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Minnow Trapping/Bait Catchin`

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DasRottweiler:
Had a field day on the goldens earlier this summer-pulling dozens whenever I threw my traps in. Now things have slowed to a crawl, I`ve got a dozen lil ones and about 2 dozen mediums in the tank. . Been catchin so many lil ones , I`ve been letting em go.  I have been concentrating on finding new places, my wife says those minnows ain`t free, ya burnt $50 gas lookin 4 em!
Not much luck there, plenty of fathead minnows or bridle shiners,not sure  ,either of which ya can`t use in NH. I have a bunch of creekchubs in the 6"-12" range for pike/lunkah bait. All caught rodnreel in the stream/river on my property.
I have a 4 acre pond on the property also, which is strange , in that I am striking out trappin in it, even thou I have seen large schools of shiners working the surface late afternoons, early evening. d**n commorant has no problem catchin em, seen em eat a few biggies around 7-8". His days are numbered.   Pond drops off rapidly into 40 FOW with a sand bottom. 6 feet off the shore it`s 8ft deep. Dangerous place for dogs /kids. Close to impossible to get out ifya fall in. Sand just keeps giving way. Hardly any weeds, no pads ,reeds, cattails etc, just sum bottom growth of tangleweeds about a foot off the bottom. I have thrown multiple traps out at multiple depths, breaded/chum areas, even floated a trap 6 feet down . Still nuttin.  I hope to drop traps thru the ice and restock the bait tank mid/late season. Any tips/ideas on how to extract these bits of silver n gold would be greatly appreciated! TY ROTT

DasRottweiler:
Yesterday my wife and I took a walk down the pond and saw huge schools of minnows/shiners running back and forth along the shoreline. I threw two traps in and let em sit till this morning when I went out to check 3 other traps I had out in a neighboring town. I stopped at our pond and could still see the minnows cruising the shoreline, many too small for use as bait. But there were sum bigger ones cruising with them. I pulled one trap and was happy to find a dozen medium shiners .The second was empty ,even thou it was only 10 or 12 feet from the first. Perhaps when they run the shoreline at this time of the year , they are easier to catch. Lets hope the luck continues . Went off to check the other 3 traps- Two were empty, cept a lone monster crayfish. The last one had a 2foot eel , which was eating everything else in the trap, some crayfish , buncha bullfrogtadpoles and a big 7" golden shiner which the eel had killed and was starting to eat. I rebaited and threw 2 traps in this pond , hoping for a buncha big goldens! Seems like the bullfrog tadpoles and giant goldens go hand in hand. I am also noticing that I am catching more predators that follow the bait into the trap for a easy meal. Eels, and pickeral mostly. Could be the onset of cooler weather! Yahooo!

beeverfishing:

--- Quote from: DasRottweiler on Sep 19, 2009, 08:05 AM ---Had a field day on the goldens earlier this summer-pulling dozens whenever I threw my traps in. Now things have slowed to a crawl, I`ve got 5 dozen lil ones and about 4 dozen mediums in the tank. Dats all so far. Been catchin so many lil ones , I`ve been letting em go. I think I may have beat up my goldie spots and done sum damage? I have left these couple spots alone and will hit em again just b4 ice . I have been concentrating on finding new places, my wife says those minnows ain`t free, ya burnt $50 gas lookin 4 em!Not much luck there, plenty of fathead minnows , which ya can`t use in NH. I have about 50 creekchubs in the 6"-12" range for pike/lunkah bait. All caught rodnreel in the stream/river on my property.
I have a 4 acre pond on the property also, which is strange , in that I am striking out trappin in it, even thou I have seen large schools of shiners working the surface late afternoons, early evening. d**n commorant has no problem catchin em, seen em eat a few biggies around 7-8". His days are numbered.  Pond  is in a SandPit which has been closed for years. Pond drops off rapidly into 40 FOW with a sand bottom. 6 feet off the shore it`s 8ft deep. Dangerous place for dogs /kids. Close to impossible to get out ifya fall in. Sand just keeps giving way. Hardly any weeds, no pads ,reeds, cattails etc, just sum bottom growth of tangleweeds about a foot off the bottom. I have thrown multiple traps out at multiple depths, breaded/chum areas, even floated a trap 6 feet down . Still nuttin. I netted a bunch of em one day when they cruised too close to the shore, but they pretty much act like open water schoolin fish and stay away from the shoreline. I hope to drop traps thru the ice and restock the bait tank mid/late season. Any tips/ideas on how to extract these bits of silver n gold would be greatly appreciated! TY ROTT
PS: How is everyone else doing , filling the baittanks/trappin??

--- End quote ---

Yeah, nothing is ever truly free, Alway's a price, But I can think of much worse ways to spend it..

1MOFISH:
took the guppies and mama pesce down to the crick loaded with chubs and suckerz :o set 5 traps while we seined it took a few minutes for the cryin to start :'( no not me well later lol ater 30 minutes all the guppies were cryin im wet the rocks are slippery the algae stinks i want to squeeze the minnows :o will the crab bite me etc etc etc :-[ i tend to ignore them i mean compartmentalize  ::) all in all we caught alot my problem tub still to warm to support large qty of fish will a fan cool down the water more rapidly or is it the ambient temps that matter    mo

DasRottweiler:
 Try freezing gallon jugs and tossing em in like 5 times a day? Chubs keep well even in warm (60-70 degree)water.   Let us know how the traps do! Are they sucka traps? I have no idea where to trap suckers or I would. I`m always looking for new places , but so far the only ones producing are on my property! Small to medium shiners and creekchubs. If yer trappin up suckas ,could you post a pic of yer trap. Maybe next offseason I`ll take up sucka chasin. I have too many projects going this offseason and hardwater is gettin closer. I built 5 longer rods for walkin and jiggin outta the shack, made a buncha pannie glo-jigs, relined all of my HT Predator traps, made up 12 leaders, 4 feet of Trilene XT 10lb test with a 2 foot leader of PowerPro Green 20lb snelled to a 2/0 Gamkatsu Octopus hook and countless other menial tasks , trying to bide my time till it`s magic time again and we can walk on water.

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