A creel is a

wicker Wicker is the oldest furniture making method known to history, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. It was first documented in ancient Egypt using pliable plant material, but in modern times it is made from any pliable, easily woven material. ...

basket usually used for carrying fish or blocks of

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

. It is also the cage used to catch lobsters and other crustaceans. In modern times it has come to mean a range of types of wicker baskets used by anglers or

commercial fishermen The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

to hold fish or other prey. The word is also found in agriculture and for some domestic baskets. In the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

industry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the creel was a basket used to measure the volume of a catch. The standard measure were creel, which were made in officially approved volumes of one half and one quarter cran (another unit for measuring fresh herring). An angler's creel is designed to function as an

evaporative cooler An evaporative cooler (also known as evaporative air conditioner, swamp cooler, swamp box, desert cooler and wet air cooler) is a device that cools air through the evaporation of water. Evaporative cooling differs from other air conditioning s ...

when lined with

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

and dipped into the creek in order to keep the catch chilled. Caught fish are inserted through a slot in the top which is held in place by a small leather strap.Granger, CS (2009
''Fishing Kits and Equipment''
Page 94–95. BiblioBazaar, LLC. Creels are also the high sides added to a towed trailer. This makes the trailer more suitable for carrying loose material, such as turf etc.

Creels in Scotland

The word ''creel'' is also used in Scotland (chiefly in the north) to refer to a device used to catch lobsters and other crustaceans. Made of woven netting (similar to that used in traditional

fishing net A fishing net is a net used for fishing. Nets are devices made from fibers woven in a grid-like structure. Some fishing nets are also called fish traps, for example fyke nets. Fishing nets are usually meshes formed by knotting a relatively thin ...

) over a frame of plastic tubing and a slatted wooden base, this type of creel is analogous in function to a

lobster pot A lobster trap or lobster pot is a portable trap that traps lobsters or crayfish and is used in lobster fishing. In Scotland (chiefly in the north), the word creel is used to refer to a device used to catch lobsters and other crustaceans. A l ...

. Several creels put out on one line can be referred to as a "leader". File:Creel (PSF).png, Angler with creel File:Fisher Jessie statue, Peterhead - geograph.org.uk - 1077905.jpg, Statue of a

fishwife A fishwife, fish-fag or fishlass is a woman who sells fish. Some wives and daughters of fishermen were notoriously loud and foul-mouthed, as noted in the expression, ''To swear like a fishwife'' as they sold fish in the marketplace. One reaso ...

carrying a creel and basket File:Creels, Ballywalter harbour - geograph.org.uk - 703078.jpg, Commercial creels used to catch lobsters File:Creels - geograph.org.uk - 322772.jpg, Stack of commercial

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature ...

creels File:The Stroma "shoots" a line of creels off Covesea - geograph.org.uk - 1764308.jpg, Fishing boat "shooting" a line of creels File:Visserijmuseum048.jpg, Creel with

sprat Sprat is the common name applied to a group of forage fish belonging to the genus ''Sprattus'' in the family Clupeidae. The term also is applied to a number of other small sprat-like forage fish (''Clupeoides'', ''Clupeonella'', '' Corica'', ' ...

National Fishery Museum National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, Belgium

References

External links

Northumbria Basketry Group
* : for its etymology {{DEFAULTSORT:Creel (Basket) Containers Basket weaving Fishing equipment Food storage containers

Creels in Scotland

See also

References

External links