Trapping fish

[gunslinger]

First question and I apologise if this has been done before.
Does anyone know of anywhere within 20 miles of Exeter that I can find Crayfish?

Also does anyone have experience of trapping eels and other fish as I believe there are eels in the Exe estuary.
So any tips and/or techniques would be useful.

Finally netting fish, is it possible to use smallish gill or siene nets to catch inshore fish working alone?
what are the legalities ie. do you need a permit or license?

Would your nets be damaged by others?

Just got some ideas I would like to try

Thanks all
GS

 

[gunslinger]

Well I am surprised ,I would have thought fish would be an important part of the bushcraft diet.

Guess no one knows then.

Thanks for reading anyway
GS

 

[Intertidal]

GS,
I don't know of any freshwater crays in the SW - I believe they prefer calcium-rich water (chalk streams and the like) but I'm no expert.
I would imagine that there are eels in the Exe, but I've no experience of trapping, only catching on rod and line in tidal waters. Thats a night-time job by and large, but I prefer to fish for other species rather than eels.
Regarding netting - I used to fish commercially inshore using gill and tangle nets, longlines and pots. I'm not sure what byelaws are in the Exe area, but down here in Cornwall it is illegal to have any fixed net within 3metres of the surface at any state of the tide. This is to ensure that migratory fish (salmonids) are not impeded.
That means you will need a boat, rather than setting nets from the shore.
Seining within the estuary will almost certainly require a permit and on the open coast would be very difficult alone. I have seined with others - great fun, but not overly productive for the time, effort and capital cost involved.
My conclusion would be to master the angling side of things and forget netting - it can be too indiscriminate if you're not sure what you're doing and you could end up killing non-target species.
Environmet Agency vigorously police the netting down here and will prosecute and confiscate illegal netters.
Sorry to give a lot of negatives, but stick with angling and low-tide foraging - theres lots to be had!
Good luck.

 

[Joonsy]

For trapping eels Fyke Nets are superb and simple to use, no need to use bait as they work by eels simply swimming into them quite naturally, often other fish will be catched in them too, you can get different sizes and styles of fyke nets but for simple use choose one suitable from throwing from the bank (a leader followed by a trap at one called a ''single fyke net'' as opposed to a ''double fyke net'' where there is a trap at both ends of the leader which is not suitable for throwing from the bank), other trapping methods mostly rely on baiting for success where the fyke net does not so more successful, you can make eel traps with willow weaving for simple throwing out, length of trap is very important in catching eels successfully as eel must be fully inside trap for success as if it touches the end of trap with it's nose and tail is still sticking out of trap the other end it can swim out of trap backwards --- to use gill nets alone you can throw from the bank with a weight at one end if net coiled carefully, for longer setting distance you need to be able to access both banks and it is possible to throw weighted line over then pull net across from one bank, wrap line once only around an object tree/boulder/etc and double it back to bank so you do not need to cross river a second time to retrieve net. --- for legalities check elsewhere as i am not up to date, and regarding crayfish i have no idea.