modifications for fish trap?

[pbowhunter]

I am going to try to put some extras in my fish trap i was wondering if anyone modified theres?

[Guest]

There was an article in the North American Fisherman some time ago on how Dave Genz rigged his up. I have scan of the article (thanks to a fellow fishmerman) but I don't know how to attach files on this board.

[RK]

Hiya,
You can do all sorts of stuff to Traps... Mine's an older one-man model with the deeper sled but I bet the same kinds of things work on the new ones...

What I've added:

Rod holders (Just a simple clamp-on one which I think is made by HT.) These clamp right to the vertical posts at the front edge of the sled and can be folded out of the way when you aren't using them. I added the first one for a dead rod. I used to just set dead rods on the seat, but lost a rod down the hole when pike (I'm assuming it was a pike anyhow) hit the minnow and took off at Mach 2 - all that was left was a bubble trail. The other one is just convenience - you can set a jigging rod in it rather than on the ice or on the seat when you're pouring coffee, baiting the other line, or whatever.

I also added a rod rack. The Berkley horizontal rod racks screw into the side of the sled (better yet - bolt them in) perfectly, and help keep spare rods from rattling all over.

Along with the rod rack, I took a piece of vinyl rain gutter and two end caps, screwed the end caps to the sides of the sled and glued the gutter between them, so it makes a tray for keeping all kinds of misc. dump that accumulates in a sled over time in one spot. A friend of mine put a little cargo net in his as well, and that's pretty slick too.

I added eye bolts on the sides of the sled so I can bungee cord my auger to the top of the sled when I'm traveling.

For light, I bought a Coleman tent light (they are about 8 bucks at Target). The light has a back plate that attaches to the light itself with magnets, and I bought some medium-size tool clips (like you'd stick on the wall in the garage) and screwed them to the back plate. Then clip the back plate to the crossbar at the top of the Trap when it's flipped over you. Lights up the whole trap for tying knots, unhooking fish, whatever.

I carpeted the bottom so crud doesn't slide around as much. Don't glue it down though, because you'll want to take it out to get the ice (and petrified minnows and maggies) off it once in a while. I made that mistake...

Uhhh...lets see...longer tow rope or a hitch bar for pulling it...a small piece of carpet to put under your feet. (blacks things out a little when sight fishing, and makes an amazing difference in keeping your feet warm - really)

Hmm. Think that's about it, but I bet if I looked at my trap I'd spot some more. (What does RK do between ice-up and safe ice? Fiddles with dump, that's what )

Have fun. Fish Traps are fun deals. Fishable as all get out right out of the box, but a million ways to customize them to how you prefer to fish...

RK

[This message has been edited by RK (edited 12-05-2002).]

[Guest]

A couple of features that I did to mine that I realy liked were sewing the bottom flaps togeather in the front so whenI fliped the trap down they were already on the inside and down on the ice and all I had to do was scoop a little snow or ice on them to hold them snug to the ice.I also cleaned the tub where the flaps matched up on the sides and stuck velcrow on it and sewed some on the flaps to match up it helped to seal out the strong winds.I also used rubbing alcohol and cleaned just below the front lip of the tub and stuck a stick on ruler.

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cal