7. Drop door Trap


 
     The drop door trap is a roughly conical bamboo basket fixed with mechanically triggered door as closing mechanism. The trap basket is around 1.8 meter long and width of the entrance is 70 cm in diameter. A piece of big bamboo is split into long strips while keeping the other end together. Then the strips are loosely woven into a wide meshed basket with big opening mouth. The upper edge of the door carries big stone about 5 - 7 kg. In the center of the trap three monofilament strings are located, connecting to a release mechanism that triger the door to fall down when touched, thereby closing the exit
     The trap is placed in quiet and shallow river sections, preferably in the shade of big trees. Its mouth faces downstream, for fish moving up-stream. The main period of operation is during the rising flood, when the water is muddy and fish is exploring recently inundated riverbanks for food. This trap only captures fish big enough to trigger the drop-down mechanism of the door. Bait is not used. When the fish enters the trap, it is very likely to touch the monofilament strings triggering off the guillotine-like fall of the door. A fisher usually operates several of these traps in a single river bay, positioning than along pathways of the bigger fish species

   
 
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