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Any tips on using a minnow trap on GSF
2"-3" fingerlings? They swim all around it but won't go in. Baited with tractor supply chow both loose and in panty hose.

Also wondering if a minnow trap will catch CC fingerlings.


I set it in the shallows where they hang out. It has soaked overnight multiple times. Caught one minnow so far.

I must be doing something wrong.

Use meat off some kind?
Can of dog food with holes?

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Just baited mine with a bread ball and caught a bunch. Hung from a wire between the entry holes.

Last edited by RAH; 07/29/18 06:04 AM.
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I spent the coin ($50) on the cloverleaf perch trap.
Another (possibly ineffective) minnow trap is $20, so i went big and got the good cloverleaf style.

Now I can have a trap in each of the shallow areas while I work the cover with a fly.


Half acre 30 year old farm pond, Mebane NC. Aeration & feeder.
LMB, CC, SC, BG, HBC, two no account welfare carp and nine seasonal Tilapia that all the other fish are terrified of.

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I built two clover leafs for about $50. Small orange juice bottles punched full of holes and half full of dry dog food usually results in 30-40 fish in each trap in about 30 minutes. Its usually a mixed bag of BG, GSF, RES and Warmouth. I throw back what I want to keep and cull the rest.


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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Originally Posted By: Mike Whatley
I built two clover leafs for about $50. Small orange juice bottles punched full of holes and half full of dry dog food usually results in 30-40 fish in each trap in about 30 minutes. Its usually a mixed bag of BG, GSF, RES and Warmouth. I throw back what I want to keep and cull the rest.


I'd be thrilled if I get the same results.
I'd really like to cull the GSF population as early as feasible.
Summer is flying by.

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From my experience, GSF, especially the little ones, are pretty willing to go into the traps. If your numbers aren't high with them it's probably because they're not as heavily populated as you may think.

Keep your traps shallow. If they're near, you'll catch them. I'd pull them every 30 minutes at most and keep moving them around.


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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I have good luck with the standard minnow traps. I like the Gee's traps the best but the others work too.

post showing trap results

one more

This one shows the Gee's traps that I mostly use now.
post showing Gee's trap with fingerlings in it

I think the above are showing mostly RES and CNBG but actually the GSF trap more effectively than either of those.

Last edited by snrub; 07/29/18 04:30 PM.

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Here is a thread on minnow traps.

Minnow traps


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Been away from the pond for a couple weeks but threw in three traps late this afternoon. The standard opening (1") minnow traps did not have much in them in the hour or so they were in the water. They will probably need to go over night and I will check them tomorrow. But the trap I have enlarged the opening to 1.5" had a good number of GSF in it fifteen or twenty minutes later. A standard 1" opening minnow trap will trap GSF up to about a maximum of 3". The 1.5" opening trap I caught several in the 3-4" range.

Some notes about enlarging the opening in a minnow trap. By making the hole bigger they will catch larger fish (duh). But the fish can also swim back out much easier. The 1" trap will hold fish for quite a while. The 1.5" opening really needs to be checked before all the feed is consumed or the fish will find their way out pretty quickly. If I do a half hour check the wide opening trap will have more fish than the smaller opening. If I leave both traps over night the larger opening might have one or two fish and the smaller opening will have lots of fish. Just be aware the bigger the opening the bigger fish caught but also the more often it needs to be checked and re-baited. One other note is most states specify that a 1" opening is the maximum legal size opening for use in public waters. So if you enlarge the opening on a minnow trap it may no longer be legal to use it in public lakes and streams. Just be aware of that.

Picture below is of a Gee's trap that the opening has been enlarged to 1.5" (from the standard 1") and the catch of GSF out of my forage pond.

Also be aware you can only trap fish in the size they exist in the pond. If your YOY fish have grown enough they are too large to enter the opening you are going to catch few fish. The trap opening size has to match the target size fish.

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Last edited by snrub; 07/29/18 10:41 PM.

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I have had great luck in catching small GSF with the cloverleafs traps I built. White bread works fine, dog food, and recently got some fish food which seems to work too.

Watch several youtube videos on how to make them - this is a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyhZ0x1dx0 then adjust the process as you see fit.

For the small fish I built four of them out of 1/4" hardware cloth. They are rather tedious with small zip ties but they work great. They are also a bit frail due to the fine wire gauge so don't let your kid sit on them.

I also have two with 1/2" hardware cloth versions going for larger BHs. I recently added four 7" pieces of pipe insulation to each side. Not to make it float ( it still sinks) but the floats correct for a "bad throw" so the trap will settle into the pond correctly.


Last edited by Redonthehead; 07/30/18 12:05 PM.

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Another thing that can really put the hurt to traps, especially fragile ones, is a determined feed trained snapping turtle of size.


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Originally Posted By: snrub
Another thing that can really put the hurt to traps, especially fragile ones, is a determined feed trained snapping turtle of size.


Do snappers eat pellets?
I've not witnessed it (yet?)


Half acre 30 year old farm pond, Mebane NC. Aeration & feeder.
LMB, CC, SC, BG, HBC, two no account welfare carp and nine seasonal Tilapia that all the other fish are terrified of.

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Oh yeah. They are skittish enough that they may never come to where you can observe them, but they can definitely smell the feed and go after it.

I have one fairly robust factory heavy wire trap that they bent up the trap door to the feed tube located in the middle trying to get to it. Most off the time on the minnow traps they just push them around and the trap ends up deeper than you set it and sometimes up on end. But both the sliders and snappers will mess with it.

That is why you always have a rope attached and a stake to tie it off if you don't want to go exploratory swimming for your trap. Don't ask me how I know.

Last edited by snrub; 07/30/18 12:46 PM.

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I check traps every 15 minutes. If not, I don't get much.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Originally Posted By: snrub
Oh yeah. They are skittish enough that they may never come to where you can observe them, but they can definitely smell the feed and go after it.

I have one fairly robust factory heavy wire trap that they bent up the trap door to the feed tube located in the middle trying to get to it. Most off the time on the minnow traps they just push them around and the trap ends up deeper than you set it and sometimes up on end. But both the sliders and snappers will mess with it.

That is why you always have a rope attached and a stake to tie it off if you don't want to go exploratory swimming for your trap. Don't ask me how I know.


I've got a couple sliders and a common snapper in my puddle that will get right in the mix of me feeding. The snapper has drug up right at my feet several times. So far I guess I've been lucky about them not messing with the traps tho.

And yes...you definitely want to stake them out!!


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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We've had at least one large, common snapper since I rotenone it. It's still in our pond and shows up occasionally to pluck pellets off the surface. It's probably 20 plus pounds.

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It took some time but I finally caught & culled what i think is a GSF.
I bet there are a lot more.
Pretty fish.

My cloverleaf trap should arrive this week. Looking forward to using it.
Hopefully it works better than my minnow trap. That thing is a waste of time.
I opened up the holes to 1.5" but the little sunfish just won't go in.

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Last edited by Clay N' Pray; 08/12/18 07:47 AM.
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Close I would call it a cross. Do to the speckle markings on the sides.


61 acre water shed lake. bass, channel cat, black crappie, wiper, walleye, redear sunfish, blue catfish and bluegill. To many bullhead and common carp
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Hybrid.

That looks like a pretty big fish to go into a minnow trap. How long is it?

For a 1" opening minnow trap 2 to 3" GSF is about as big as you could expect to trap. Smaller hybrids or BG. I catch 3" hybrids in my 1.5 opening trap.

Your YOY may have already grown too big for a minnow trap.

Last edited by snrub; 08/12/18 04:18 PM.

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It is much too large for a minnow trap.

Toothpick for scale.

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Half acre 30 year old farm pond, Mebane NC. Aeration & feeder.
LMB, CC, SC, BG, HBC, two no account welfare carp and nine seasonal Tilapia that all the other fish are terrified of.

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Clay, here's your fish pic...



And here is a fish from my pond and it's a HBG from Harrisons...



Very, very similar to my eyes.


Fish on!,
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Originally Posted By: Quarter Acre
Clay, here's your fish pic...



And here is a fish from my pond and it's a HBG from Harrisons...



Very, very similar to my eyes.


Agreed!
Thanks for posting your pic!
So would you say heavy GSF influence?
I have other bluegill that look much less GSF-ish. Those green cheek stripes sure look guilty!

To my eyes, the coloration between them is close but the body shape is quite different.
Could be attributed to age I guess.

Last edited by Clay N' Pray; 08/13/18 08:25 AM.
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I'd say our fish are the same length, about 5 inches. My fish would have been hatched last year and stocked this last spring. The pic below shows an average size HBG from when I stocked the pond this last spring. This one was about 4 to 4.5" and considerably thinner. Just goes to show you what a FHM laden pond, high nutrients, and feeding Optimal can do for your fish in just 4 months. At any rate, I'd say that our fish are very similar in genetics, but there are some differences in their environment...possibly water clarity/chemistry, and food availability and type.


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Last edited by Quarter Acre; 08/13/18 09:41 AM.

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Pure BG can take on a wide variety of different visual charastics. Just put one in a white bucket for a few minutes then compare the same fish after being in a black bucket (less light). You might think it was a different fish.

Hybrids can take on many variations of characteristics of either parent plus the variations from male to female. That is why the experts tell us visual characteristics are not the most reliable indicator for id'ing fish.

Yet it is still what I rely on most. Probably why I'm not very good at it.

Last edited by snrub; 08/13/18 09:50 AM.

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Anyone notice the rear portion of the anal fin is shaped differently between the 2 pics?
One is rounded and the other straight.

Fin shape seems like an important difference. More so than color, in my mind.

Last edited by Clay N' Pray; 08/13/18 11:47 AM.
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