Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => Polls => Topic started by: Editor on November 30, 2011, 11:05:24 PM
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Have you ever found dead non-target animals in an opera house cray trap that have the solid ring at the entrance?
Please take a moment to select the option which most applies to you.
We're interested in getting some information on bycatch or lack of, to use for future submissions regarding the use of opera house traps.
We're particularly interested in any evidence around dead platypus, turtles, water rats etc in your opera house trap that have the wire ring in the entrance as opposed to the older style with no ring type entrance? Your feed back is appreciated.
The poll results can be viewed once you have voted.
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In around 10 years of constant redclawing I would have caught 3 turtles and 5 water rats and almost in every instance the ring of the pot has rusted out, In the last 2 years I would average at least 2 trips a week to North Pine Dam and have only caught one water rat and that was in an old pot that had 100mil rings.
Cheers
Ray
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First time I used opera house traps, knowing no better, old style with no rings, 4 traps, 4 dead turtles. Had never heard of rings in them. Was pretty upset and did not use opera pots again for years until I saw ones with rings. Now been using them solidly for the last 3 years, only bycatch has been small fish. Did have an instance where redclaw were being eaten whilst in the traps whilst in shallow water, supposition was either water rats or eels, but never found any in the traps.
They also work well for prawns in salt water, but have seen a few crabs as bycatch (pseudo dillies?)
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Came across this topic googling for tips on redclaw spots around Lake Samsonvale. I felt compelled to register just to share my experience from last week. I was wandering along the bank of Forgan Cove, trying vainly to find a spot that wouldn't bring in yet more tilapia, when I saw an opera house trap sitting half in the water. Wondering why it had been abandoned there, I went to investigate - and found a rotting cormorant inside. Fully inside, mind you - somehow it had managed to squeeze itself in past the rings.
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Came across this topic googling for tips on redclaw spots around Lake Samsonvale. I felt compelled to register just to share my experience from last week. I was wandering along the bank of Forgan Cove, trying vainly to find a spot that wouldn't bring in yet more tilapia, when I saw an opera house trap sitting half in the water. Wondering why it had been abandoned there, I went to investigate - and found a rotting cormorant inside. Fully inside, mind you - somehow it had managed to squeeze itself in past the rings.
G'Day Tristan,
That's the first time I've heard of a cormorant getting into an opera house trap. I'm assuming it was a black one, the pied cormorants are larger in the body being too large I would think.
Thanks for sharing the info.
fitzy..
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It was a surprise to me too - but thinking more about it, cormorants are really very skinny when they stretch out.
A lot of pots along that stretch of bank (which is probably why I've yet to catch a redclaw there since the dam refilled). I randomly hooked one nearby - gave me a brief bit of excitement, that - which was tied off underwater. Since I don't have a boat and wasn't keen on swimming it back out, I tossed it back in the shallows where it couldn't be seen from the bank... after reading about bycatch issues, I won't be doing that again. Perhaps opening it up and re-sinking it would be a happy medium between leaving it where it's a danger to wildlife, and putting it up the bank where it could be seen and stolen.
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Was talking with my Fisheries mate a week or two back, they were trialing some new style of traps in NPD. Not very successfully I might add (albeit no one is catching many claw in there in any trap). Apparently the latest worry is abandoned traps because the rings rust out causing them to become a hazard. So they are looking for something else.
Not sure about that myself, something would have needed to crawl in side and become bait I'd have thought. Possible, but not likely.