Trap Puller I built.

[Fish Nutz]

Here are a couple pics of one I built this christmas. I used a 2000lb superwinch from CT. Definatly allot louder than an Ace but for the 150 bucks i spend on it worth every penny. I used a 11 inch diameter inside wheel on my large pully and I dont think i'd go larger. It seems to pull just fine. I havent timed it but its not really much slower than the Ace, and pulls big traps with ease. The fold away boom is probably my fav part. Hey walleyes, i'm curious to know how fast yours pulls with your wheel, whats the diameter on it?

 

[cedarman]

I may be out to lunch here but I wonder if all the cheap CT tire winches are created equal. I too have built one of these pullers but have had nothing but issues.
First I made a wood wheel and it pulled my traps but if I had a full net it would stop. So I figured that maybe the wood wheel was too heavy causing friction so I made a wheel out of two ikea candle plates. I have not field tested the new wheel but my puller still will not pull a 20lb ball in the front yard.

Am I asking too much of the puller to pull 20lbs??

Do I bother buying the 3500lb winch from CT or just save for the real thing?

 

[walleyes]

Heck of a unit fish nutz looks awesome. I timed mine at just under 50ft/min with the pulley I have. Like I said I am going to try it and see what kind of power it has before I go bigger or smaller on the pulley. I am thinking that a 1500lb winch should have sufficient power. I know back a few years ago our quads used to come with 1000lb winches on them and they had sufficient power to drag a quad out of the mud so I can't see this not having enough power to pull up 2 traps,,we will see I guess.

 

[MGH]

some thing wrong with your winch Cedarman. My father uses a ct winch (smallest ) to lift the snow plow blade on his home built tractor. Goes up and down no problem while plowing snow. Weight of pulley (within reason) not a factor. The diameter is the factor that changes the amount that the winch can pull. Do you have enough power in your battery?
MGH

 

[tubilah]

We used a wheel chair motor for ours. It hasn't let us down in 6 years.

 

[cedarman]

I currently have two batteries that are brand new. My wheel is only 11" which is the same as most people's on here. I do not know maybe I got a bad winch motor. Who knows where this cheap stuff is made these days.

I would hope that any size wheel would pull a 20lb cannon ball off my driveway but am I out to lunch??

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Here's the one that Dad and I built today. Built out of scraps from around the shop. All stainless steel, except the Bike Wheel and the Motor which is some pot metal (aluminum, or magnesium??). Total costs under $65.00. Motor at garage sale $50.00, Fuse Holder $8.00, Fuse $3.50, one half inch nylock nut $0.65, one 2" wood screw $0.09, the rest we had or made from scraps and spare parts around the shop, plus one days labour for Dad and I to make and install. Going to give it the test drive tomorrow, hopefully we can fill some traps to really see what it can do. I'll tell ya, these motors are not very quiet, will have to crank the stereo to drowned it out.

Here it is:



Cheers, all!

 

[Fish-Hunter]

cool, nice work, bet a lot of ppl have random stuff sittin around and could be this inventive, in stead of using a motor tho, you should have rigged up the actual bicycle and then u could get some exercise as well, id deffinately be doing a triple take if i saw some guy pedaling away on a boat and up came a prawn trap, LMAO.....holmes*

Yhea, we joked about that, would be funny as hell to see a guy "pedaling" (would most likely look like an epileptic fit from another boat LOL) and then up comes the trap. We laughed as we referred to the pedal version as the Omish model (jk) LOL.

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Here's the one that Dad and I built today. Built out of scraps from around the shop. All stainless steel, except the Bike Wheel and the Motor which is some pot metal (aluminum, or magnesium??). Total costs under $65.00. Motor at garage sale $50.00, Fuse Holder $8.00, Fuse $3.50, one half inch nylock nut $0.65, one 2" wood screw $0.09, the rest we had or made from scraps and spare parts around the shop, plus one days labour for Dad and I to make and install. Going to give it the test drive tomorrow, hopefully we can fill some traps to really see what it can do. I'll tell ya, these motors are not very quiet, will have to crank the stereo to drowned it out.

Here it is:

View attachment 1175 View attachment 1176 View attachment 1177

Cheers, all!

Well gave it a work out today, and it performed great! Pulled a 400' line with two traps in 4 minutes and 30 seconds including the stop to unclip first trap up and move the loop for that trap past pulleys. I am happy with that, it is one hell of a lot better than pulling them by hand, my back is already thanking me. These motors are not quite, but oh well. The amperage guage on the charging system raised up to about 10 or 12 amps while it was hauling and stayed steady. We just left the main motor running so that the alternator could keep up if there was a large draw. All in all a great project, one that will be appreciated for many years to come for sure. (Only got 61 prawns today for our efforts though).

 

[Fish Assassin]

Hey, 61 is still better then 0....We set a total of 16 traps one day this spring and got 0. Your doing just fine. Keep it up.

 

[Prawnhunter]

Well gave it a work out today, and it performed great! Pulled a 400' line with two traps in 4 minutes and 30 seconds including the stop to unclip first trap up and move the loop for that trap past pulleys. I am happy with that, it is one hell of a lot better than pulling them by hand, my back is already thanking me. These motors are not quite, but oh well. The amperage guage on the charging system raised up to about 10 or 12 amps while it was hauling and stayed steady. We just left the main motor running so that the alternator could keep up if there was a large draw. All in all a great project, one that will be appreciated for many years to come for sure. (Only got 61 prawns today for our efforts though).

very poor tides right now. I don't bother going when the tides drop that little. Good enough for a test run though!

 

[Poseidon]

Nice Puller Walleye

 

[Fish Nutz]

I don't know much about how the tides affect prawning but I was out on fri and ona 2.5 hr soak on 8 traps we pulled over our limit and had to throw prawns back. How do the prawns respond to the tides?

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Nice Puller Walleye

X2. Good job Walleye, I just read back through the thread and realized that I had not earlier commented on the job you did on your puller - GOOD JOB! Have you had much chance to use it yet?

Both you and Fish Nutz inspired me to get off my a$$ and build one from seeing your pictures. Just never could see myself spending the aprox $500 for one at the store, and well now I have over $400 to spend on other things for the boat.

 

[Fish-Hunter]

I don't know much about how the tides affect prawning but I was out on fri and ona 2.5 hr soak on 8 traps we pulled over our limit and had to throw prawns back. How do the prawns respond to the tides?

I need you to show me some tricks on where to set traps or some "top secret" locations LOL. I did not know about the tides affecting the outcome of trapping prawns, something I will pay attention to and talk to a couple of Commercial prawners about.

Seriously that is some good prawning you are talking about. We were out in Barkley Sound Yesterday and by the sound of the radio most if not everyone out there was getting skunked, in fact a few of them were making comments on how suspicious it was that none of their traps had anything (even the locals) they figured that they had been "pulled and cleaned out for them". That's got to take some balls, cause these thieves just never know when I'm coming back for my traps, that would not go well for sure.

How's your trap puller working? You did a great job on yours as well.
Cheers.

 

[Fish Nutz]

I've been pulling limits for the past couple months here in CR and rarely have to do more than one set. I'm new to the whole prawning thing but have been fortunate enough to stumble across some decent spots with a little bit of a point in the right direction. All i've been doing it looking on the charts for little 300-350 foot flats and throw down. I use fish farm pellets and canned cat food but i take the cat food out of the can becuase I rarely set for more than 3 hrs. This may be common sense but i've found that the heavier your traps the more accuratley you can place them, i've lined mine with chain to help them get down. As for the puller it's been nothing short of amazing, I highly reccomend building it tall like mine so you don't have to bend over when keeping tension on the line. It is a bit heavy and if i had the option I probably would have bulit it out of 1" tubing but when you get it for free you take what you can get!

Good luck on your build if you want more specifics on mine i'd be more than happy to send them your way!

Cheers

 

[Time]

If you want to try building your own, and don't mind a noisy pos motor, I noticed in this weeks flyer that Cdn Tire has a 1500 pound winch on for 42.00, regularly 69.00.
A few of us have used these and they seem to work.
You can throw a puller togethor for under a 100.00.
Use bolts instead of welding, etc., and it may not be terribly elegant, but will probably be functional.

 

[MILLERTIME]

I was always told that there was no prawning off Victoria because of fast currents. Just for fun I thru a trap out last week in 200 ft and got 200 Coon Stripes. Used my Scotsman to pull the trap. Worked like a charm. Will be putting two traps down next and work up to four. Thanks for all the info on this thread finally motivated me to get out and do it.

 

[Prawnhunter]

I don't know much about how the tides affect prawning but I was out on fri and ona 2.5 hr soak on 8 traps we pulled over our limit and had to throw prawns back. How do the prawns respond to the tides?

Its not so much that the tides affect the prawns but it moves your sent a lot more making a large sent trail for them to follow right into your traps! On the other hand, it sounds like your doing just fine....good job

 

[dmurph]

Nice job on the puller fish nutz , not going to lie , would like to build one and copy the ones on the forum here. What is the wheel you used, does it attach to the winch easily , how does it connect to a power source , could I splice on a scotty male end to the wire ? Thanks for posting.