Since ice shanty is all about helping others and learning new things and helping the fishing community as a whole, I thought i would share some tips that have helped me catch more shiners.

1. DEPTH. depending on the circumstances dont just let your trap lay on the bottom.when open water trapping i let my traps lay on the bottom. when trapping through the ice i always suspend my trap usually a foot off the bottom unless im trapping in shallow water like 2ft or even less. i get more shiners through the ice suspending the trap then letting it sit on the bottom. This brings up the next tip. Trap shallow in the winter. I have found in the many different locations that i trap in in the winter that there is a time where you start getting very little or no shiners in water that is 3ft or deeper. i noticed that shiners move into very shallow water during the middle of the winter right along the shoreline. usually in 2fow or less. sometimes i can barley stuff the trap under the ice. again each location is different and some places this doesnt even happen at all. Another tip is to float a trap under a milk jug in open water. in some locations this produces better than fishing it on the bottom.

2. COLOR AND TRAP. never use a black trap ever period. silver traps outproduce black 6 to 1. and from my experience gee minnow traps work better than the frabils. they are worth the few extra bucks. and another little secret that i have never seen or heard of anyone doing is spray painting their old rusty traps RED. I have had success rates as much as 2 to 1 with red traps compared to silver traps. sometimes the difference isnt as noticeable and other times its very noticeable. try this yourself and you be the judge.

3. SOAK TIME. i NEVER leave my traps out over 24 hours. my perfect soak time in my opinion is 6 to 8 hours. i have done soak times as short as 2 hours and have done very good as well. i will leave traps out overnight but i will always check them in the morning then again in the evening. shiners will eventually begin to find their way out of the trap if they sit for too long.

4. HOLE SIZE. the maximum "legal" size in Massachusetts is a 1in diameter but i have noticed some traps right off the shelves are smaller than 1in. I try to get them as close to 1in as possible. im not advising it but if you so happen to make them bigger than 1in then i wouldnt let it soak for longer than 6 hours because most of the shiners WILL find their way out.

5. CAST NET. learning to throw a cast net can pay off greatly in the long run. the maximum size for a cast net in freshwater in MA is a 3ft radius with a 3/8in mesh. chum up the water in a area with bread or cat/dog food and wait for shiners to begin boiling. once a lot start boiling then you only will have one throw to get it right. if you miss or mess up the throw then you will have to rebait and wait again. but if you do it all correctly the results can be astronomical. i have filled up a 6 gallon bucket to the point where it it was 3/4 of the way full with pure shiners and no water with one throw before. but normally i would expect to get around one traps worth of bait with one good throw and its quicker than a 6 hour soak. and you have the potential to catch shiners that are too big to fit in a trap. the only down side is a lot of smaller shiners will get caught in the mesh and some will die. so expect to be sitting for a while picking shiners out of the mesh like a gillnet. push them out head first to minimize harm.

I hope that some can learn something new and benefit their success rates. By no means am i an expert but i just thought i would share what works for me.

Also, I find that it is better to "chum" up the water rather than "cum" up the water when cast netting. 

you forgot to mention to make sure theres shinners in the pond or brook your trapping.

Also, I find that it is better to "chum" up the water rather than "cum" up the water when cast netting. 

whoops fixed that

maybe that's his secret 

definately not the secret

Thanks for the tips.

FA
It’s easy to fish out a small shiner pond.  Also, sometimes small ponds  dry out or deoxygenate over the summer

Also, we are allowed a cast net with holes up to but not exceeding 1" in Mass

I too have had better luck with the galvanized traps.