How to Create Minnow Traps

Fishing is one of the most popular sports in the world that is enjoyed by men and women of all ages. It is a great way to spend your spare time relaxing on the water or improving your skills enough to try and win amazing prizes by entering tournaments. Regardless of the reason behind your fishing trips when it comes to the most popular bait to use, minnows are at the top of the list.

You can buy minnows from any bait shop but if you do a lot of fishing it would be beneficial to catch your own minnows instead of buying them each time you go out. You can make your own traps to catch the minnows you need for fishing so you will have them available anytime you are ready to go out on the water. There are several effective ways to make a minnow trap and below you will find two examples that are easy to make and work great.

Trap One:

Use two plastic bottles and label them number 1 and 2. Leave the cap on bottle number 1 and cut off the bottom portion of the bottle about three fourths of the way down. Now cut off bottle number 2 about one forth of the way down the bottle and take the cap off of this one. Discard the bottom portions of both bottles.
Next, you need to put bottle number 2 (the short one) inside of bottle number 1 with the tops pointing in the same direction. Then you need to secure the bottoms together where you cut off the bottom portions.

You can punch holes around the edges of the bottles where they are cut off and use string to run through these holes to tie them together. They need to be secure so pull the string tight before tying off. You will need to leave two pieces of string on each side of the bottle long enough to use for tossing out the trap and pulling it back in again. This is the perfect minnow trap because once the minnows swim into the first opening it is hard for them to swim back out because the outer bottle is still capped off. To make this trap you need to take a piece of screen wire and roll it around into a cone shape. The size of the wire you need will depend on how large or small you want the trap to be. Use a piece of thin wire to tie the cone shape together by running it through the holes of the wire. You will then need to tie some sinkers to the bottom of the cone to weigh it down and hook a small piece of wire on each side of the large top part of the cone. Use these to tie a line onto the cone for tossing the trap into the water and pulling it back to you again.

There are other ways to make a minnow trap as well. The basic principal behind the trap is to have a device that will allow the minnows to easily swim in but make it not so easy for them to get back out. Since minnows will rarely go back out the same opening they swam into, these traps will work very well. They are drawn to the trap by the bait you use. So as you can see catching your own minnows for fishing is quite easy.

Dan Eggertsen is a fishing researcher and enthusiast who is committed to providing the best crappie fishing information possible. Get more information on minnow traps here: http://www.askcrappiefishing.com/.