Custom bait tube

[easyday]

Made theese last year and I made some changes and shortened them down and weighted them

[TJones]

to secure it ?

[easyday]

Carabiners

[45user]

Nice! Can you please share specs on your bait tube?
I wanted to make one after I used a borrowed bait tube. I liked the simplicity of the tube.
Thank you!

[easyday]

I had them at just around 13 inches long last year. Turned out they were wayyyy to long. I cut them down to 9 or 10 inches this year with 3 inch abs. If I would do it all over I would have gone with pvc, abs is more expensive stuff. Probably will tweak them or just rebuild complete new ones later on, my final measument is around 10 inches with 3 inch abs. Last year was the first year hoopnetting and I really had no help. So me and a buddy just came up with our own ideas. The reason for them being so big was more bait= more stink in the water. Well see how theese ones work out. At least the sea lions wont bother them like they did our baitcages last year.

[Drake]

Shoulda just used the Drake Puck

After being completely fed up with the promar bait cages, I've decided to build my own.

Things I hate about the promar cages.
- The hooks to keep the doors on break after a while
- They make stacking the hoops a pain
- When bugs are thick, it's too easy for them to clear all your bait.
- They get stepped on and bend
- They're annoying to store
- Chunked bait falls right out
- Needs some sort of fastener

After seeing my friend do REALLY well on bait tubes, I got to thinking. What can I do to improve.


Here's what I've come up with.
These hold about 3-5 sardines broken in half. They lasted all night still packed with bait. Didn't need to do 1 bait change

Pros
- Cost 1/2 as much as a promar to make
- They slip right into the bait pocket in the bottom of almost all hoops
- Almost every hardware store carries them
- They are solid plastic/pvc, means no rust and nothing to break
- Smaller slits makes bait last a lot longer
- Requires no fasteners
- Makes stacking hoops much cleaner and easier on the back of a kayak
- You can fit all 5 in a 1 gallon freezer bag already loaded with bait for the next trip
- Easy to clean out and store
- They float, incase one comes loose
- Bugs can't eat them from the outside (ambush/ecplipse users), they need to get in the hoop
- SEAL PROOF

I know the biggest question everyone is thinking to themselves.... DO THEY WORK??
Well tonight, I put them to the test. See photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2214.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2213.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2212.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2211.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2210.jpg
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2216.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/IMAG2218.jpg

Made a small modification to the nets to better accommodate the pucks.

One came loose last night so I wanted to come up with a better way to secure them. This is what I came up with.

I cut the string that holds the tag ends of the netting together which forms the opening. Then I weaved a short bungee in the loops and zip tied them to the lower ring. I cut the end off so they wouldn't rust and get hung up, then burned the tips to clean them up.

The bungees cost $2.94 from home depot.

Took about 2 minutes for each hoop.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/DSC003562.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/DSC00358.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/Drakeskakes/DSC00359.jpg

[Aaron&Julie]

Shoulda just used the Drake Puck

Oh, yeah, I remember your post on the Drake Puck, I thought it was one the cleverest bug tricks I had yet seen.
We probably won't go that route this year, but probably will in the future. It just means we'll go through lots of cable ties on our cages, which we cut at a sharp angle to poke the hell out of a seals mouth. We don't have many problems this way, but your method looks much better.
Aaron

[William Novotny]

Only thing id change is the holes on the sides. I think you will find that with the holes drilled in your end caps only, you keep a single direction of water flow through the tube keeping your bait alive alot longer, nvrmind, just realized what these are for

[easyday]

Yea I know drake. I saw this post after we had already made our bait tubes but I only have 6 bait tubes for our 10 nets so the last 4 already have drake pucks. Tha js for the good idea.:beer:

[CheapPelican]

Slight mod
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/picture.php?albumid=223&pictureid=1646
Looses some capacity but fits in the bait pocket snugly without modification. Holes in sides alows you to jam pliers in to pry them open if sand wedges them shut.

[45user]

Oh..I thought this was live bait tube haha
Thank you!