Louisiana lands more blue crab than any state in the country, about 45 million pounds in an average year, a quarter of the national harvest, and nearly all of it comes out of wire traps pulled by a fleet where most boats land under 5,000 pounds a year. That's a lot of traps and a lot of trap doors, and every door has a hook on it.
The hook that fits a Louisiana trap
Louisiana traps are wire cubes no larger than 30" a side, usually two-chambered with a baffle, a bait box, and a hinged lid or side door held shut by a rubber band or bungee and a hook. The hook geometry that matters is center to center, cinch to hook, and on a standard trap door that's about 3-1/2".
The FlatStack door hook is 4-1/4" overall, 3-1/2" center to center, heavy section, UV-stabilized polypropylene, molded in Baltimore. It's built for two failures every trap fisherman knows:
- Points that snap under a stack. Relief cut at the points lets the hook lay flat when traps are stacked on the boat or the bank, so the load goes into the wire, not the plastic.
- A cinch that cracks at the corner. A radiused hole at the base of the cinch spreads the flex instead of piling it onto an edge.
It's cut for flat rubber bands and takes bungee cord as-is. Why hooks break. How to rig a door.
Pricing for a Louisiana fleet
| Quantity | Price | Per hook | Rigs (2 per trap) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $169.00 | $0.34 | 250 traps |
| 1,000 | $290.00 | $0.29 | 500 traps |
| 5,000 | $1,350.00 | $0.27 | 2,500 traps |
| 10,000 | $2,500.00 | $0.25 | 5,000 traps |
Sold direct from the molder, no distributor markup. Over 10,000, or a trap builder supplying a basin, ask for a quote.
What we don't sell into Louisiana
Escape rings. Louisiana requires 2-3/8" inside diameter and our current ring is 2-5/16", which is a sixteenth undersized and illegal in your water. We'd rather say so than sell you a ring that fails a check. If you fish 2-3/8" water and want a domestic ring, tell us how many traps you run; that's what decides whether we cut the tool.
The rest of a legal Louisiana trap
Ring count, placement, corner rule, float, line, tags, sizes, and the immature female rule are all on the Louisiana trap rigging guide. The regulation text with citations is on the Louisiana regulations page. For culling, the 5" aluminum cull stick.