I brought a spring loaded bag off trade me. It seems to work fine, quality is not the best and has rusted a bit, and one of the springs falls off but it does the job fine. Easily holds most things I and I have never been 'worried' about losing anything from it.

With regards to gloves. I have tried rubber grippy stuff, Leather and kevlar. I find that leather offers the best general compromise. It offers decent protection to hold onto crays and kina, but still has great flexibility for when using a speargun. I brought cheap seapro ones ($30) and they have started to worn out after about 15 dives. I do not know how long a pair of gloves should last, they also do not offer much warmth.   If I was only going to target crays I would probably wear Kevlar. Or maybe just cheap garden gloves.

The Rob Allen Cray Net Bags are awesome, go to www.wildblue.co.nz to check out.  They don't cause resistance in the water, and are great if you want to shark clip to the back of your float. 

Pretty durable.  As I mentioned, I clip mine off to my float, so it isn't going to get banged around.  The nylon rope has that coating that protects it.  I was once, in a former life, a keen scuba diver (hung up the bcd in 2004), and wouldn't probably recommend this design for scuba because you'd need to clip it on by d-clip to your bcd and it is going to catch up on rocks when you are working them.   But for free diving, where you ideally do not want to be physically connected to a catch bag, awesome. Key advantage being a net design is it does not act like a drogue (sail) like the old conventional fluruorescent "here I am" spring catch bag.

I always thought they were bright colours to make them easy to find if they were dropped.

The one I use is plan old black. It has mesh bottom, and nylon top. I normally thread it onto my weight belt and it does not bother me at all.

If you like the cray snares deeekaay, just make one- it's a piece of piss and takes all of 5 minutes.  Thus saving enough cash for at least 12 beers.

Cray lassoo are technically illegal to use to get crays with.

I didn't mean a noose for catching them.

Thanks for your advice and help, I will be in the water tomorrow with any luck! Have a good weekend and happy hunting and gathering.

HI Cray hunter, I ended up with a pair of cheapie 3mm gloves which are starting to wear but are still up to the task. I bought a springloaded catch bag which I barely use now due to it's bulk. I have a small mesh bag (used to contain a parka) attached to my belt which fits about 4 paua. I think a waist bag like a pozi would have been a better choice. I made up a couple of cray snares to attach to my float and I have managed to use them! Pretty stoked for a beginner. It took me about 1.5 hours of diving a full crack to manage a decent cray tho, I think my technique needs improving.... I could often grap the feelers but not quite qet to the body for a good grip. Also, some of them wedged themselves into a hole and I felt like I would crush them if I tried to pull too hard. Any tips?

cheers
DK

Yes it takes a while before you a comfortable enough that you will get a cray you see.  Normally i go fast and deep under the body, then lift upwards so that they are wedged between the roof of the rock.  Give a few shakes to loosen there grip and your away laughing all the way to the surface