Roach Trap?

Oldduckhunter mentioned using roaches as bream bait, and I know it was really a big deal in West TN 75+ years ago. Reading fishing stories written in the late 18 and early 1900's leave no doubt that roaches were the supreme #1 bream bait, but I've read they fell out of favor here due to laws being passed to prevent selling them commercially.

My question is, has anyone here successfully trapped roaches in enough numbers to use for bream fishing. I doubt many modern groceries would let you trap them as old used to do, and most of us do all we can to keep those suckers out of the house, but you see plenty of them if you start turning over rotten logs.

While I'm sure you could catch quite a few snatching and grabbing under the aforementioned logs, I prefer not reaching under any log in a hurry during the time of year I bream fish. Anyone have a good trick or solution?

I've never tried to make one, but I've heard of a cricket trap made from a 2 liter soda bottle. Cut the top 4" or 5" off the bottle and invert the spout end into the remainder of the bottle(with the cap off) and bait with a piece of apple. Lay the trap on the floor and crickets can crawl in, but not out. I don't know if it would work for roaches...can they crawl upside down and then out the spout? Do roach traps such as Roach Motel kill the roaches when they crawl in? I have very little roach experience...I would be too sissified to want to touch one putting on a hook:eek:

Jethro,

I imagine roaches could crawl in and out at will, but they might stay if there's food involved. I just don't know. I may be wrong, but I think most of the commercial traps also kill the roaches. I should probably just Google around a bit, but I hoped someone had actually tried it.

I don't think I'd want to mess with roaches caught around dumpsters or similar nasty places, but I wouldn't be any more concerned with roaches caught in the woods than I would with crickets or worms.

Do roaches bite?

I put out a coffee can one night with some bread soaked in sugar. I was trying to catch crickets. There were about 8 crickets and 20 roaches in that thing.

I'm not squeamish about bait at all (after all, maggots are my bait of choice), but there's no way I'd ever use roaches. There are lots of very effective and much cleaner baits out there.

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Originally Posted by Bill Cooksey

I don't think I'd want to mess with roaches caught around dumpsters or similar nasty places, but I wouldn't be any more concerned with roaches caught in the woods than I would with crickets or worms.

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Interesting, I didn't know roaches were in the wild. Learn something new every day.

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Originally Posted by deathb4disco

I'm not squeamish about bait at all (after all, maggots are my bait of choice), but there's no way I'd ever use roaches. There are lots of very effective and much cleaner baits out there.

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I agree. Plenty of other bugs to go with. Crickets seem like a good choice. I'll let you know this summer LOL. I am going to make a decent trap and take some fishing.

bill, the roach traps i used were dome shaped and had a round tin "throat" that stuck down into the trap. they had a metal bottom and the rest of the dome was wire like screen wire only stiffer. when they crawled up on the dome and fell down into the trap the tin "throat" kept them from getting back out. we built some square ones and i think you can still buy square cricket bait boxes that are mostly wire that have a large tin "throat that will slide up or down. they worked too. i baited them with slices of potatoes. i imagine the grocery stores now have a commercial pest deal taking care of all stuff like that now. you might ask around any older stores you know of and see if you could set a couple of traps and see if you can catch some. if they have them they'd be glad to have them trapped. and a roach story i have to tell and this is a true story.

a man from paragould, ark bream fished a lot and when the bream were on the beds and you were catching one right after another he would take a roack and stick it in the corner of his mouth and hold it there and bait his hook with another. when he caught a figh he had a roach ready to put on the hook and while fishing he'd catch another and put it in the corner of his mouth. he never got sick. i couldn't live like that.


old

Try Sow bugs from your gardens. Try to find the large blue ones that have recently molted their old skins. I don't know if they are all over the country, but we have lots of them here in southern Calif. They really do work! Use a No. 8 Mosquito hook and a small split shot if needed, 2 lb line, your all set.

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Originally Posted by Perris Blue

Try Sow bugs from your gardens. Try to find the large blue ones that have recently molted their old skins. I don't know if they are all over the country, but we have lots of them here in southern Calif. They really do work! Use a No. 8 Mosquito hook and a small split shot if needed, 2 lb line, your all set.

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I have tons of those things! The outer shell seems to be quite hard. How do you hook them?

Just hook on their tail end, from the belly side on up and out their back. Hook just the end, not through their main body. They will work on small jigs too.

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Originally Posted by Bill Cooksey

Jethro,

I imagine roaches could crawl in and out at will, but they might stay if there's food involved. I just don't know. I may be wrong, but I think most of the commercial traps also kill the roaches. I should probably just Google around a bit, but I hoped someone had actually tried it.

I don't think I'd want to mess with roaches caught around dumpsters or similar nasty places, but I wouldn't be any more concerned with roaches caught in the woods than I would with crickets or worms.

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Bill, I saw your name and thought that I was on the Refuge :) When I was a kid, I spent summers at my cousin's out on Bailey Station Road. He had a dairy " I think the silos are still there, just north of Fed Ex." anyway, we caught alot of roaches there just using our hands at night. We also went to a dairy on Hwy 20 on the right just going into Mississippi. The walls would be covered floor to ceiling (millions) we scopped them into 5 gal. buckets then them into our bait box. The silos still stand there too. I think about those days when I head you way. LOL Mr. Buck sure loved to drown a roach too.

Now that's funny at the bottom of pg 1 there was an advertisement for Orkin with roaches running around. :)

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Originally Posted by deathb4disco

I'm not squeamish about bait at all (after all, maggots are my bait of choice), but there's no way I'd ever use roaches. There are lots of very effective and much cleaner baits out there.

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Amen brother to that! When using live bait for Bream you absolutely cannot beat a red wiggler, maggot, or a wax worm on a hook!

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Originally Posted by olduckhunter

bill, the roach traps i used were dome shaped and had a round tin "throat" that stuck down into the trap. they had a metal bottom and the rest of the dome was wire like screen wire only stiffer. when they crawled up on the dome and fell down into the trap the tin "throat" kept them from getting back out. we built some square ones and i think you can still buy square cricket bait boxes that are mostly wire that have a large tin "throat that will slide up or down. they worked too. i baited them with slices of potatoes. i imagine the grocery stores now have a commercial pest deal taking care of all stuff like that now. you might ask around any older stores you know of and see if you could set a couple of traps and see if you can catch some. if they have them they'd be glad to have them trapped. and a roach story i have to tell and this is a true story.

a man from paragould, ark bream fished a lot and when the bream were on the beds and you were catching one right after another he would take a roack and stick it in the corner of his mouth and hold it there and bait his hook with another. when he caught a figh he had a roach ready to put on the hook and while fishing he'd catch another and put it in the corner of his mouth. he never got sick. i couldn't live like that.

old

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in other parts of the world people acually eat roaches!so as long as the roaches he had weren't taken from some nasty place,i doubt he would be harmed by them.

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Originally Posted by bxn

in other parts of the world people acually eat roaches!so as long as the roaches he had weren't taken from some nasty place,i doubt he would be harmed by them.

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how do you know where a roach has been?

In 1970 when I was stationed with the USAF in Goose Bay, Labrador, I worked with those ol boy from Memphis. His daddy was a Methodist preacher and he told me they used roaches for crappie where he fished in Tennessee and also down around Holly Springs, Mississippi, Sardis Reservoir, I think he said.

Anyway he said they'd take a coffee can and grease the inside of it with bacon grease. They'd poke a hole in the side of the can and insert a nail with a piece of bacon on it. Then he lay a 1"x4" board as a ramp going up to the rim of the can. They'd set the can in a dark corner in the basement of the parsonage. He said roaches would crawl up the board and fall down in the can to get to the bacon and wouldn't be able to get out due to the greasy inside of the can. He said the next morning the can would be about half full of roaches and they go fishing.

I've never got around to trying this 'cause I don't think I could bring myself to handle one in order to put it on the hook. Anyway me and him had been drinking a tad and it was real late at night or maybe morning so I could be a little foggy on the details but that's what he told me.

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Originally Posted by fishinRod

how do you know where a roach has been?

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If you are hungry enough to eat one I don't think you really care.

The only time I ever heard of it was in Japanese POW camps during WWII.

Hi Bill,

When I was growing up, one of my best fishing partners besides my dad was my Baptist preacher. He was an orphan as a child in Memphis and he would tell the story of how he would make extra spending money selling roaches for bream bait. He and a buddy would go to the bakery and buy day old loaves of bread and drop them into storm drains at night. They would come back and grab the loaf of bread and give it a shake over a large washpan. Seems like they were paid something like a 1/2 a cent per roach. I don't think they got rich, but he was able to live off of that plus a paper route.

we always used a big lard bucket with a greased portion near the top. Lean it into a corner and wait til morning.