Pots are alot of hard work, diving might be easier!

Haven't heard of the round plastic pots, but most folks say the wood ones are better.  You will need to soak them for a few days and the pros usually drop their pots before the season starts for that very reason.

Some say that plastic pots are harder for the crays to climb up on, so a badly scruffed one would work better then a new unmarked one, hence the shade cloth.

Hi Tony,

The round plastic behives do work but like all plastic pots they're more bouyant so extra weight is needed especially in higher swell situations.

The slattys by far catch more crayfish in general as they sit better in all conditions and they feel very natural for crays. Plastics do catch still in saying that but extra ballast is a must.

Soaking of wooden pots can me done by giving it a good hose down and they're fine to use the next day. Baiting them up heaps the first use will help your catch rate also and will allow the wood battens to soak up the bait flavoured waters.

Going for a jarrah base with pine slatts will give you the best catch for reds & whites.

HTH 

Have never heard or seen of pots covered with shadecloth either amatuer or pro in some 20 years catching them so cannot help there but heard a whisper that the escape gaps may have to widened for this season.Only a rumour but usually the source is pretty good.Also 77mil guage for the whole season not just untill the end of January

yeah heard apparently there is 1mm difference in the gaps? how many extra will that save i ask..................1mm

1mm in crays makes a huge difference.

Yeah, 1mm in the gap will be a big difference.

About the 77mm guage, I used that throughout the last season as that was all I had.

I have 2 plastic and 2 timber pots if anyone is interested. The wooden ones need some standard patch ups after getting caught in some holes last year, and will also need new bait cages. They come with rope, weights, and I guess floats (but they have my licence number burned in?).

 Give me $75 for the lot and I will have a space in the garage to fill up with other random crap.I am in Butler.

I will be diving only for crays this year.

im a pro cray fisherman and i can assure that 1mm may not sound like alot but it deffinetly has a huge impact on our catches. wooden pots are deffinetly the go, but plastic pots still catch there crays. soaking the wooden pots isnt that important but does help, aslong as uve got GOOD quality bait in there they will climb in. at the start of the season i would be putting my pots on sand edges ( where the reef meets the sand). the best way to do this is to drive around on clear days and mark the edges with ur gps, that way when the water isnt as clear u still know where to go. good luck boys, and no bombing out the pros! haha

JUST WONDERING IF YOU STILL HAVE THEM

there seems to be a bit of confussion going on as to what are the changes to the rec rock lobster regulations for the 2012 - 2013 season.

Last year 2010-2011 the regs for rec rock lobster catchers change to this (in brief)

Recreational pots required to open up the height of the escape gaps to 55 mm. they were 54mm in 2009

FRMR regulations 32 & 38 schedule 13 part 2 refered

FRMR schedules 2 & 3 required rec fishers to use the 77mm head gauge all season.

This season 2012 - 2013 the escape gap size may be reduced to 54mm

The caraspace gauge to be used all season is 76mm

The daily catch limit per licence holder has been increased from 6 to 8 perlicence hoilder per day.

Now here is the sexy part, last year everyone ground out the escape gaps to comply with the new requirement of being 55mm in height, now the good minister says you can reduce your escape gap size back to what it was in 2009 being 54mm.

Lets see you buy new stock of 54mm escape gaps if you can, the only way to get them is if you can find a shop that has some old stock of the plastic or alli ones.The manufactures of plastic and cast alli all altered their dies to the new size in 2011 ie 55mm you can't put metal back on dies etc as it cost heaps of dollars. Also lets see you put 1mm back on your last seasons escape gaps if they are steel and all nice and rusty.

DoF have made a lot of noise about you can now catch 8 crays per licence holder per day,wow thank you so much, eer wasn't this the limit before the reduction in 2011. Take with one hand give it back with the other next week. And i don't need to hear about rec fishermen not catching their 5 % of the allowance either they (DoF new that in 2011)

Rant over