Any Turtle trappers on here?

What is your go to trap, box trap or hoop trap?

If you’re transporting or storing a lot of them, collapsible nets are the way to go. With turtles, a lot of the time you’re setting in shallow water, and D hoops let’s you get the throat lower in the water as compared to the same diameter round hoops, and they also help to prevent rolling.

Rectangular cage traps are easy to use, stack well, and don’t roll. They’re also low maintenance and last longer under the same conditions when made with quality wire, compared to having to take care of nets and all that goes with their maintenance (dipping, hanging, keeping mice from chewing them, etc). The downside to cage traps is that even though they easily and neatly stacked, they still take up more space and are more difficult to carry in. A person could make these traps collapsible the same way colony traps are made to fold, but I don’t build mine this way.

It really depends on how many you’re wanting to run. I use both hoop nets and cage traps. If I have to carry them somewhere or needed to carry a bunch, I’d choose D hoop nets. If I am using them where they’re staying long term or I can get close with my truck, I prefer cage traps.


I build my turtle traps using 1.5” Riverdale Mills Aquamesh—the same premium wire used for building crab and lobster pots. It works very well and lasts for years without maintenance. I build both single and double throats. I prefer double throat turtle traps, but they require a separate license to use in Louisiana. If you choose to go with D hoop nets, I’d recommend getting them built with a minimum of #18 twine and dipped with netcoat on a regular basis.

Aix my friend,

Those look great.
I need to replace mine. Oh how I hate the hoop nets!
If you have any other photos to share, please email a few.

Best wishes!

A few other designs... you can roll some wire or fencing into a large pillow shape, clip one end closed for turtle removal, and then take another piece and roll it into a flat-mouthed funnel.






These are legally considered wire nets in Louisiana. They’re built using concrete remesh (cattle panel, or other comparable materials) for the frame then wrapped with webbing and dipped in netcoat. When you see these for sale, they’re more than likely going to be round. If you build them with rectangular frames, they stack well and don’t roll. These cost a little less in materials to build, but they require being dipped in net coat and still won’t last as long as quality coated wire and they take longer to build than wire traps, but are still an option to consider.




You could also build traps with both wire and webbing by building the barrel out of wire and the throat out of webbing.


Traps that catch and hold turtles are easy to make.

Aix
I was looking at the rectangle trap you make. Are they appx. 14 inches H by 32 inch long and 24 inches wide. Is the yellow line to each to entrance door have a weight to help close the door?
Nice looking traps! Thanks for the response.

The sides are made using 24” wide pieces of wire. Sometimes a side is a full 24”, but most of the time they’re a little less because I’ll fold over the last row for a better fit and added strength.

To keep it simple, the short trap on top is 24”x24”x48” and the ideal size in my opinion. The larger ones were 60”, I think. Those squares are an inch and a half each. You can make them shorter, especially if you only put an entrance on one side. You can also make them longer, although I don’t really think it’s necessary most of the time. 48” traps full of any kind of turtle is enough.

The yellow lines are actually marine grade shock cord. I cut an access hatch then cover it with an oversized flap. The shock cord and nylon hook keeps it closed.

Aix - those traps look great!
Are the rectangle traps first posted rigid? Do the need a skeleton? I am thinking about removing them with a heavy load - couple turtles.
What dimensions do you use for the double door? Optimum size for entrance, drop down, but no exit?
This look best for where I need to use them. Some access with the truck, but most access with ATV and trailer.
What do you use as a brake or bender?
What do you use to connect the pieces - crimp on cage clamps?
Top and bottom bent with wings?
The two sides just rectangles?
Any spreaders in the throat or simply the edge fastened to the side holds it open?
How does it open for turtle removal?
Great design!

The traps made with the steel panel wrapped in webbing look great. If all available by truck I would build a couple but not suitable unfortunately.

Thanks!

Here are a couple single throat turtle traps. You can make them much shorter with a single throat. The one on the right is about 30” long.

24”x24”x30”

My understanding is we can only use the single throat turtle traps. I use the D shaped hoop nets.

Aquamesh has 2 different wire sizes. The mesh is 12.5 gauge wire, and I’m not sure what size the outer strand is, but it’s larger. Maybe 8 gauge? No frame is needed, it holds its shape well, especially when the outer rows are overlapped.

Dimensions are approximately 24”x24” and the length is whatever I need it to be. For a single throat, 36” length is about right. You could make them a little shorter if you wanted to. For 2 throats, 48” length is about right.

Fasteners are stainless steel rings. Usually 1/2” but anything from 3/8” to 3/4” can work.

I use a board to bend. I place a fence board across a row of meshes where I want a corner, then I stand on the board and make a clean bend. Very important to get straight bends. Simple.

Sides are just rectangular pieces.

The top and bottoms are halves. The top includes the top part of the ramp on each side, bottom piece has the bottom ramps. It’s (4) total pieces plus the door.


The door is just an oversized flap that has more meshes than the mesh count of the hole. This is for bait tending and turtle removal.

The ramps are fastened to the trap’s walls to seal the gaps and to hold the ramps in place. I count everything to keep parts symmetrical. The throat has a 1 mesh gap (1.5”) but the ramp will lightly flex to allow even huge turtles to enter.

It is my understanding according to the regulations that I read that if you get a commercial reptile and amphibian license, you can use 2 throat ones. It was only $25 last time I got it. I’m not sure if it has increased yet as I haven’t renewed it yet.


I was also told that if you’re using a turtle trap in a private pond that it didn’t matter, and most of the people I’ve sold traps to were using them to remove turtles from their own ponds.

By the way, do you know what the reason for a regulation like that anyway?

I suspect it was created so that people running catfish hoop nets couldn’t also keep snapping turtles, but, in my opinion, it shouldn’t be that way. If they want to keep turtles and fish separate, okay, but that’s covered by the turtle trap tag and no finfish requirements. The way it seems to have been written in such a way as to limit someone’s otherwise legal gear, even if they were to follow the other regulation requirements kind of misses the purpose.

Louisiana has great regulations in my opinion, but, unless I’m missing something here, this is a regulation that really doesn’t make much sense

I'm not sure why, but even when I was commercially trapping turtles it was single throat .

Alright, I just checked on it. The law was changed for commercial trapping to allow one or more horizontal throats in 2014

I don’t know why it’s written that way unless it would be to keep people from using their standard catfish hoop nets for turtles.

Not sure why they would care about that if this was in fact the reason, because turtles and fish are already kept separate by requiring turtle trap tags and prohibiting possession of finfish while turtle trapping. In my opinion, it should be legal if that’s what someone has to use. Most people seem to use single throat turtle traps and nets anyway, but if someone only had a 2 throat hoop net, they should be able to use it to legally provide a turtle sauce for their family... my 2 cents

Wholeheartedly agree

Aix - thanks for the details here and in the PM. That design looks great! I read about the mesh and it is great quality. Looking forward to making a few and catching some monsters. I really like it, especially the tenderloin, yum!

Yours probably grow twice as fast and get much larger. Ours spend about 5 months imitating a rock in the mud. Long ago, I did see one on a certified scale at 114 pounds at a commercial fish market. They were known to buy turtles. They paid 3 teenagers $15 for cigarette money. Even back then turtle meat was expensive.

There’s more to be said about choosing turtle traps, because it matters how you plan to use them. If you would have posted this in the trapping only or Trapper talk forum, you would have gotten a lot more feedback. In your case, pretty much every design will do what you need it to. However, since you posted this in the ADC forum I’ll mention my limited experience with turtle removal work in case anyone reading it has plans to do turtle removal. In my case, I was hired to remove turtles from a retention pond. Even though the water isn’t straight sewage, it’s still nasty water that stinks and is full of floating aquatic vegetation. In a situation like that, it is my experience and opinion that an operator wants traps that require as little effort to set, retrieve, and cleaning as possible. With wire traps like I posted, you simply tie a string or rope to the trap, bait it, and toss it out. Retrieve it, remove the turtles, and reset. When finished, just carry the trap out, and simply rinse it off or leave it outside so that the rain can wash it for you. With durable wire, this is all easy. If you were to use a trap with webbing, you’d have a mess on your hands. The webbing needs to be washed to get the nasty off, and you can’t just throw it out in the yard, because the sun is very hard on webbing. Durable coated or uncoated wire can handle the elements better than webbing. I would not put my nets into a retention pond, period. Wearing gloves, proper gear, and using Wire traps, no problem.

AirportTrapper has caught a lot of turtles, and he uses hoop nets, which can be easily carried in a boat, because they’re collapsible. These are very popular with commercial fishermen, because they work and they are easy to transport.

Eric Space uses a very interesting turtle trap to catch more snapping turtles in a season than many people see in their lifetime. If I remember right his traps are 12”x24” and either 36” or 48” long, and what makes his so interesting to me is he uses them in such a way that they’re set submerged in shallow water with with a strip of 6”x6” panels for snapping turtles to be able to stick their necks through to breathe and for small turtles to self release. It also has a metal flap gate on the rear for Easy turtle removal. In Louisiana, we must set ours so that at least part of the trap is exposed for turtles to breathe.

The hoop nets never worked for me because I did not like the system with the various water weeds. They became large weed bags.

The tops and tricks are great. The cages will work great with my other systems. For transport, I use a 4’ livestock water tank. Another larger tank stays home. Since I am not running production turtle work, it happens at my pace. Most locations are fairly small - 1 acre ponds. One lake is 10 acres and the largest is 20 acres.

Looking forward to Terrapin Syndrome!

Man I don't hee how y'all catch anything with them all wire traps. Never worked well for me at all. Switched to wire body and net throat and I slay em once the weather gets right

Wolfdog 91
Thank you for your reply! I am building a wire turtle trap right now. I will be working on the entrance in a few days.
But you got me thinking. I will be trapping shallow ponds. The ponds will have a lot of weeds and duck weed etc. Most of the hoop are hi maintenance from what I have read and seen. I may try the netting to start if it becomes a problem, I can always switch to wire.
I anyone else using netting throats and wire bodies?

Thank you in advance! Getting There

Good to hear from you my friend. You make posts about wanting to trap red ear slider turtles with your nets. Here are some pictures of sliders and cooters caught with wire traps on a turtle removal job last summer.

Yes. The trap design that Eric space uses to catch thousands of pounds of snapping turtles have wire bodies with net throats. That’s proof enough that they work if you ask me. I’ll see if I can find pictures of his traps this weekend


I also build them as wire bodies with webbing throat at times. Turtles are not difficult to catch and hold. They’re not like fish where the design of the trap is critical imo

Thanks Aix:
As the old saying goes" A picture is worth a 1000 words. I am working on building a trap right now. Still cold out today, 24 degree. Working in a un-heated garage.
Thanks for the pictures!
Getting There

These are pictures that Eric has shared on Trapperman. I really like them, and I appreciate their value if someone were able to legally set turtle traps below the waterline

Aix where do you buy you aqua mesh ?

I buy it from crab trap wire suppliers down here. If you’re looking for Aquamesh by brand name, it’s not as easy to get as it once was, because some suppliers chose to switch to imported wire instead. Most people want cheap, they don’t care where it came from.

A person could just as easily make these traps with standard cage wire. In freshwater environments, galvanized wire will last quite a while.

This is what I make and sale they are 30 inches across and about 2 feet tall