost to the top, it doesn't have to be perfect, this is just a sand game, that's all it is. I bought it at the hardware store, there are about six of them. dollars, you can use cobble sand, you can use whatever you want, it doesn't really matter, sand is heavy so you can even go get it on the river bank if you want, but this was more convenient for us so we bought one bag. you can glue them on if you want but I don't think it's really necessary, you don't worry about these caps unscrewing after use and one of the reasons we use PVC instead of rebar or something is that in many times, rebar underwater in salt water, if hit by sand, can create an electric current and you can get what is called a hot pot, so instead of using rebar, we will use PVC filled with sand as weight for these pots and the reason.

The reason it's important to use weights on these pots is because they have a lot of volume but are super light, so what will happen to a current if you have nothing to weigh them down and a good strong output current? With the incoming tide, these pots will actually rise and move across the bottom of the bay or wherever you are crabbing and will create what is called a walking pot, which will help anchor you to the bottom, that's it, here come on, next step okay, so the next thing we're going to do to modify this pot is... these pots are actually designed to fold up for storage and we would never do that, we just set these things up and then leave them as boxes . because it's a lot easier in the long run, but these side walls can get a little flimsy and after using them for a while you can have some problems with the doors staying open or these clamps coming apart, all kinds of weird stuff.

So basically what we've done is we've designated this side here to be the opening door and we're going to use that same door to bait and get crabs out all the time, so the rest of the sides are actually just we'll zip tie them and leave them closed while they last, that way you never have to worry about these doors opening in the draft or when you pick them up or do something like that, so we have All of these are zip tied to open or close and then that's our door that we're going to leave open, so it's pretty easy to know which one is going to stay open, but if you want, you can put a little orange flag or string or something on that door so it remembers which one it is and then, also, if If you have problems with the door you designate as the opening door, you can purchase a rubber tie and simply use it as a temporary closure to keep it in place.

The door closes well, so the next thing we're going to do is these doors have come a long way. They are much better than they used to be, but one of the problems you have with these Danielson doors are these pegs. They stick too much to the bottom, so what happens if you drop this on the bottom of the bay and it turns out there's some eel in there? Then these tags will get caught in grass, algae, or whatever is on the bottom. It can actually prevent it from opening when the crabs start coming in, so what we're going to do is cut them right here at the bottom and it used to be that this peg here wasn't long. enough to keep this door from swinging open, so we used to put a hanger on the bottom of this, but that's not necessary anymore, so we're just going to cut them off, so now we're going to tie these weights together. that we made for them they are going to go in all the corners here except the side where the door opens.

You're just going to tie it to the side of the crab pot on the inside so the door can still close. Alright, there we go, we've got the four weights zip-tied in the corners, the access door still works and we're looking pretty good, so now what we're going to do is add some weight to the door. They actually sell weights that you can buy and add to these. I don't know how much they cost, but what we usually use is a little bit of pencil lead and we just tie it up and that will ensure that this doesn't work.

It doesn't open like that in the current because it's pretty light, so we'll add a little extra weight and it'll hold it down, but the crabs will still be able to push, so that's okay guys, the only thing left for us to do. Are we going to add a bait bag and over the years we just change out the metal bait boxes or the plastic bait boxes and switch to these mesh bags because they seem to work better? I think crabs can do it. after them and chew them a little better and it creates more aroma in the water so they're pretty

cheap

that's what we use we just use these mesh bags and now we're going to add our rope and our buoy and then this pot to crabs will be ready to go so we normally add these extra buoys just above the harness, this will help prevent the harness from pooling on top of the pot when it's on the bottom, however this Once we bought rope with lead on it, so which lets the rope prevent it from floating on the surface and getting caught on accessories and such, so overall it's better, it costs a little more so we're not sure how well it will work so far. like floating the harness up or if it's just going to sink anyway, but we think it's worth a try, you can add it too, they're pretty cheap so we'll just add it to this one like we do all the others, it's okay guys and don't forget to zip tie the end of the tag to make sure

your

knot never comes undone or anything just a little extra safety precaution okay I just want a big knot and nice so you can.

Don't slide through the hole in

your

buoy there and then again with a zip tie for safety, so that's okay guys and what we'll probably do eventually is, at the end of the buoy, we'll probably add another section about "I don't" . I don't know six to ten feet of normal nylon rope that floats and we'll put a second buoy there, so most of the time we use two buoys, but just for demonstration purposes, for now we'll just put this one there, but we'll probably eventually add another section of rope on top of that that will float alright guys so we have this all set up and then this is the door that we designate to be the opening door and after you prime it and you release it uh we usually throw one of these uh I don't know what rubber ties are.

You can get them at Cabela's or whatever and they are actually very pretty and that will keep your door open. close it and that's it this thing is ready to start crabbing now so here we go guys we have a crab trap on sale for 16 bucks and for less than 20 bucks we end up making this thing 100 times better so you can It's probably even cheaper if you have the stuff lying around, so give this a try and see what you think you went from a really lightweight mobile crab trap to one that will hold up and have better current, so let us know what you think and thanks for watching.