In the past I have written a couple of articles about crayfishing in Gisborne.
The first concerned various pot designs, including ring pots, round traditional pots, and the smaller rectangular box pots based on the commercial version. The latter out- fished other types for quite a few reasons, and I suppose the commercial fishers had found that out long ago.
I had lots of enquiries from readers wanting to buy them, but my original intention was simply to try and help cray potters out.
Recently, retired Wellingtonian Mark Hullett came to see me with a prototype box-pot design based on the one in my article (but with better openings and a galvanised coating), with a view to selling them commercially. The improvements (as you can see in the photo) are well done, and certainly customer friendly. A feature not included is a sacrificial zinc anode. - minimises rusting, but Mark says the galvanising will be fine for amateurs not fishing all year round.
After catching some tarakihi, I inserted a couple of frames into the easily accessed bait box, and trialled this new pot alongside some of my old, rather rusty ones.
I placed the pots in an area where large commercial boats don't dare go and they all did okay. (I had reservations about the new pot's shiny galvanising but the crays were obviously not worried about this.)
This pot appears to be very well made, but I suggested that heavier rope be used as rock chafing could be a problem. A small float is positioned a little way up the rope to prevent it from tangling around with the pot in big swells, as this can cause the floats to be pulled under forever.
Alain Jorion
