Minnow catchers

Hey all.

Long time no chat!! I'm no longer on Smithville, so I'm a bit of a no show around here these days. Sorry. Or maybe that's a GOOD thing for everyone.......

Anyway. My wife bought me one of those frabill minnow catchers last year for Christmas. I followed directions, looked at on-line videos on how to do it and haven't caught anything BUT the bread I put in it.

So far I've hung it off our dock in either about 2-3 ft of water or on the other side in about 5-7 ft of water. Either way. Nothing.

Any advice is welcome.


Thanks!!!

Bruce

I have only used one on the river and it has to be on a shallow gravel inlet where you see minnows. Just enough water to cover the trap.

I've tried the traps too. Didn't work. Now I use a pool net. You know, one of those things you use to get trash outta the pool...

underwater light and a net

x2 on the lite it up at nite and just under the water.

My son moved to Atlanta(job transfer) a few years ago and his daughter, who is my fishing buddy, (12 at the time) asked me to bring my minnow trap when I came to visit because they had a small stream in the back of their lot. I had bought one of the two piece conical shaped traps that has a narrow opening at each end.
When I saw the stream I thought there could not be any minnows in it because it was hard to find a spot deep enough for the trap to be under water, It was narrow enough to step across without getting wet.
Anyway, when we arrived late in the evening, we put it in the deepest hole we could find with slice of bread in it. She and her brother had me up at about daylight the next morning to go check the trap. To my utter amazement, it had a dozen or more minnows in it. She had insisted she had seen them swimming in there which is why she asked me to bring the trap. After studying them as only young kids can do we put them back in the stream.
So the traps do work. I actually bought it to see if I could catch some Crawdads in it at Santee but I never caught any.

A light and a net huh? Hmmm.

I think from the reports that they work best in streams (the minnow catchers that is) rather than in lakes. Anyone have any success in a lake? If so, where and how please?

I have used them several times...In the spring several weeks after crappie, bluegill, etc. have spawned, I would hang the minnow trap from the ramp to our dock, better probably to place it in the shallower water along the ramp, but have trapped minnows in all depths. I used soda crackers inside the trap and also if I see small fish activity close by it's good to just throw a few crumbs of crackers/dry bread around the trap. Most of the finny swimmers caught were small bluegill fry...1 1/2 to 2 inches, which work well for crappie, but better for white bass, bass or catfish.
One evening, wanting to trap crayfish, I put in several crappie heads from fish caught earlier. The next morning I pulled up the trap and there were 2 or 3 small water snakes in the trap. They were of course dead, so that was the last time I did that!
CrappieHusker

Last time I caught minnows was in 2 ft of water at Everhart's in Clinton.:twocents

Most lakes actually have very few true minnows. Mostly small bluegill. Try a small stream next time and they do love gravel areas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by embo_9

I followed directions, looked at on-line videos on how to do it and haven't caught anything

Bruce

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It's almost like you're still fishing Smithville. :Rofl

You can thanks me later Jackb

We have one of those and never had any luck catching minnows in it. Tried in our minnow pond and the river both. Now the old solid plastic ones we could catch minnows in. Went back to using minnow seine.