Eel trap (fish trap)

Trapping tools constitute a separate group of implements used in traditional fishing. One of them is a basket trap, also known as wiersza, which has been known to people for ages and used in many corners of the world. These traps are in the form of funnel-shaped baskets woven from twigs or nets stretched over bent rods. The idea behind their design was simple – the trap allowed the fish to enter freely but prevented them from leaving. Undoubtedly, one of the advantages of the basket trap was that it required low effort. The fisherman would set it in the right place, then leave it and return when it was full. Basket traps were used on still or slow-moving waters. Even in the first half of the 20th century in Pomerania, they were often used in combination with fishing weirs - a kind of fence made mostly of wicker, which was placed on both sides of the trap and which, by blocking the fish’s way, directed them to the trap’s entrance. It also happened that, in order to increase the effectiveness of fishing on flowing waters, several fishing traps were placed across the current. In the fishing collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin there are several basket traps. One of them is the presented trap from Żółwin on the Wolin island, made from simple wicker twigs, tied in the form of a cone-shaped basket. Inside it had a so-called heart in the shape of a funnel.

Agnieszka Słowińska