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#387339 09/13/14 04:46 PM
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Does anyone have some plans they could share for good size homemade minnow trap? Thanks!

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I have tried doing a search, but have come up with nothing in regards to someone building their own trap. Cages to hold fish or traps for large fish, yes. But not minnow traps. I suspect that for ten dollars people just don't take the time to do it and just buy one. There are old threads on what makes a good trap and how to use it.

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I built one years ago the size of a 30 gallon barrel. I welded small rod. Then essentially put wire on it. I don't have plans.


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No, but I will give you some tips on differences in minnow traps and how they affect what you catch.

I have three different kinds.

One is a white plastic trap that likely came from Wal-mart but don't remember for sure. It has square shaped mesh holes and the entrance hole is pretty small with some tabs that can be cut out to make the hole bigger. It catches adult FHM pretty well and the smaller hole is pretty good about keeping small BG out. I have had very little luck with this trap trapping bullheads and GSF in my old pond so no longer use it for that purpose. Half grown FHM will swim right out the square mesh so it traps only the larger minnows. So this trap has a fairly narrow range of fish size it traps.

The second type I have is black wire expanded metal mesh. It catches minnows better but will also pick up quite a few small BG, so if all I want is minnows I have to watch out for the BG in the mix. If I hear a loud pattering sound as it comes out of the water I know I have BG in there. I also use this trap for trapping GSF and bullheads out of my old pond and it works well for this purpose. I regularly catch these slender fish 4" and even a little bigger sometimes. Lots of 3". This trap is probably my best all around trap.

So when I went to buy 3 more traps so I could hit the GSF and bullheads hard this fall in my old pond, I thought I was buying the same trap as the black expanded metal one above. Only these looked a little better because they had wire welded at the inlet hole instead of just the bare expanded metal. (Pics below of the two different expanded metal traps). I first noticed the difference when I dropped the feed in the inlet hole like I always do. The floating pellet feed mostly ran right out the wire mesh, because the mesh is just ever so slightly larger openings. For these traps when I use fish feed pellets for bait, I put some pellets wrapped up in a 6" square piece of brown paper bag material in a wad. The paper holds the pellets in the trap till it gets in the water. I have not used this trap for minnows yet but I am going to guess because of the mesh size it is going to work like the above metal trap except it will let the small minnows out the mesh. I can trap loads of half grown FHM with the above trap to move to other waters, but I will bet these traps will not work for that purpose and will let the small minnows move on through the trap. This trap does work very well on the GSF and bullheads and I assume it will also catch BG like the above trap.

More than you ever wanted to know. My purpose of posting this for you, is to emphasize how tiny, seemingly insignificant differences, in the size and/or shape of the mesh the traps are made of affect what fish are caught. If I want to catch only adult FHM the white plastic trap is my best bet, although it likely will catch fewer fish than the middle trap above. If I want half grown FHM as well as other fish I go to the middle trap above. Ive had it a third full of half grown FHM from my forage pond trappings. Just that tiny difference in opening size makes the middle trap catch the smaller minnows where the other two traps let them pass through. The bottom trap above should catch larger minnows as well as GSF, bullheads and BG equal to the middle trap.

Hope this helps in your quest of building a trap. The middle trap above is the one on the left in the pictures. The bottom trap being the one on the right.

If I were going to build a bigger one, would probably use hardware cloth and make the trap in a square shape like my larger fish trap is. But have never built a fish trap yet. Two or three of these smaller traps might be a better bet, depending on your needs. Just remember, the size of the mesh makes a difference. If you want to let the smaller ones go, use a slightly larger mesh. If you want to catch smaller fish only, make the opening size appropriate. The opening size and the mesh size are the two keys, in my opinion. Playing with these two things determines the range size of fish you catch.

P.S. They also make a crayfish trap that is identical to the third trap above except the inlet opening is larger.

Edit: I have started using large dog food pellets as bait in my minnow traps. It seems to attract just as well as the fish food and the pellets are small enough to go right into the end hole but big enough to not fall out the mesh of the trap. I imagine the LMB pellets would work great too, but I don't have any of those and the dog food is readily available in small bags and pretty cheap.

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I purchased two just like those with the welded holes. So far I have not caught a single minnow but the traps are full of small BG LOL. I might just have to send the kids down there with nets wink

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Catching FHM out of my main pond has been strange. One week I might catch very few. Then there was another week where I baited the trap and came back in an hour and the trap was a third full of minnows. I don't know how so many crammed in there.

A piece of stale bread or some fish food pellets for bait helps. Especially if the BOW you are trapping in is used to pellet feed. Parallel to shore I am told and for minnows, not too deep water. I like about 6"-12" over the top of the trap or less. Close to shore line. I catch lots less minnows if I get the trap thrown out too far and too deep. FHM hug the shore line if there are predators out in the deeper water.

Last edited by snrub; 05/31/15 12:40 AM.

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Don't put the trap in very deep water. Try throwing it out with a rope attached to the clip that holds the halves together, then pull it in to where the top of the trap is only covered by two or three inches of water, parallel to the shore line. Check it in a half hour to an hour.

I can throw two minnow traps in either my forage pond or sediment pond, and one might have five dozen minnows and the other have only four or five. And the traps only be 20 feet apart. Next time around the opposite trap might have lots and the other one few. Or they might have even amounts or both have hardly any.

No rhyme nor reason that I have been able to figure out. Only thing I have found to be consistent is if I put the trap too deep or too far from the shore line, I likely will not catch very many minnows.

I started using dog food for my bait as the larger chunky size does not fall through the trap mesh like my fish food did. Put the trap together, dump 4-6 dog food chunks in through the end opening, and toss it in the water.

Also, put the trap parallel to shore, vs. perpendicular. The fish seem to go in a trap quicker placed parallel to shore

Last edited by esshup; 05/31/15 09:18 AM. Reason: added last sentence

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Mitch what are your goals for the minnow trap or rather the minnows??

That might help answer your real question.

Location is key to trapping minnows. If there are no fatheads in your pond you wont catch them, even if there are but the numbers are low, you may have a hard time. bait the trap, kat food, onion, fat off a steak.

good luck, those G-traps are about the best simplest design there is.


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fishm_n #419987 08/01/15 11:23 PM
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I ordered six of the Gee's traps off Ebay. Hope they are as good as everyone says.

Tried something different yesterday. Minnow traps only have about a 1" opening so the size of BG is kind of limited that a person can catch. I had the desire to catch some slightly larger BG.

So I had this Fabril crayfish trap. It looks just like the plastic coated minnow traps and is the same size but the opening in the ends is much larger. The opening is so large in fact, BG will readily come right back out of the trap. But I found for the BG in my main pond that are used to being fed along the shoreline and are plentiful, I can throw this crayfish trap in with some dog food chunks in it, wait no longer than 5 minutes, and have a bunch of anything from very small to about 4" BG in the trap. I have to hold my hands over then ends because of all the fish flopping they will flop out the ends. Can't leave it in the water any longer than what the fish have the feed cleaned up or they just swim right back out.

But it does work to trap some slightly larger BG as shown in the pictures.

Just an FYI for anyone that has one of these traps or needs to capture some slightly larger BG that are used to feed.

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Last edited by snrub; 08/01/15 11:23 PM.

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Pretty cool Snrub. It's great when you can use things for multiple functions.

I just purchased a Gee crayfish trap. The parts are interchangeable with my Gee minnow traps. Only difference in the end sections is opening size; 1 inch vs 2 1/4 inch. If I ever want a 30 inch minnow trap I can just insert the crayfish center section in a minnow trap and will be good to go. Sounds like the crayfish trap will also double as a larger fish trap as well which is good to know.


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Bill D. #420393 08/06/15 11:23 AM
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Got my six Cee's minnow traps in but have not put them in the water yet. Anxious to see what they will do.

Learned something interesting while searching for a place to buy the Cee's traps. Came across a statement something like the following:

Traps meet the requirements of most states for use in public waters that the opening be no larger than 1".

Hmmmmm. Now that is starting to make sense why all these minnow traps have a 1" opening. It is not that it is perhaps the most efficient size for catching minnows, it is that it meets legal requirements for use in public waters because the powers that be might not want a person to be removing larger specimens or species of fish other than minnows. Since I never fish public waters, I had no such knowledge of such requirement.

Starts making sense of why my Fabril crawfish trap would catch twice as many fish in half the time as well as larger sizes of fish than their actual minnow trap. You just can't leave it longer than the feed lasts or the fish will migrate back out.

So I did a little modification to one of the Fabril minnow traps. Picture of metal removed below. Presto, catches more fish quicker (but have to check the trap quicker). I cut out enough so the hole is about half way between the original 1" opening and the opening size of the Fabril crayfish trap. If a person wants to catch YOY BG, that is the way to go.

Just be aware, if a person makes this modification, the trap might no longer be legal to use in public waters in certain states.


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Last edited by snrub; 08/06/15 11:28 AM.

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Peachgrower had sent me a message asking about minnow traps. Thought I would post my reply in this thread in case some of the newer members have not seen the thread.
---------------------------------

I have three (edit: actually 4) different brands of minnow traps and the ones I like best are the Gee's.

Gee's traps

If you want to trap slightly larger fish I cut the opening out slightly larger. I just moved a couple 4" RES that I caught in a trap tonight out of my forage pond into my main pond and I think I have about a 1 3/4" opening in that trap. I also have a couple of standard 1" opening traps in the pond (the way they come) and I get GS in them but rarely a RES.

Be aware that if you cut the opening out larger than 1" it may be illegal to use in public waters. That is why nearly all minnow traps are 1" opening. That is what most states specify as maximum to be legally used in public water.

Hint: check Ebay if interested in multiple traps. Some pretty good deals if you buy package of 6. You can't have too many. Great for checking how your YOY fish are doing. Having more than one you can set multiple traps at different depths, different areas, different baits, different ponds. Modify some with larger openings, others not.

Last edited by snrub; 09/21/16 12:04 AM.

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ebay has some very cool ones and I've tried nearly all of them. The igloo shape with multiple holes going in from the sides work pretty good for all sizes fish. The green mesh doesn't seem to scare them much and this spring at ice out the perch loved to go in there and lay there eggs in it.

Today I found a new style mesh trap that is a white mesh and smaller holes going in. It looks very promising. I'm going to give it a try.

new style mesh trap to try from China

I'm using the old metal style traps but only catching YOY RES, nothing else.

I did bait with hotdog pieces to see if I could get crayfish, notta. I did catch an adult LCS which was kind of cool.

I'm wondering if much of my minnow activity is not only just GSH minnows but also some LCS minnows and trying to catch them for a better look.

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Thanks for that information. Will look into the igloo shaped traps. I have been wanting something specifically to catch sunfish in the 3-6" range.

I get wildly variable results with minnow traps. Usually I get the best luck with them very shallow. Maybe 6" of water over the top. But then one day I put one about 3' deep and got a bunch of GS (my forage pond). But could not repeat it. I guess a school of GS found the trap and went in, but could not get another to do the same.


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I got one of these and tried it a couple times without much luck. Then the zipper went bad and have not replaced it so have not tried it again. Cheap zipper.

mesh fish trap


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This is the one I used earlier this year and the perch would swim in and lay eggs. Obviously they can swim in and out freely as I didn't catch the perch, only the eggs after leaving it out overnight.

I think these are very handy in how they collapse and easy to store. They have very cheap zippers both on the top where the bait goes in a little mesh pouch, and on the zipper on the bottom where you can open it to get fish out. I ended up zip tying both openings shut when zippers failed and add bait to the top sack in between the zip ties, and when removing fish shake them out one of the side holes or put my hand in the side hole.

The openings are mesh chutes and all the chutes are wired together to keep them suspended towards the middle and up in the air. I tried cutting the string to let all of them collapse down towards the bottom of the trap and that seemed to help. However, with no string to keep them in the trap, the process of throwing them out or pulling it in causes the water to turn the mesh flaps inside out and then they are sticking out of the trap. I think adding some split shot weight to the flaps to keep them down inside and weighted down a bit (at least adding it to the bottom most flap and letting the top part of the flap float a bit) might be the next thing to try.

This is what I mean by a igloo shape trap.

green mesh 'igloo'

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Man they have sold a bunch of them, according to the sales number!


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6 in the last 24 hours! The first rendition I bought of this trap the flaps were not tied together and just naturally hung down in the trap. The new version has them tied to keep them up but I think it would be a better design if the bottom of the flap could be weighted down to force critters to do down and in the trap. The top of the chute flap should be free to drift down to 'close' the hole but if it is weighted too tightly the fish likely won't want to push against it to wriggle through. Maybe a lighter weight would be perfect?

having the chutes held open and completely horizontal into the trap I think allows fish to easily swim in and out.

I have found that this trap is very good for crayfish and once they are in the trap they tend to crawl along on the bottom of the trap and don't seem to find their way out as easily regardless of position of the chutes.

I can't wait to try the white mesh one above when it arrives from china.

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Mitch started this thread by wanting to make his own. Youtube has lots of guides, but I like this pillow trap and the video shows how it is done. I have not yet had time to make one. The metal mesh holds itself open better but I'm sure it would be more durable, lighter, to use the plastic hex mesh or coated metal. The metal hardware cloth with 1/4" squares would work too but might be quite stiff to work with and lots of sharp edges when cut.


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That is a neat looking trap that looks super easy to make. I don't know why it would not work for fish with the appropriate size openings.


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Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
ebay has some very cool ones and I've tried nearly all of them. The igloo shape with multiple holes going in from the sides work pretty good for all sizes fish. The green mesh doesn't seem to scare them much and this spring at ice out the perch loved to go in there and lay there eggs in it.

Today I found a new style mesh trap that is a white mesh and smaller holes going in. It looks very promising. I'm going to give it a try.

new style mesh trap to try from China

I'm using the old metal style traps but only catching YOY RES, nothing else.

I did bait with hotdog pieces to see if I could get crayfish, notta. I did catch an adult LCS which was kind of cool.

I'm wondering if much of my minnow activity is not only just GSH minnows but also some LCS minnows and trying to catch them for a better look.



Crayfish will crawl out if the trap is just the size of a minnow trap. The best bait I have ever used is a 6mm sinking fish food. Not only can I fill the trap with minnow but crayfish too. I think the reason for the larger center section for the crayfish trap is because all they have is time. I feel all they do is walk and climb around on the trap till they find their way out.

Hotdogs, chicken, all that stuff never works as good as some fish feed that sinks.

Cheers Don.

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I've been using my minnow traps a few times over the last several weeks. First time I just tossed them on their sides under the pump house when I was thru. A week later I had three dead and dried up frogs when I went to get the traps. My first thought was how did I miss those when I emptied the traps. I used the traps a week or so ago and made sure they were empty when I put them under the pump house. Removed a frog from one trap today. I guess the frogs will crawl inside a trap laying on dry land for some unknown reason. Really strange!


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Bill, thought "really strange" was the norm at Mutt pond.


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look up figure 8 fish traps on utube. I have made a couple and they do catch a lot of fish. May need to adjust opening size for the size of fish you want to catch. I made the opening 1 inch by 3 inches and have caught 4 to 5 inch bullheads and 3 to 4 inch green sunfish baited with dog food. Make sure your openings are 2 to 3 inches away from the top and bottom. These traps are not for public waters!!!


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Originally Posted By: Bill D.
I've been using my minnow traps a few times over the last several weeks. First time I just tossed them on their sides under the pump house when I was thru. A week later I had three dead and dried up frogs when I went to get the traps. My first thought was how did I miss those when I emptied the traps. I used the traps a week or so ago and made sure they were empty when I put them under the pump house. Removed a frog from one trap today. I guess the frogs will crawl inside a trap laying on dry land for some unknown reason. Really strange!


Another thing you will learn eventually if you keep doing it is snakes like to go in and get those frogs and don't know how to get back out.

Don't ask me how I know.

Last edited by snrub; 09/23/16 08:50 AM.

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