Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain bait for minnow trap

Been goofing off with a new minnow trap. I've never used one before and would like to know what is used for bait. I used a ball of bread suspended with string in the center of the trap, but that didn't attract any little fishies. I placed it in the shallows of my pond, there isn't a creak or any running water entering the pond.

The bread should have done it. Put it near some cover, fallen trees, grass. Wherever you think they may hang out. Put in some dog food. Also the alfalfa cubes from feed store are good. If holes are too big for dog food, get a dog goody bone. Most of it floats so you will have to put it in deep enough water.

viking,

I like to use fish food (pellets) placed in a small screen container.
It must have quite an odor because we can really catch the fatheads!

Ed

Thanks ya'll

I have both dog food and fish feed will give them a try.

I just dump in some fish pellets. Some feed gets out but BG still come in.

A friend let me borrow as minnow trap last weekend. I tied a handful of pellets in a piece of cheescloth and attached to the cage. These are the results after 1 hour.

I do the same but use an empty water/soda plastic container filled with fish pellets and with holes punched in the container.

For some reason, I've never caught any baby Tilapia in one of these traps...Ryan have you or anyone else trapped baby Tilapia this way?

Consider yourself lucky if you catch any...I've not been able to trap any at all this year...I believe they've all been et up. See only very few.

I was trying to catch tilapia when I caught the bluegills. I thought maybe I had it too deep so I moved it to the other side in very shallow water. I left it there overnight and ended up with all bluegill. Maybe I should bait the trap with FA

Actually you may be right....maybe a vegetable type bait would work better?

Yea, maybe some lettuce. I works for snails, too. But not in a trap.

I might try some frozen peas or veg. medley

The lack of tilapia in the traps is interesting. I can often catch bluegill in empty traps as long as they are oriented correctly in a popular "travel zone". Perhaps Tilapia are smarter than your average forage fish?

JayMan,

It is interesting to me also...like you I can catch BG and Gambusia in traps without bait....but never have caught a Tilapia in a trap. The Mozambique is a mouth breeder and that may have something to do with it...the "young'ens" just aren't out and about swimming around for several days, they're hanging out in mamma's mouth.

Tilapia may just be smarter. I put a dozen inside a perch trap to hold them for a day, I wanted to take some back to my aquarium at home...they all escaped thru the single opening.

baited with catfish feed yesterday and checked it this afternoon, trapped about a dozen little sunfishies and a leech. Glad to see sunfish have spawned and some haven't been eaten by the bass yet.

One piece of bacon works like a charm for me.

cooked or raw?

I like to use bacon cooked but not crisp. It is my experience that raw bacon can be pulled apart easier than cooked. However, both work well.

Raw is what I use.