After being skunked multiple times with my minnow trap, I dropped $50 on a cloverleaf type.
First time out it was gangbusters.
That thing slays em'!!!

My new favorite Saturday evening fun is catching 20 or 30 2-4" BG then tossing them to the LMB. It is neat to see the bass "hone in" on an injured BG.

Even with limited visability (turbid) the bass find it. That giant mouth opens up and the BG/GSF/HBG just disappears.

I want a go pro camera for Christmas!

The only downside so far is that the LMB follow me around the pond. When I fish with a bobber, they try to swallow it.
I fear a GBH or another two legged poacher may get my feed trained LMB.

I have been thinking about getting one of those traps. Can I ask where you ordered it from?

https://www.reeltexasoutdoors.com/collec...-bait-fish-trap

Or you can go to Home Depot, but a roll of 1/2" chicken wire 2' wide and a large bag of wire ties and build two for around $50 and 4-5 hours of your time. Lots of instructional video on how to build one on YouTube. Thats what I did.

I guess it all depends on your situation.
Personally, It makes more sense for me to work the 4 hours and just buy the trap. I come out way ahead.

Either way, I'm very pleased with its performance!

It is advertised as a perch trap and so far, that is all I've caught in it.
No CC or LMB. I did get a single 4" tilapia.

One thing I've noticed...if I check it every hour, I catch some smaller BG.
If I let it soak all day, I get almost all 4" BG.

I can only surmise that the smaller BG figure out where the exit is.
That's fine. I prefer the 4" BG to handfeed my LMB with.

I find that I need to check my traps about every 20 minutes.

If I'm culling smaller fish to reduce numbers, I'll check mine every 20 minutes or so, remove what I don't want to keep and return the rest.

If I'm surveying sizes, I'll let one trap soak for an hour, and the other about 30 minutes. That way I feel like the short run gives me a better idea of the smaller populations and the longer soak shows me more larger fish as the smaller ones do seem to find their exit if left too long.

Definitely not an exact science, but it does seem to give me a better idea of what I've got. I'll usually set them relatively close to each other around the feeding & main spawning area, which is also where the most cover is located.

Clay, you're absolutely right about not catching catfish in a cloverleaf. I tried my dangdest to trap BH when I thought I should have fry. Never saw a single fry or YOY, nor did the traps catch one. I guess they all became forage. The smallest I see around feeding time is about 8".

what do you bait with? do you think it would catch larger bluegill, possibly 7 or 8 inchers?

I bait with Tractor supply catfish chow.
Never tried anything else. I bet cheap dogfood would work fine. My spoiled arse dawg only gets the premium all natural bison backstrap chow and I ain't feeding it to the fish!

I have caught some larger BG when I placed the trap in deeper water.

ETA: I lied on my earlier post regarding not catching any species other than perch.
I have caught a single 4" tilapia.

Dry dog food in a bottle, canned dog food with holes punched in it, bread, tortillas (flour or corn), cornmeal....lots of things will work.

Thanks for all the great help, I will be ordering my clovertrap today....