Minnow traps

Anyone else here use minnow traps for catching bait? I like to supplement my store bought minnows with some I catch from the creek, NC law says the trap must be under the "immediate control" of the owner so I set mine up where I am going to be for a few hours.

I can usually get 2-3 dozen in an hour or so from 3 traps spread out about 100 feet. At home I get a mix of suckers, hornyheads, some kind of shiners, crayfish and some lizards in my traps. When I bank fish near a creek I can usually catch bait faster than I use it.

With traps as cheap as they are it pays for itself pretty fast. I just bought 6 on Ebay for $38 shipped, they will be waiting on me when I get home.

How do you use minnow traps. I've never done it, but I would like to.

Can you recommend a brand or type to use???

Thanks!

They are small wire mesh traps with cone shaped entances, so the minnows can swim in and get funneled up the cone, but once inside can't find the small hole to get out. I set them in small creeks no more than a few feet wide, parellel to the current. I bait them with crackers (MRE crackers seem to last longest) and meat scraps, or if I am going to be around them a long time I use a half opened can of fish flavored cat food, buy the cheapest ones 5 cans for $1. It works best in most spots and also draws a lot more crawfish.

You just tie on some line, put in the bait, toss it in a likely spot and wait a while. I usually check them every hour or so.

In the mountain creeks I have the best luck in small still spots, especially near banks where long grass hangs over and the bank is undercut. In lakes and ponds the usual shallow water baitfish spots work.

Great information. Thanks!

Can you use them in lakes ???

what,s up chief i have used the minnow traps a for a long time and i have found out that if you put the trp in a slow current you don't need bait or i use chewing gum. the fish like mint flav. but if you are short on time try a cast net.once you learn how to trow it you will not use a trap half as much as before.

I have used cast nets, but all the water close to me is way too small to use one, so the traps work better for me.

I have never heard of using gum before, I will have to try that one!

If I could ask where they stainless or where they wire with netting? stay away from the wire with netting

use wood ones they tend to work best with dogfood for bait I just throw the dogfood inside the trap. works best paper plates I hear work really good to a lot cheaper than dog food

When I was a boy a guy down our road would pay us for minnows and crawdads........being a kid with no money and no knowledge on making traps...I decided it was a good idea to "borrow" one of the window screens from the house! ( the old kind with aluminum frame )
Tied a string to each corner, tied the strings to a long pole, dropped screen in water with a little bread in middle.....when we thought enough minnows was over the screen just lifted out of the water. you would not believe how many minnows we caught with that simple trap.........

Only problem was Momma was not to happy when she noticed the screen was gone!................But it sure was fun while it lasted.


Holy cow this is a old thread....................

Thanks for the idears

I saw where some guy used a minnow trap to catch snakes. I have a large resident copperhead I need to catch next spring before my dogs meet up with him. But, for minnows, my wife has a small " koi" pond that we dump the remainder of our store boughts into. If we have time we drop one of those square minnow seines in with some cornbread and can usually catch three or four dozen leftovers and mosquito fish, which are more durable on a hook.