User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The collection of the initial data was difficult to say the least. In the beginning, I had created my own traps after watching a few YouTube tutorials. To implement this sampling technique, I needed 5 minnow traps, each costing around $20-$25 each, which was not in my budget so I made them myself. After putting the traps in their locations, I returned the following day and found them sitting in the bush outside of the water. Trying to find a location where pedestrians would not have easy access to was probably the most difficult part of setting up the experiment, as it took 3 days and 2 tries of putting my homemade traps out to realize that they weren’t the best way to catch crayfish. After having them out the second time and returning to only 3 traps, I decided I had to modify my approach by speaking to a real fisherman and buying the minnow traps. Thankfully, Joe the fisherman was kind enough to lend me 5 traps and give me some pointers on where to put them. This time, instead of bread, I used dead minnows as bait for the crayfish and kept the traps in areas of the lake that were rich in vegetation, rocks, and mud. I strongly believed this would have a significant impact on my research.
