Photos from Tuffy
If you don’t think those old wooden lobster traps weighed a whole hellova lot more than today’s wire gear then you don’t know much about then and now lobstering.
Look how skinny Swicker was back then…
My View of Life on the Dock
Crab traps are very similar to lobster traps but are square shaped instead of rectangular. They also have the openings on the top of the trap and do not have knitted heads like a lobster trap.
Many Gloucester fishermen have fished out of Naples at one time or another, mostly longlining for swordfish back in the day. Mark Ring has a few great stories he tells from his days fishing in this port, none of which I can repeat here.
They pour cement in the bottom of the crab traps so they will land bottom first once set off the boat. This way they will fish properly. Very few lobstermen pour cement in the bottom of lobster traps but I have seen it here and there. The prefered method of weighting a lobster trap is with bricks. This is another difference between lobster traps and crab traps.