New prawn trap ropes

[canadian_bacon93]

Ok guys. Rookie prawning question. I have 400 ft of newish rope. Used once. When put away, it wasn’t coiled the best. With the memory of the rope, it keeps rats nesting. My wife and I got the line untangled now, but how do we recoil it so we can set traps easy without the rope getting all tangled up again? What’s the best way to store it? There’s gotta be some sort of hack to this! Thanks in advance for any help or input with this.

 

[bryce]

5 gallon bucket or Rubbermaid coil it right into it and don’t touch it till it’s time to set again.

 

[Corey_lax]

I welded up this. I have two spools that slip on to the welded aluminum and hold the line. You kind of reel it in like a mooching reel and then slip it off and put it in a bucket

 

[canadian_bacon93]

Ok great thanks

 

[Corey_lax]

I’ll try to find some better photos but they have been posted on here before if you do some searching

 

[Dorman Point]

To help get rid of the memory or kinks which may now be in the line, you can pay out the full length of the line (nothing on the end) while you are running somewhere, then pull it in and coil it in your container. You can roll it to follow the natural lay of the line as you coil it.

 

[sly_karma]

As the line comes off the trap puller, I just flake it into a large plastic tub, letting it drop where it wants. I'm not fussy about keeping it in a neat coil, it just goes with the natural lay of the rope as @Dorman Point says. When I put the gear away for the year, the rope stays in the same tub along with the weights for that trap string. I have 450 ft of 3/8" poly rope on both trap sets and use a 1 lb clip weight to sink any excess length.

 

[Tips Up]

Milk crates. Stack nicely.
Carabiners on floats so you can remove them. Softer rope best. Lead rope needs to coil.

 

[seachicken]

Don't try to coil it all in the same direction. If you take the time to coil it "over under" it will be perfect. I can't explain it but it's a must for coiling cable, basically reversing the lay of it every other cool as to not put twist in it, cable is extremely unforgiving. But you don't generally have time on the boat with trap rope so just make sure you let it reverse direction when it wants, mine reverses about 4 or 5 times in 400 feet. You might find if you reverse direction every 10 or 20 coils it will be better. I find cheaper, smaller diameter non leaded rope worse though, I have one rope that is much trickier.

Edit: when it's new uncool it on dry land and lay it out so it's not twisted. Then cool it nicely in a container (bucket, milk crate, garbage can) and head out on the boat.

 

[RiverBoy]

sea chicken i believe you’re describing a firemen’s coil. the over under thing.

if you ever meet an old time black cod fisherman or hali but longliner, you will notice their wrists are the same size as their forearms from coiling skate after skate of rope. it can be done with new line. start with a tag of about five or so feet. you will use this to tie your bundle together. then start forming loops and constantly roll the line it’s natural way by twisting g the line counterclockwise with your fingers.
don’t form large loops. try and keep the loops the size of a pizza tray. you will be surprised how easy it goes and also the ryrhym you get doing this. now take your tag line that you started with and wrap it around the entirety of the bundle and tie it off. you can also leave a tag for your cork
( lead) end and double tie the bundle. when you are done you can kick the bundle
around your yard and it will stay nice and tight and most importantly uncoil like a dream when prawning

 

[Aquaholic]

Don't try to coil it all in the same direction. If you take the time to coil it "over under" it will be perfect. I can't explain it but it's a must for coiling cable, basically reversing the lay of it every other cool as to not put twist in it, cable is extremely unforgiving. But you don't generally have time on the boat with trap rope so just make sure you let it reverse direction when it wants, mine reverses about 4 or 5 times in 400 feet. You might find if you reverse direction every 10 or 20 coils it will be better. I find cheaper, smaller diameter non leaded rope worse though, I have one rope that is much trickier.

Edit: when it's new uncool it on dry land and lay it out so it's not twisted. Then cool it nicely in a container (bucket, milk crate, garbage can) and head out on the boat.

After coiling in a bucket, would you add water for a few days to help with the memory, or leave it dry?

 

[sly_karma]

I just drop em in. Pull and check after 45 minutes though.

 

[seachicken]

After coiling in a bucket, would you add water for a few days to help with the memory, or leave it dry?

If I have a good fresh water supply I will rinse but then tip the bucket on its side to drain and dry. I don't have a large supply at the cabin though so usually just drained and left to dry.

 

[seachicken]

sea chicken i believe you’re describing a firemen’s coil. the over under thing.

if you ever meet an old time black cod fisherman or hali but longliner, you will notice their wrists are the same size as their forearms from coiling skate after skate of rope. it can be done with new line. start with a tag of about five or so feet. you will use this to tie your bundle together. then start forming loops and constantly roll the line it’s natural way by twisting g the line counterclockwise with your fingers.
don’t form large loops. try and keep the loops the size of a pizza tray. you will be surprised how easy it goes and also the ryrhym you get doing this. now take your tag line that you started with and wrap it around the entirety of the bundle and tie it off. you can also leave a tag for your cork
( lead) end and double tie the bundle. when you are done you can kick the bundle
around your yard and it will stay nice and tight and most importantly uncoil like a dream when prawning

I think we're talking different things, a wire rope cable would not let you do that but it sounds interesting too. If you google coiling cable over under it will show you videos for electrical cables.

 

[Samnjoe]

What kind of rope? Poly or proper prawn line. I use the 5 gallon bucket for either up to 400 feet. If I'm runner 2 traps per line have 600 foot commercial lines. Too long for the bucket. Use large round Muck tub and coil carefully.