scup traps

[steveinak]

scup traps & sea bass traps ??

Anybody fish them? Does bigger trap fish better. How often do you haul them? Main question do you catch many blackfish in them or have you tried to catch blackfish in them??

 

[tailhook]

did that fishery years ago, the scup traps that I remember were about the size of a inshore lobster trap we hauled 25 of them in the am, re baited them and by the time we were done hauling and re baiting it was time to start hauling again.
that was years ago when I was a stern man on a inshore 36 Harris before the limits were set, we used to do around 17 totes and be home in the afternoon beat but home.
the blackfish traps were different, cant remember but they were curiosity traps with no bait and they worked.
the saying was "put a saddle on that one" for the big ones

 

[twister]

Black fish traps are habitat type traps, they go there to sleep at night. Scup pots now are big not heavily built things. You can find examples here default.html . A few guys around only fish a few pots always rebaiting and dropping until they get enough for the day. others fish lots of pots hauling more gear less times. Not sure who does better. I know a guy that can get 300#s or better a day fishing a single hook so who knows.

 

[steveinak]

Thanks guys i did see some scup pots when i was in Galilee,RI a few years ago some looked to be 3x3 and some looked like maybe 4x4. I took pictures of them so i'd have something to go by if i ever wanted to build some.

 

[jwalka51]

i do quite well with the ones that i have, they are similar in size to an inshore lobster trap.. But, the are currently catching me alot of black sea bass. Lots of scup. Some blackfish and a few conger eels as well. the occaisional trigger fish. I find fish potting to be very lucrative and very well worth the effort if you can get on wichever species you are targeting. The only issue that I have come across is that getting the bait is a pain in the ass. clam bellies work best, but when the fish are potting heavy, they are in high demand and are first come first serve. Also they have a very short shelf life.
Any ways. I am in favor of fish pots. I currently have a few trawls of them in the water and am happy with the way that it is going. hope this helps.

 

[steveinak]

i do quite well with the ones that i have, they are similar in size to an inshore lobster trap.. But, the are currently catching me alot of black sea bass. Lots of scup. Some blackfish and a few conger eels as well. the occaisional trigger fish. I find fish potting to be very lucrative and very well worth the effort if you can get on wichever species you are targeting. The only issue that I have come across is that getting the bait is a pain in the ass. clam bellies work best, but when the fish are potting heavy, they are in high demand and are first come first serve. Also they have a very short shelf life.
Any ways. I am in favor of fish pots. I currently have a few trawls of them in the water and am happy with the way that it is going. hope this helps.

could you post or pm me a picture of one ??

 

[jwalka51]

I am going to haul them tomorrow or this afternoon. I will try to remenber to take some pics. mine are my own design that I based on a ketcham traps style fish pot. the ones that ketcham builds actually do fish a little better than mine do. I actually just ordered 30 kits from him this week.

 

[Badlatitude]

If you can get mussels or cohogs free/cheap U can throw them in a bucked and crack them up for bait. Definatly cheaper than buying clam bellys especially if you have a skiff to go get them yourself!

 

[JimRP31]

I have a pot and will try to take a picture as well

 

[steveinak]

Thanks to all and if you don't feel comfortable posting pics of your traps i can understand, we all have our little "secret tweaks" we do to our gear to make it fish better(in our own minds).

 

[j dandy]

did that fishery years ago, the scup traps that I remember were about the size of a inshore lobster trap we hauled 25 of them in the am, re baited them and by the time we were done hauling and re baiting it was time to start hauling again.
that was years ago when I was a stern man on a inshore 36 Harris before the limits were set, we used to do around 17 totes and be home in the afternoon beat but home.
the blackfish traps were different, cant remember but they were curiosity traps with no bait and they worked.
the saying was "put a saddle on that one" for the big ones

just came across your post , man i can relate to that we could not haul them as fast as we wanted. we fished 35 traps, whan the trap would break the service you thought it would explode. we just kept hauling till noon round&round.

 

[tailhook]

ahh the good old days!! no more, and I think the price was a whole lot better.

 

[jwalka51]

We cant pot em for shit right now. Haul 50 pots. Maybe get one tote. Its terrible... More sea bass than you can carry on the boat but, naturally they are closed. It makes no sense to me.

 

[twister]

There are a few guys on this side that fish just a few pots but they hammer a school of fish let the pot fish maybe 15
Minutes at most then haul and Rebait. This style of fishing looks like they hammer the scup from what I can see fishing around them. Looks like lots more keepers than shorts like I get from pots soaking.

 

[duxbait]

Many guys fish rod and reel? I was down by the vineyard and it seemed like you could do good fishing a few rods. We got over 100lbs trying to NOT catch them.

 

[Jay c]

Many guys fish rod and reel? I was down by the vineyard and it seemed like you could do good fishing a few rods. We got over 100lbs trying to NOT catch them.

I've done it to make gas money - it's a shitload of work. Seems like an easy idea, but the reality is you work hard for a couple if bucks.

 

[twister]

i know a guy that fishes one rod and one hook down by watch hill and he does 300 to 500 lbs a day. he said the limit is only how fast you can go up and down in one day. he fishes the rod out of a holder to avoid the hammering all day

 

[j dandy]

ahh the good old days!! no more, and I think the price was a whole lot better.

yes those were the days ! we would do about 12-14 totes in am run the fish to market pick 5 pales of clams and be back for the the wittchen hr and bang em until dark, witch i think they potted better at that hr.
price back then i think was around 2.50&3.00
the guy at the point said he never seen so many scup for a pin hooker ,
we never told him we were potting them.

 

[duxbait]

2.5-3... Damn! Arn't they under a buck now?

 

[tailhook]

j dandy, is that any relation to the Jim dandy out of wesport,Dartmouth or new Bedford. Years ago I had to ride that the boat on a trailer out of Dartmouth to maybe pine hill or somewhere. it was late in the winter and I was a lot younger thought I was going to get frostbite