Crab Trap Requirements
Night restrictions
You may not bait, tend, check, or remove crab traps, their contents, lines, buoys, or markers in public waters from 1/2-hour after legal sunset
until 1/2-hour before legal sunrise.
Trap placement
You must place your traps so vessels can safely navigate waters. Do not set them in navigable channels or entrances to streams.
Unserviceable traps • You must properly dispose of unserviceable crab traps back at the dock to reduce the risk and potential impact of derelict traps.
• If you retrieve a trap with a Commission-approved common float, you must return that float to any shrimper for reuse.
Damage to or
destruction of traps
Unless you are the crab trap licenseholder (or his agent), you may not intentionally damage or destroy a crab trap, attached floats or lines, or
its contents.
Trap identification You must mark your traps with a plastic bait box cover or a 2-inch stainless steel, self-locking tag attached to the center of the trap ceiling to
identify the owner of the trap. Either one must be legibly engraved or embossed with your Commercial Fisherman’s License number.
Floats and float
lines
• You must mark all crab traps with a solid float, 6 inches in diameter or larger, attached with a non-floating line, 1/4 inches in diameter or
larger. You do not have to mark traps with a float and line in areas designated as freshwater north of the northern bank of the Intracoastal/
Waterway and west of LA Highway 70 and those areas located on the eastern side of the Mississippi River and inland from the saltwater
line, unless you’re placing the trap in a lake.
• You may attach crab traps to a trotline attached to a non-floating line and a visible float measuring at least 6 inches in diameter or 1/2
gallon in volume. You must register each trap on a trotline with LDWF and tag it with your Commercial Fisherman’s License number.
Escape rings
• Each crab trap must have at least two escape rings, 2-5/16 inches in inside diameter or larger, to allow undersized crabs the opportunity to
escape the trap. They must be placed on the vertical outside walls flush with the trap floor or baffle. There must be one ring located in each
chamber of the trap. Escape rings are not required in Lake Pontchartrain until November 15, 2017 or on any crab trap constructed of square
wire mesh 2-5/16 inches or larger. Beginning November 15, 2017, each trap must have three escape rings, each measuring 2-3/8 inches or
larger, with at least two located in the upper chamber.
• No material should obstruct the escape rings and hamper or prevent crabs from exiting, except from April 1 through June 30 and September
1 through October 31.
Metal tackle and
traps
You may not use metal tackle or metal crab traps in any of the public waters north of the Intracoastal Waterway in the Calcasieu River, in any
body of water of the Calcasieu River System north of the Intracoastal Canal, or in Vermilion Bay from Cypremort Point one mile offshore to
Blue Point.
Closed area
You may not use crab traps in the Tchefuncte River.
Possession Limits
Egg-bearing crabs: You may not harvest any females bearing eggs on their
abdomen. You must immediately return egg-bearing crabs to the water without
injury to protect this next generation of crabs. No more than 2% of the total
number of crabs in your possession may be incidentally harvested, egg-bearing
crabs.
Immature female crabs: No more than 2% of a random sample of 50 crabs from
each crate (or group of crabs equivalent to one crate) in your possession may be
incidentally harvested immature female crabs.
Whole stone crabs: You may only harvest stone crab claws; you may possess one
incidentally harvested whole stone crab per crate of blue crabs (or group of blue
crabs equivalent to one crate).
Tagging Requirements
You must tag, mark, or otherwise identify any crabs you sell with your name,
license number, and the date you harvested the crabs.
Bycatch Limits
You may retain for personal consumption up to 25 finfish in aggregate caught
as bycatch in crab traps per vessel per day. However, you may not keep any
freshwater gamefish, red drum, or spotted seatrout. Any fish you keep are still
subject to recreational size and possession limits.
If you have a gear license which allows you to take finfish for commercial
purposes, you may keep any finfish you catch under this license, up to the
commercial possession limit for that fish. You do not have to separate this catch
from the bycatch described above.
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Night restrictions
You may not bait, tend, check, or remove crab traps, their contents, lines, buoys, or markers in public waters from 1/2-hour after legal sunset
until 1/2-hour before legal sunrise.
Trap placement
You must place your traps so vessels can safely navigate waters. Do not set them in navigable channels or entrances to streams.
Unserviceable traps • You must properly dispose of unserviceable crab traps back at the dock to reduce the risk and potential impact of derelict traps.
• If you retrieve a trap with a Commission-approved common float, you must return that float to any shrimper for reuse.
Damage to or
destruction of traps
Unless you are the crab trap licenseholder (or his agent), you may not intentionally damage or destroy a crab trap, attached floats or lines, or
its contents.
Trap identification You must mark your traps with a plastic bait box cover or a 2-inch stainless steel, self-locking tag attached to the center of the trap ceiling to
identify the owner of the trap. Either one must be legibly engraved or embossed with your Commercial Fisherman’s License number.
Floats and float
lines
• You must mark all crab traps with a solid float, 6 inches in diameter or larger, attached with a non-floating line, 1/4 inches in diameter or
larger. You do not have to mark traps with a float and line in areas designated as freshwater north of the northern bank of the Intracoastal/
Waterway and west of LA Highway 70 and those areas located on the eastern side of the Mississippi River and inland from the saltwater
line, unless you’re placing the trap in a lake.
• You may attach crab traps to a trotline attached to a non-floating line and a visible float measuring at least 6 inches in diameter or 1/2
gallon in volume. You must register each trap on a trotline with LDWF and tag it with your Commercial Fisherman’s License number.
Escape rings
• Each crab trap must have at least two escape rings, 2-5/16 inches in inside diameter or larger, to allow undersized crabs the opportunity to
escape the trap. They must be placed on the vertical outside walls flush with the trap floor or baffle. There must be one ring located in each
chamber of the trap. Escape rings are not required in Lake Pontchartrain until November 15, 2017 or on any crab trap constructed of square
wire mesh 2-5/16 inches or larger. Beginning November 15, 2017, each trap must have three escape rings, each measuring 2-3/8 inches or
larger, with at least two located in the upper chamber.
• No material should obstruct the escape rings and hamper or prevent crabs from exiting, except from April 1 through June 30 and September
1 through October 31.
Metal tackle and
traps
You may not use metal tackle or metal crab traps in any of the public waters north of the Intracoastal Waterway in the Calcasieu River, in any
body of water of the Calcasieu River System north of the Intracoastal Canal, or in Vermilion Bay from Cypremort Point one mile offshore to
Blue Point.
Closed area
You may not use crab traps in the Tchefuncte River.
Possession Limits
Egg-bearing crabs: You may not harvest any females bearing eggs on their
abdomen. You must immediately return egg-bearing crabs to the water without
injury to protect this next generation of crabs. No more than 2% of the total
number of crabs in your possession may be incidentally harvested, egg-bearing
crabs.
Immature female crabs: No more than 2% of a random sample of 50 crabs from
each crate (or group of crabs equivalent to one crate) in your possession may be
incidentally harvested immature female crabs.
Whole stone crabs: You may only harvest stone crab claws; you may possess one
incidentally harvested whole stone crab per crate of blue crabs (or group of blue
crabs equivalent to one crate).
Tagging Requirements
You must tag, mark, or otherwise identify any crabs you sell with your name,
license number, and the date you harvested the crabs.
Bycatch Limits
You may retain for personal consumption up to 25 finfish in aggregate caught
as bycatch in crab traps per vessel per day. However, you may not keep any
freshwater gamefish, red drum, or spotted seatrout. Any fish you keep are still
subject to recreational size and possession limits.
If you have a gear license which allows you to take finfish for commercial
purposes, you may keep any finfish you catch under this license, up to the
commercial possession limit for that fish. You do not have to separate this catch
from the bycatch described above.
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