Fishing nets - Passive fishing gear

Traps belong to a group of passive fishing gear and have been used for catching fishes for centuries. Shapes and materials of traps may differ; however, the principle of catching remains same.

Before the catch, a fish has to find the trap entrance and enter the trap. Probability of catch can be increased by guiding wings, which direct fishes towards the trap mouth. Escape of caught fishes from the trap is reduced by funnels - part of the netting, which is constricted towards the end of the trap and which is difficult to find for fishes trying to escape.

Traps can be used for sampling fishes as well as for commercial harvest in lentic as well as in lotic waters. Trap shape and size depends on local conditions, technical facilities and target fish species. Traps are species selective and catch only particular species living within sampled habitat.

We offer several well-proven trap types with wide range of chamber volume used (0.1 - 100 m³).

The Klíčava [kleechava] trap is the smallest type of trap used. Originally it was developed for sampling perch fry in the Klíčava and Záskalská Reservoirs.

The advantages of Klíčava traps are small sizes, light weights, low costs, easy and economic storage and installation to various depths and to space limited habitats. Manipulation with the Klíčava trap can be done by a single person including installation and catch removal. Caught fishes remain in a good condition for a long time and the period between each control of traps can be 3 - 7 days.

The Klíčava trap is positively selective towards benthic species and species used to hide in vegetation as perch, eel, burbot, gudgeon, pike, pikeperch, etc. These species can be sampled with the trap very effectively. On the other hand, the trap is not suitable for sampling cyprinids like bleak, roach and common bream.

Klíčava traps are constructed in standard well-proven construction.This trap has been standard gear for unique long-term sampling of the perch population of the Klíčava Reservoir. These traps have also been successfully used for biomanipulation of the Římov Reservoir.

The catch is removed by unbinding the funnel of opposite cone shape.

The Římov [zheemof] trap is constructed for larger water areas with moderate bottom slopes. These traps were used as main gear for perch harvest in many larger Czech water bodies.

Advantages: The Římov trap is highly effective in catching benthic species and in species which typically hide in vegetation - perch, eel, burbot, gudgeon, tench, pike, pikeperch, wells, etc.. Storage of these traps is easy and economical. Installation is possible up to 20 m of depth. Caught fishes remain in a good condition for a long time and the period between each control of traps can be 3 - 7 days.

Disadvantage: The Římov trap underestimates certain fish species. This biased was reduced by adding an antechamber compartment. The Římov trap is now available in two new innovative variations - the Římov PŘEDSÍŇ trap and the Tributary trap GOLEM.

The Římov PŘEDSÍŇ [zheemof pzhedseenj] trap represents an innovation on the Římov trap. In the anterior part of the trap, a larger chamber (antechamber) with gates creating the trap entrance was added.

In this modification, the trap is able to catch even cyprinid species and thus provides reliable and transparent catches of local fish community.

This trap was developed for tributary parts of reservoirs and other locations with high rate of migrating fishes. The tributary trap is very effective in catching almost all migrating fishes. Caught fishes are in a good condition and can be released after processing without obvious harm.

This trap can have many shape and size variations. The chamber capacity may range from 0.1 to 100 m³.

Our best type has two funnels, wings of 10 m length, mesh size 15 mm and chambers 90 cm in diameter.

The trap is tightened using poles and three stone or metallic anchors.

It is possible to install the trap to depths up to 20 m thanks to anchors. However, the optimal depth is 10 m.