These traps are only for use by commercial yabby farmers for commercial harvest, they are traps that are designed to catch everything and lots of everything. They are CATEGORICALLY BANNED from use in Public Waters.
Super traps are approximately 14 m long. They are made up of approximately 25 separate chambers, each with its own entrance, and a “cod end” each end.
Entrances are on alternate sides of each chamber.
We bait them by just sliding in plastic jars filled with bait. The plastic jars just have a few holes drilled through them to allow the smell of the bait to escape. The smell attracts the crayfish but they cannot consume the bait as it is protected inside the plastic jar. This stops them feeding and then leaving, they hang around longer in the net.
The trap is floated out into the pond or dam in a fish box, then staked out each end with a wooden dowel.
We drop the baits in as it goes out.
Leave it in for 2 hours minimum or overnight and then check.
We check from the middle moving/shaking the yabbies towards the cod end. We then empty the cod end into a fish box or two that just float on the pond. The cod end is tied closed with a rope so undo the rope and the end opens so the yabbies can be emptied out.
Warning: Only do one end at a time or you may be unable to lift the cod end high enough to empty into the fish boxes if 40 kgs or more in the end, additionally the weight of the yabbies tends to sink the box allowing the yabbies to escape. Another problem is that if you have too many yabbies in the net they dont all fit in the cod end and as you lift the net they will back up and fall out the chamber entrances.
These traps will not only catch yabbies but animals like turtles and eels, hence why the are BANNED FROM PUBLIC WATERS!
Super yabby traps cost $275.00 to purchase ($220 each when buy 2) which realistically is not expensive. One super yabby trap does the job of 25 opera house traps so not much difference in purchase costs. The big difference is in labour cost, super traps are quick to set and harvest – basically equivalent to setting and checking 3-4 opera house traps. If your time is short you definitely need to be using super yabby traps for commercial harvests. Beware of the light duty cheap imitations, these Super Yabby Traps have the thick mesh and extra heavy duty cod ends to handle big loads every day. Sorry, to get the best net that will last for years is expensive.
Super traps are available from RBM Aquaculture – “Click Here” to purchase.
If you wish to stock your own farm dams – we sell dam stock yabbies through our sister company Austsilvers