Feedback on my new 'el-cheaop' fish net. So far, so good. It definitely is cheaply built. The fabric mesh is very light duty. A large fish thrashing could damage it easily, but catching panfish, minnows, crayfish, it should be fine.
There is a handy zippered opening near the bottom to make it easy to get the fish out. Online reviews suggest the zipper is flimsy and will fall off. Sure to form, mine fell off on the 2nd use. I'll probably close the opening with safety pin or rig up some other velcro closure etc.
The trap has a neat design with openings from all sides. It also has a handy bait bag that hangs from the top. I put small floating fish feed pellets in there and they stayed in the mesh bag nicely. It seemed to be a pretty good fish attractant as well.
the first few times I put it in for 45-60 min at a time. The first time I caught 3 perch, the 2nd time 3 more perch and a large GSH.
This was pretty exciting because I haven't seen my perch since stocking this spring. I thought they might be eating pellets but if they are, I can't make them out as they are quick and their back is brown/black, hard to make out any stripes as they come in and disappear. Or, it is likely the may be waiting for pellets to sink and then eating them from the bottom.
The trap was put in at the same spot where I hand feed the fish when my night schedule allows. I tried a few more times with the trap and each time got 1-3 nice perch. Most were 5-6" and looked healthy and like they had put on weight since stocking them this spring.
The GSH was a nice catch too as I can finally get a good look at my adult GSH and see that they have really 'porked out' getting fatter and bigger as they actively eat the pellets. I can tell them by their gold flash as they come up to take the pellets.
The real goal was to catch my RES to see their size (no luck on that yet)or to see if any of my LCS survived. I have never seen any LCS so I wonder how they hide so well or maybe they didn't make it?
So far the tilapia are smart enough to stay out of the trap.
No crayfish yet either but I bet the crayfish would prefer a dead chopped up minnow or fish carcase rather than fish pellets.
I find this trap so far much easier to use and much more effective than my metal minnow trap (probably the black PVC coating on the metal makes it too visible) Also the mesh trap has a green mesh which is less visible in the water and also has several larger 'sleeves' that are the openings for fish to get in.
If I'm very cautious in putting it in and pulling it out I hope it will serve me well for a while. It comes with its own carrying case and is easily collapsible. I fully expect that it will dry rot if not dried out and carefully stored. You need to be cautious with tugging it in and out but even if it lasts me a season, I'll be happy that the price was right ($10 give or take).
Many places carry them, amazon, ebay, here is one site with good pictures. I got one called 'Ohuhu' on ebay, $15, shipped from New York with it arriving 2 days after purchase.
fish trap example 
