Topic: The Best Crab Traps of 2023 (Read 32 times)
previous topic - next topic
It's your post, so post it!
Why It Made The Cut: SMI Heavy Duty Crab Trap is a pro-level crab pot easy enough for anyone to use.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
With sturdy stainless steel co*ponents and a rubber covered bottom, the SMI Heavy Duty Crab Trap is the best crab trap for Dungeness crab. Three entry doors with elevated ramps make it easy for crabs to crawl in but impossible for them to escape. The co*plete kit co*es with a lead rope, buoy, bait box, crab gauge and harness. To easily sort the crabs, the SMI trap has a large opening in the top to separate keepers from throwbacks without dumping the crabs onto a sorting table. Rubber wrapped rebar adds weight to quickly sink the SMI Heavy Duty to the bottom.
Why It Made The Cut: The American Blue Claw ½ Crab Trap Kit has the same catching design at only half the size of a traditional crab pot. Fill the basket with crabs without taking up too much space in a small boat.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
The classic blue crab pot at half the size, the American Blue Claw ½ Crab Trap Kit is great for short soaks with several traps. Instead of one large pot deployed at one location, the half-size American Blue Claw allows me to drop two pots at different locations for better coverage. Crabs crawl into the funnel and can’t escape. A large door in the top makes it safe and easy to empty the pot. Small escape hatches allow short crabs to exit the trap, leaving more space for keepers. If you plan to drop off a couple traps, spend the day fishing or boating, and then return to retrieve your bounty, this is the best crab trap for blue crabs.
Why It Made The Cut: The Promar NE-11 makes crabbing easy and fun for the whole family.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Crabbing is great fun for the whole family, evident at events like the Annual Assault on Patcong Creek Crabbing tournament. The Promar NE-111 is the best collapsible crab trap for any type of crab. Costing just $20, each family member can work a trap to increase the catch and get everyone in on the fun. To fill the basket, attach a piece of bait in the cotton mesh net, drop it to the bottom, wait a few minutes, and retrieve the net. With any luck, there will be a hungry crab latched onto the bait. Flip the net upside down to dislodge the crab into a bucket, freshen the bait, and drop again. At the end of the day, rinse the crab traps with fresh water and store flat for the next trip.
Why It Made the Cut: Quick, effective, and deadly, a steel crab trap with drop doors catches crabs before they know what happened.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Stepping up the crabbing game, Offshore Angler’s Square Crab Trap quickly and securely snares a crab. Attach a chunk of fish or chicken to the tie down in the bottom of the trap. Tie the four lead lines to the mainline. Drop the crab trap to the bottom and the doors open and lie flat. When a crab crawls into the trap to investigate the bait, pull the handline and the doors close tight. The crab is trapped and can’t escape until the lines are loosened. Working a half dozen of these inexpensive and effective traps, a group of family and friends can produce a crab feast.
What could be more fun than joining friends and family for a day of crabbing? Whether you’re crabbing from shore, pier, or boat, the best crab trap makes crabbing more effective and more fun. First, you have to consider how you plan to catch crab. Are you going to spend the day working a small crab trap or leave a crab pot for hours then return to retrieve the crabs? Before buying the best crab trap, consider the species you will target and the size of the crab trap you need.
Species
What type of crab are you targeting? Where are you crabbing? You’ll want to answer these questions before purchasing a crab trap. Some crab traps, like a drop net or cage, will catch almost all types of crab. But these types of traps require the crabber to sit patiently and wait for a crab to crawl into the trap. The crabber stays busy checking the trap, refreshing bait, and dropping it back to the bottom. Smart crabbers use multiple traps and bring friends along to help catch the crabs.
Crab pots, on the other hand, are larger and allow the crabber to drop the pot, leave it to soak, and return hours later to retrieve the crabs. These pots are designed for a specific species of crab. A pot for blue crabs is much different than a trap for Dungeness crab. Dungeness crabs live in a hard rocky bottom, so the pots are larger, heavier, and more rugged. Blue crabs like a sandy or muddy sea floor, so blue crab pots are lighter with smaller entry holes.
Size
The only limits to the amount of crab you catch are the number of traps you have and your local bag limit. Unfortunately, pots take up a lot of storage space. But if you have plenty of space, a full-size crab pot catches the most crabs with the least work. Use multiple pots to cover the most area for the best chance of finding crabs.
The next best thing is a co*pact or collapsible pot. Several of the pots in this review fold flat for storage. These pots make storage easier, but they are heavier and less durable. Another option is a half-size or three-quarter-size crab pot, which is as effective as a full size pot with a limited soak time. If you are only going to leave the pot for a few hours, several smaller pots cover the same area and take up less space.
Crab traps are small and fold flat, making them the easiest to own. You can stack a dozen crab traps in a closet and carry them in a car trunk. Crab traps require the crabber to monitor the trap all day, catching one crab at a time. Since you can carry a half dozen traps under your arm, it’s easy to work multiple traps to increase the catch.
Crabs are one of the most prized ocean delicacies, and they are easy to catch with a quality trap. Once you choose the species of crab you will target, decide how you will catch the crab and pick a crab trap that fits your lifestyle. Then you are ready to head out on the water and harvest the bounty of the sea using the best crab traps for your area and trapping style.
Attracting crabs is a science and an art. co*mercial crabbers use all manner of superstition and experience to draw crabs to their traps. For recreational crabbers, all it takes is some good bait. Some people try to use rotten chicken and while crabs may eat rotten chicken, working with stinking, putrid bait is disgusting. Handling rotten flesh brings along a long list of potential health problems. The best bait for crabs is fresh fish. The second best would be meat scraps. Chicken is popular because it is less expensive and the bones make it easy to secure to the trap. Treat the bait like you would treat meat you plan to eat: Keep it cold and dry.
Once the crab trap is baited and ready to go, you need to know how long to leave it in the water. The answer depends on the type of trap. If you are using a hand crab trap, you may only need to leave the trap for a few minutes before pulling it up to retrieve the crab. Part of the fun of hand trapping is predicting how long to leave the trap before checking it. A longer soak has a better chance attracting crab, but also risks the crab eating his fill and moving on.
A large crab pot allows a longer soak. You can leave a full-size pot for hours or overnight. Smaller pots limit the soak time to a few hours. Many anglers drop a crab pot on their way to the fishing grounds and return at the end of the day to add crab to a delicious Lowcountry boil.
The crab traps in this review range from $10 to over $250. A small hand trap only costs ten bucks, allowing a crabber to purchase several traps to increase the catch. All you need is a crab trap, a ball of string, and a couple pounds of bait to fill a bucket with delicious crab.
On the other end of the price range, a large crab pot is more expensive. But, a crab pot is more convenient. Just leave the crab pot in the water for several hours and it does the crabbing for you. To survive salt water and the rough ocean bottom, a crab pot is constructed of heavy-duty, corrosion-resistant metal with rot-resistant plastic and rubber. A crab pot requires a longer, heavier crab line and large foam buoy to mark its location.
Crab traps may seem expensive, but they are a great deal when you consider the price of crab at the seafood market.
The best crab traps make the sport easier and more fun. I chose the Promar TR-55 because it co*bines all the features of a great crab pot: collapsible, co*pact, sturdy, and easy to use. However, the feature that put the TR-55 at the top of the list is the Promar name. Promar has produced all manner of crabbing and fishing accessories out of Gardena, California, since 2002. The co*pany is inspired by co*mercial crabbers and anglers and has a reputation for producing gear that gives every possible advantage for the best catch.
The post The Best Crab Traps of 2023 appeared first on Outdoor Life.
Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.
[/html]