GEAR

FISH TRAPS
This specimen is housed at the Oakland Museum of California. Image used with permission.

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This fish trap was built by the author out of
iron stovepipe wire and green aspen sticks.
It measures about 55" in length and the mouth
is about 20-22" in diameter. Use of such a trap is illegal in many jurisdictions.

A template can be made by curling a sheet of heavy paper in a circle the size of your head, fitting a pair of sunglasses around it, and tracing them loosely. Please don't cut bark from living or standing birch trees! Make pinholes to locate where the slits should be (please take the goggles off first, eh?) The slits should be very narrow--about as wide as an x-acto blade is thick.

Bush models using aspen boughs, stovepipe wire at the joints and nylon cord. Cotton webbing similar to lamp wick is used for bindings here.