ANCHORED Crayfish/Fish Trap With Bottles

I tried making a plastic bottle fish trap, put it the local creek, only for it to bob on the surface and I come back the next day to find that someone tampered with it and had strewn it out on the shore. So I started to problem solve and realized that I needed it to be anchored at the far bottom center of the pond, I just grabbed a few things and I finished in just an hour or 2.

Drill (a nail would be time consuming to make the holes)

Gallon size plastic bottle

4 short and small plastic bottles (the 8 oz ones)

4 zip ties (preferably 8)

crackers (or different bait depending on what your trying to catch)

Box cutter

Fishing Line (and something to cut it obviously)

Sand/Gravel

Take your gallon bottle, remove the cap, and like most bottle fish traps, cut the top off, flip it upside down and insert it into the main bottle. Then drill 8 holes into the overlapping rim of both parts and thread your zip ties through those holes to secure both parts together, cut off excess zip tie. Then drill as many holes in the main body of the plastic bottle with a drill, 100+ holes is optimal.

Take your tiny 8oz plastic bottles, and drill 2 holes in the cap (so it looks like a pig nose), Then your going to want to find or drill 2 holes on each of the bottom 4 corners of the trap, then take some fishing line and thread it through your small bottle caps as well as through the corner holes on the gallon bottle, tie the caps to the gallon bottle. Then fill up the small plastic bottles themselves with sand and screw them to their caps so they all dangle freely. Then your done with all the construction.

Because the 4 anchor bottles are filled with heavy sand, the trap will sink and sit moored on the pond bed, even if it is in a stream, it will be held in place against the current. Since it has a tendency to float due to being made of plastic, it will rise off the pond bed by a few inches, which ensures that your trap isn't tangled in plants on the bottom. For bait I used crackers but you can find what works for your local fish. I tied a long fishing line to the top of the trap so I could lower it in. I cut a notch in a bamboo pole and ran the line along that notch to reach far out over the water so it could be deployed in deeper water, (the bamboo shown in the picture is a different piece I wound it around). I then made sure to tie the line down to an iron U bracket I found on the shore and hammered it securely in place, then I left for a weekend trip.

Upon returning from my 2 day trip, I unsecured the line from the shore and pulled the trap in. I opened it to find several mosquito fish and a couple crayfish, which I carefully released afterwards. Although I did see an Asian family catching some crayfish to take home to eat a few months ago, which is not my thing lol.