Some time ago there was some interest on this forum in how to go about building minnow traps. Recently I built one to trap minnows from my forage pond. Here is a pic. I put this trap in my forage pond for 24 hours and trapped about 8 pounds of minnows.

How did you stretch that stuff for the entrances? It looks great.

Look carefully. Seems like both entrances are connected with some wires.

It looks absolutely great. But, how do you get the minnows out of it? And, what is the material?

need some better wrote out plans on this like what all u used and the sizes looks like a good trap though

bz- Nice looking trap. Yes- where is the access door for adding bait and to get fish out? Various sizes could be made for different sizes of fish. How did you create the funnels? Funnels look like the hardest part of the project. Where did you buy the PVC corners and prices? It that just heavy fish line for wrapping the netting to the frame? Lets move this topic to Raising Rorage and Bait or at least add a link to it in Raising Forage and Bait??

BZ that's a first class looking trap. What are the dimensions?

The funnel openings look like you could trap some good size fish. I made some different size funnel inserts for my traps so the trap could target different size fish.

it looks like in the pic that theres no top on the trap, maybe its removeable

I don't see how it would be removable but a picture only tells so much.

Most minnow trapping can be done in shallow water.

Maybe there is no netting on the top at all, and the top of the trap isn't submerged.

To answer some questions:
1. The funnels have wire in the small ends to keep them round and there is wire stretched between the two to keep them pulled toward the center.
2. I get the minnows out be simply lifting the trap and dumping them out one of the corners into a bucket.
3. There is no top. The picture was taken before I added some swim noodles around the top edge to keep the trap floating. Actually the air in the PVC pipe kept it floating but the noodles were required to keep it upright when placed in deep water. I usually put the trap in shallow enough water so that the top edges don't submerge.
4. The trap is 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet so I can set it in water almost 2 feet deep without totally submerging.
5. The trap is made from netting that I bought from Aquatic Ecosystems, look in their online catalog under netting and you'll find it.
6. The frame is made from 1 inch PVC pipe. This type of 3 way PVC corners are not available in hardware stores since they aren't used for plumbing. You can get them at Aquatic Ecosystems but I found heavier duty ones online from a source that sells them for making PVC furniture. The pipe is just plumbing pipe.
6. I don't use any bait, never found it necessary. No bait door since the top is open.
7. My wife did all the sewing on her sewing machine using a stretch stitch and nylon thread. The funnels were easy to make. Cut a rectangle of netting the right size, fold it in half, sew a diagonal across the rectangle from one corner to the center of the other side and trim off the excess portions of rectangle. A little math tells you how large the rectangle must be do get the diameter you want on the large and small end. Mine are 10 inches diameter on large end, 4 inches on small end.
8. Yes this trap has rather large entrances for minnows so it will catch larger fish. The entrances could be made smaller to limit size but I use this in my forage pond where there is nothing but minnows.
9. The netting is attaced to the top using a few nylon cable ties and then wrapped with some heavy nylon line that I had around the shop to pull the netting up tight to the tubing.
10. I think the net cost less than $50 but I bought the materials several years ago and don't remember for sure.

The first time the trap was out it caught about 8 pounds of minnows in 36 hours. I emptied it yesterday after almost exactly 24 hours and it had about 4 pounds of minnows.

I've seen fittings very similar to that (although they were 1" x 1" x 1/2" or 3/4") that were used for underground sprinkling systems.

Looks like a great minnow trap!

This one would be worth trying to build.

I wonder how it would work for GSF?

I have used a trap just like this to catch HBG and they trap quite readily with no bait. Just put the trap along a shoreline where they travel. I have had good luck trapping crappie and HBG without any bait. For some reason one thing I've never had in my trap is a LMB, not even a small one. I would suggest that if you are going to catch larger fish with the trap rather than minnows, there is much more durable netting available with 1/2 mesh that is much easier to build a trap with, no sewing, just hold the whole thing together with nylon zip ties. Look at the black plastic netting available from Aquatic Ecosystems.

Essup, yes I have seen fittings like this too but the third side always had female threads for a smaller pipe size. These are available in most any size, same size all corners, and you can get them from two way elbows up to six way. I've used the sprinkling system ones and the threaded fitting always breaks, these seem heavier duty than plumbing fittings.