Thread: Yabby traps?

We experimented with all sorts of methods on the farm in WA, and really you can't beat the opera house type crab pot, with a few manky bones as bait. Use the bait holder inside so they don't drag off the food.
BTW we found that lupins (grain) were a great bait too. We would walk around the dam throwing handfuls a metre from the bank, then follow up with a drag net as used for prawning. The yabbies would be lining up to get at the lupins, and the sock would be full with kilos them!!

Good luck!

Love to see some piccys of the traps & results

Originally Posted by burraboy

With summer coming on, it's time to get prepared for the yabbys in our dam. I mucked around with a home-made trap last year but might move on to some thing commercial this year. Any experiences/recommendations?

Hi Burraboy,
I just got a couple of pot from Annaconda $9 each,my brother got one from K-Mart for the same price.For bait we used par cooked spuds with good results,or use rockmelon also.Don't laugh till you try it!!

Funny things yabbies. We have a small dam near us full of carp and yabbies. The kids and I were chasing carp using bread the other day and had a couple of yabbie pots baited with meat in as well. We caught no carp (usually get a heap of them so we were most disgusted), yabbies on the bread but no yabbies on the meat. Vegetarian yabbies?

Doncha love fresh cooked yabbie, much sweeter and tastier than prawns

Richard

Try rock melon or a par boiled spud,they are traditionally vegetarian.

Follow-up.
Thanks for the tips, I got a couple of opera houses from Kmart and have used boiled spuds and a manky old bread roll, both with fine results. Yabby paela tonight!

Originally Posted by burraboy

Follow-up.
Thanks for the tips, I got a couple of opera houses from Kmart and have used boiled spuds and a manky old bread roll, both with fine results. Yabby paela tonight!

How long did you leave the traps in before lifting them?

If you were using a net that didn't trap them inside, how long would you leave them?

Richard

Allow a couple of hours minimum, or leave over night.

Originally Posted by Daddles

Vegetarian yabbies?

Actually yes... the yabbies aren't trying to eat the meat, they're trying to remove it from the water. Used to love going down to one of the local dam's with a roll of string, off cuts of steaks and a butterfly net. We used to take a couple of drop nets with us too

Originally Posted by Daddles

How long did you leave the traps in before lifting them?

If you were using a net that didn't trap them inside, how long would you leave them?

Richard

Curiosity overcame patience after a couple of hours and we found half a dozen in each when we checked. That was good enough to repeat the process over the course of the day with similar results each time. I don't know what would happen if we'd left them undisturbed for the whole day. I might find out by slipping one into a neighbours dam (before daybreak) and picking up after dark (he's that kind of neighbour).
I don't know about leaving overnight, I think I read somewhere that yabbies are active through the day.