The Torpedo Shape Minnow Trap

The round torpedo shape minnow trap is one the of most versatile bait traps available on the market today.  These traps are well constructed of light weight mesh wire often vinyl covered or galvanized.  They are a two piece design which unhinge at the middle to permit easy bait removal and are very affordable.

Bass Pro Shops Minnow Trap

These traps are set and held in place with a length of line which attaches to the clips designed to hold the two halves together.  They can be baited with a variety of ingredients including dog food, cat food, corn meal, hog feed and bread.  Sometimes the loose bait ingredients are placed inside a sock, pantyhose, or wrapped in cheese cloth, this prevents the bait for quickly floating away.

The traps have tapered cone shaped entry points, which allows the live bait to easily find their way in.  The minnow trap works equally well in calm water or good flowing current.  If baited properly, the traps can also be used to catch crawfish, small bream, mud minnows or even baby catfish.

When using the trap in still water, place the bait inside the trap and allow it to attract the minnow in.  This method also works very well for catching crawfish.  Use a raw piece of fish, a chicken neck, or even a few slices of bacon, attach this bait with string so it is suspended in the middle of the trap's cage.  Crawfish are mostly nocturnal so the trap should be set couple of hours before dark and left undisturbed over night.

This trap has been baited with bacon used to catch crawfish.

Using a minnow trap for Blacktail Shiners

One of the most popular fishing minnows in southern waters is the blacktail shiner.  The blacktail ranges from Florida to Texas and as far north as Illinois.  They prefer fresh swift flowing water in areas with little vegetation and clean sandy bottoms.  Averaging 3 to 4 inches in size, the blacktail shiner is excellent bait.  The blacktail shiner can be caught using a hair hook tipped with a tiny piece of earthworm but to catch them by the dozens nothing beats a good minnow trap.

The Blacktail Shiner

Jean, a Hardin county resident in southeast Texas, loves to fish fresh water creeks like Beach and Village.  She showed Fishing-Tips-Bait-Tackle.Com, her most successful method of using a vinyl-dipped steel mesh minnow trap to catch blacktail shiners.

Because she chooses a clear shallow area in the creek where the current flow swiftly, she modifies her traps slightly by closing one cone's entry point.  Usually she accomplishes this by using plastic zip lock ties.  This modification helps to hold the trap's bait in place against the swift flowing water.

Closing one end helps hold the bait in place.

She uses a small can of cat food as bait and packs it on the outside of the cone that has been closed.  Then she places the trap in her chosen spot and orientates the trap so the cat food washes down stream through the trap as the food slowly breaks up.  This entices the shiners to swim up stream through the other cone's opening and thus become trapped.  Normally, even before all the cat food has washed away the trap will have a couple of dozen shiners.  Blacktail shiners feed during daylight hours so this method is successful even in the middle of the day.  Jean then uses the shiners to catch her favorite fish, the flathead catfish.

Packed on the outside the cat food is great minnow bait.

These traps work so well they catch any thing that can get in them and on rare occasion even a water snake may make it way inside so, don't be to surprised at what you may catch.

Magic Pro-Troll Bait Bucket

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