Danielson 24" Fold-Up Pacific Coast Crab Trap | Vinyl-Coated Steel Wire, Foldable, Easy Storage & Transport | 4 Entrance Doors & 2 Escape Rings | Blue

This Danielson FTC Fold-up Crab Trap is 24-inches square and made of coated thick gage wire. The corners of the side panels latch with loops of wire to the top and bottom. The top, sides and bottom are made of heavy metal plastic coated and are quality made to last. My trap did not come with a bait cage, so I will use a piece of stainless steel wire to thread bait on to and make it latch closed. I applied some hog rings where necessary. It has two escape rings for small crabs with one being designed for Crab removal. It has a fall-away rot-cord system to disable the trap should it not be retrievable, and this can be made more effective with one stainless steel hog ring. This coated trap will last for years and provide many crabs for the pot.I am just a recreational crabber and will only have a few traps and this one will last. For about $20 it is a good bargain delivered by Amazon Prime for free. Constructed of vinyl-coated steel wire. This trap measures 24-inches L x 24-inches W x 13-inches H and it folds flat for transport and storage, if you want to disassemble it down to shipping size. It has four entrance doors, which are 9.5" x 4.5", that close after the crab enters.When I received the trap, the plastic split cylinder hinges were not placed so the door would remain centered. The cylinders of split plastic were placed on the wires so the doors would slide to one side and leave an opening for escape. About 5 minutes of removing and replacing the split cylinders, solved this problem. This is an issue for Danielson's quality control of assembly to address, if they want their products to be better received by the buying customer. I still plan to buy a couple more of these Danielson crab traps as they seem to be the best I've found, for the price paid, $21.77, delivered from Amazon Prime.Since purchasing this trap and one of the Danielson Pacific Crab trap, I feel the Pacific is the better deal, basically the same trap with a glow bait cage and the top has a hinged opening for removal and baiting, also the doors are Glow coated also. Best deal and a better looking trap.

2022 update: California changed the rules. So this trap is no longer legal as is. (Gov't must have ownership of these trap manufacturers.) New rules dictate a 5" opening with rotten cotton. These are not. But if you clip the hooks off of one side and secure it with a single piece of legal cotton - then that whole side will open which meets the 5" diameter requirements.Original report:Took this out of bodega bay on the opening day of the Dungeness crab season. We had 5 cages. Some with weighted doors, some without. Just the bare cage with a bait container in the middle worked flawless.1. set up the rope to pull from the center2. use bait containers with the smallest holes (bags worked best - like fishnet stocking size)3. the leaded rope works great4. get a float that doesn't look like everyone else's. The spent helium containers were the most entertaining on the water.5. flags on the floats helped.pretty amazing trap.

Once I figured out where to set the trap and how to bait it, this trap worked great and was made from vinyl coated wire mesh. I did have to buy a separate bait cage from Amazon (not sure why it doesn't come with one - otherwise the trapped crabs eat up all your bait in a short time.) I took off one star for that.I bought a buoy and line at a local fishing store - caught a bucket of pinfish off the beach (you can use chicken necks and gizzards in lieu of fish) and loaded the separately purchased bait cage with the fish. Only a couple of small crabs the first few days so I kept moving the trap around until I found a hot spot and the right depth (~6 feet at mid-tide in this case.) I did put my name and information on a piece of paper and laminated it in plastic and zip tied it to the trap so nobody would "accidently" pick up my trap. I have attached a photo of my first three "keepers" in my boat's bait well. Crab salad tonight!

I have used several different crab pots over the years and these by far are the best for the money. I have spent hundreds of dollars on fancy heavy pots and I have had better luck with these.

The holes are too wide. The crabs take the bait and swim right out.

I was buying with the intent to use on blue crabs and was a bit shocked by the size. Very large, almost like a commercial pot for Maryland crabs. Its very sturdy, heavy wire. It will need modification for blue crab though. The grid is too large to hold small blues, but i think the keepers will be caught just fine. The escape holes will need to be wired smaller or even the keeperd may get out. I think it will work, but its not what i was expecting. Not legal for New Jersey. Does not have turtle exclusion device.

I recently bought several of these because I have a smaller sized boat and needed to conserve space. These are good quality and fold up flat nicely. I stack 9 of them up against the wall of my boat and bungee cord them to keep them in place. Light weight, sturdy, quick to use, and more importantly... they caught me some crabs yesterday. Used in Oregon state and fish and wildlife officer checked them when I was coming in and confirmed they were good. Not sure about other states but I'm all set with these here in Oregon.

You get what you pay for. I crab probably once every 4-6 weeks and these work great for me. Have used it in Northern CA and got these because the seals were stealing our bait in the open traps.Pros - Light, easy to assemble, and cheap. You won't fret if one gets tangled or lost. Easily folds flat for storage.Cons - you'll want to reinforce the trap after assembly, either by closing the hooks tighter with pliers or zip ties. You'll lose smaller crabs to the large openings, but you don't want to keep those anyway.