Ours has a plastic entry at the top its simply a cylinder about 150mm long with a flange that sits on the top of the cage (to retain the cylinder). The cray fall in but cannot climb out it is too slippery. At the bottom of the cage there are slots to allow juveniles (or undersize cray) to get out. You could easily make a plastic entrance from water/sewage pipe, available in your local builders merchant (they might have something with a flange - or simply cut a flange and stick on with Sika, or appropriate adhesive.
Discarded supermarket trolleys would be a good idea. Don't weld. Simply join up and make the joins as hinges and then you can fold flat (they take up a lot of room).
I'd send a picture but our pot is on the cat. Ours is 2 parts, a steel welded tray for the base and steel welded inverted tray for the top - the smaller, top, tray fits into the bigger one. It sort of like a truncated square pyramid when assembled The sides are simply net. When assembled there are a 'U' frames at the sides that turn, its crudely hinged, and locks into the opposing tray. When ours is folded its about 750mm x 750mm square with the top tray nesting into the bottom and the trays are about 300mm high with about 600mm between trays. The U frames keep it 'assembled' and it is very sturdy. It has rings for the rope.
Ours is made heavy - the alternative are - rocks.
Tasmania is famous for its cray and there is a big commercial industry. The commercial fishers know the reefs out in the ocean and lay their pots in a long line, very well marked. They have windlass to haul in the line of pots. We tend to fish along the shoreline, where the commercial fishers don't want or need to access.
First time we dropped our pot we collected 13 cray of legal size. Well beyond legal allowed 'hold'.
Brush up on your cray recipes! It is very easy to become tired of crayfish
Because we are working from a, small, dinghy we have to watch the weather and sometimes need leave the pot unattended for a couple of days for while to allow the swells to ease - we still catch cray - even after its been rough. As we travel down the coast we trawl and catch baracoutta - evil looking fish full of bones. We chop them up and use as bait. Someone here suggested Kit e Kat - simply open with an old fashioned beer can opener (the ones that cut a triangular hole) and simply drop in the pot - sort of sustained release.
I wear a LJ, carry a hand held VHF - just be careful - when you are retrieving a full heavy pot you are not watching the seas. We don't have enough room in our dinghy for 2 people and manhandle a cray pot - so Josephine sits well off the shore, I venture in.
Jonathan
