Trapping Minnows

[silverside]

Hi guys. I bought a wire mesh minnow trap. Tried it 3 times. All 3 times minnows are all around it, but none go in. I have put bread and crackers inside for bait. What is the secret to get them dudes to go inside????

[Speck]

How long are you letting the trap sit? I usually put mine out right before dark and pick it up at day light. Most of the time, its full of minnows, crawdads, tadpoles and a little bit of everything. Speck

[silverside]

Thanks for the help Speck. I usually let it sit 3-4 hours during the daytime. Suppose thats the problem?

[pstone]

Yeah, thats prob the problem. I have found that if you have it in a creek or stream with some slow moving water, it works better. Leave it all night though.

[Drift_Wood]

What kind of bait you guys use?

[Speck]

A half of piece of bread.

[roberts]

what kind of trap do you have?i can't have any luck with dark mesh.i changed to the regular (light mesh)and can catch them any time of the day.this is just my 2 cents worth

[fatboy]

Found some left over dog food thrown in my boat by a certain person who traps his own minnows at crappie camp. No wonder the family pooch was going crazy over the mess . LOL True story. FATBOY

[ShortStorie]

The best minnow trap I've ever seen was made from a one gallon jug. The guy had cut (with a glass cutter, I suppose) three 4" holes evenly spaced around the jug. He had glued glass "funnels" (cut from bottle tops) in the holes. If you placed it standing up... in running water, minnows would swim in the downstream hole and couldn't get back out. Could only leave it in the water half an hour at most or it would fill up and the minnows would start to die. (Clear water of the Current River in Mo Ozarks). Sad day when I heard the "ping" that told me that the piece of Ozark craftsmanship had split down the middle. Saw some on line that looked similar but they were EXPENSIVE.
$50 + ... Sold more as curios that people could use as lamp bases.

Found the link http://www.folkart.com/catalog/kirby...3_products.htm

Woah! $80. Hmm... didn't know they were blown glass.

[Darryl Morris]

You might want to try using dog food for the bait plus it should be such that the minnows have to enter the trap to eat the bait. If the bait is floating at the top of the trap the minnow can eat it through the wire mess.