Bob & Mag,
Here are the photos you wanted to see: The first photo is a standard 2 foot cube. It has four entrances on each side at the bottom. Some use only two entrances and drop their pots such that the entrances align themselves with the current. The third photo is a close up of half an entrance. It is a very simple affair formed by bending the wire mesh slightly inward. A rule of thumb (or in this case a rule of hand) is you would adjust the opening such that a normal sized man's hand (open palm) would just fit through the opening. If you cannot fit your hand through, you will miss the Joes (Jumbo dinner plate sized fish that usually carry a premium market price). If your hand fits in too loosely, you are giving the large and medium sized scup too good of a chance to escape and they make up the majority of your catch. The second photo is what is called a "S" trap although I do not know why. To me it appears to be more of figure "8". That diamond shaped affair you see in the middle is the bait box. I can bait up seven cubes with a 4 gallon pail of clam snot. At best, I can only bait up three of the "S" pots with 4 gallons and that is with skimping. These "S" pots are real bait hogs and as the photos shows there are some of the remains of the last hauls unwanted visitors. The last photo is a top view of the "S" pot. The fish go for the bait and swim between the bait box and the wire mesh. They can move to the left or right of the bait box from either side, hence it is a very decent pot with four entrances. The pot, however, is a killer to use when there are spider crabs about which is just about everywhere. I have almost given up trying to make the "S" pot work. I am thinking about adding four legs to it so it sits about two feet off the bottom like an offshore drilling station. That will stop the crabs from getting in, although it just might stop the scup as well since they are mostly bottom feeders. I will give it one more try this season |