cricket trap

They bite both around here

none of you are probably old enough to remember the days "before crickets" for bait. the going thing back then was roaches. bream love them. i've trapped lots of roaches and back then you could buy roach trapss. grocery stores were glad to let you trap the roaches in their "store" room where they kept taters in the big `100 lb bags. cut a tater and put a couple of slices in the trap and run them every other day or so.


old

Another good "free" bait for gills and crackers is grasshoppers.

An easy way to catch them is to take an old fuzzy blanket and stretch it out like a tennis net and walk around the yard or a field. Their legs get caught in the fuzz and they get stuck. After you get what you need lay the blanket down and pic them out... this is a fun thing for kids to do!

The biggest Shellcracker I ever caught bit a grasshopper on a splitshot rig.

We have used and caught many a gill with "black " crickets........had the grandsons catch them , funny watching the "city" boys wrestling with crickets :-)

I used to take a garden hose and just flood the back of the outside of the house where the foundation meets the grass...the black crickets will right up the bricks....I've never noticed the bream being the least bit picky either.

The way we made cricket trap years ago. Was take about 15 or 20 coffee cans the more the better. I think we used 18. Then take a post hole digger and dig holes about 6in apart and as deep as the coffee cans. What you want to do is dig a hole put in a can move over 6in and dig a hole put in a can move over 6in and did a hole put in a can. keep doing this until you have a area covering about 31/2 ft x 71/2 ft. Put the cans in the holes and fill in around them so they are flush with the ground. Then take some pieces of 2x4 or 1x4 wood and lay on the ground at the corners and center area. Then lay a 4x8 piece of plywood over the cans and wood pieces. The wood pieces are to hold the plywood up 1 to1 1/2 in above the cans. This makes it where the crickets can get under the plywood easy. Then cover the plywood with dry straw or leafs or grass cuttings. The crickets like to stay under things like this to stay cool and safe and make baby crickets. The crickets will walk under the wood covered with straw and fall in the cans. They cant jump out or climb out, the can is to slick. If they jump they hit the wood and fall back in the can. Also I was told crickets can't jump straight up. All you have to do is lift the wood up and get the crickets out of the cans. You can make it smaller to try it out, but the bigger you make it the more you catch. We would make 3 or 4 in different areas and load up on some black crickets. 4x4 would be as small as I would go. And it has to be covered with dry cut grass, leaves, hay or dry straw. If you don't have coffee cans. you could try 4" PVC pipe cut into 8 to 10in pieces about as tall as a coffee can. Or 2L coke bottles with the top cut off so you can get your hand in it to get the crickets out. .Just make sure you fill in around what ever you use so the crickets walk to the edge and fall in. We always used coffee cans. I never tried PVC or coke bottles they are just suggestions if you don't have coffee cans. I bet you could put the cans closer together and catch more. We where told 6in because we where kids and not so good with a post hole digger. Hope this helps. I may make one this year to show my son how we did it as kids. You know us old timers have to pass these things on to the young ones. Right!!! If you try it let me know how it works for you. Sorry for the long post.

Bamaman, did you ever have problems with snakes getting under there?

I don't remember any snakes. We did not have many snakes where we lived we where made to keep the grass cut regular, and did not store junk around the property. If your scared of snakes you could nail a 2x4 to it 8 ft long to the plywood, use it to raise it up to look under it before you reach down to get the crickets.

I was telling my 11 yr old son about it today and he wanted to build one at the camp, but it's right on the lake and we do get snakes around there. Good idea on the 2x4. Thanks.