Crab Trap Experiment - Doors vs Funnels

In different regions people have a tendency to use different methods to catch crabs. In the Chesapeake Bay area they use trot lines and wire open crab traps. Down here on the Gulf Coast we use hand lines, soft ring nets, and wired box crab traps (referred to as pots up north). The crab traps have funnel entrances that make it easier for the crabs to get in than to get out. On the west coast, they catch Dungeness crabs in traps that have doors that swing open when pushed from the outside, but do not swing out, trapping the crabs inside.

I've wondered if we always use the best method to catch crabs or just follow tradition. With this in mind, I decided to test traps with doors instead of funnels to see if they work for blue claw crabs. Six traps is the legal limit for recreational crabbers, so that is how many I used in my experiment. I had three traps with funnels purchased in Westwego, Louisiana. I made three with a similar design, but with doors instead of funnels. I slightly weighted the doors so they would close easier. I had used doors on a couple of single chamber shallow water traps and they had worked, but you don't catch as many crabs in the single chamber traps.

On March 16, 2013, I set the traps out in a salt water canal near my house. I rotated between door and funnel traps. I let the traps soak for a full seven days and ran them on March 23rd. The crabs weren't running, but I did catch four good sized crabs, all in the funnel traps. I let them soak for five more days and ran them again on March 28th. This time I caught nine in the funnel traps and one in a door trap. The funnel traps had at least one crab on all pulls. I decided that it was pretty evident that we use funnel traps to catch blue claw crabs not only because of tradition, but because they work better.

I changed one of the door traps to a funnel traps and ran them one more time on March 30th. I came away with seven more crabs, six in the funnel traps and one in a door trap. Now, all six of the traps I have out have funnels and not doors.

On an up note, all but three of the crabs that I caught were over 6 ½", with four of the over 7".