Geogrid is a very strong, light-weight plastic that is placed beneath rock on road-beds, highways and such, to minimize the amount foundation rock needed and keep it from shifting. We run over the stuff with bull-dozers and never hurt it, it is unbelievably tough and very U/V resistant. Geogrid weighs about half of what the wire mesh typically used in crab traps and NEVER rusts. One of my co-workers has started manufacturing crab traps, minnow traps, crawfish traps, fish baskets, using the stuff and the crabbers around here are loving them.
Please let us know how it works out. Would expect a few teething problems and would rather let some one else have them. Love the idea of having a few sheets of the material precut on my shelves and some hog rings or wire ties and the ability to make large traps if needed. Crab trap takes up a lot of space, but materials would disappear under goods on shelf. Sounds like a win win to me. Thank you for the heads up.
He's been making them and fishing them for several months and is catching more crabs than with his steel traps. Several dozen local crabbers are fishing them now and have totally switched over, he's selling them much faster than he can manufacture them so has had to hire a couple of folks to help with the demand. He got them EPA approved in Florida (biodegradable doors had to be installed), Alabama, and Mississippi, so far.
I have been thinking about this post and the use of geogrid is really wise. It is semi-lite weight and is recycling. I have seen smaller minnow traps made out of wire mesh. The mesh does not weigh much but I have seen mesh traps that start to rust. I really like this idea. I do not have geogrid on hand but it got me thinking about what I do have and we have some orange construction fencing that could be used, the meshing on that is bigger holes.
@Seacowboys do you have a source for this material? What I have found online doesn't look like that use to build the traps in your pic.