Catch Your own Bait??

[blackdog1101]

Does anyone catch their own bait? How do you do it? Do you use one of those wire mesh fish traps? I used to live on the East coast and fished salt water almost exclusively, and we always caught our own bait. I've never done so here. Any tips?

[Kilmo11]

i have never herd of anyone catching there own bait in the metro. but my friend has a cabin on the arrowhead trail and we catch all of our bait out of a little stream by his cabin using the wire traps of homemade traps

[NyQuiLlama]

I have a small pond on my land, I just put a few leftover fatheads in it after fishing when we moved in 5 years ago, now the pond is full of them. Anytime I want fatheads I just throw in a conventional wire minnow trap and a few bits of bread. In a couple of hours it's full with a few bonus tadpoles and snails. I don't think that I want to put suckers or shiners in the pond because they will just grow and compete with my minnows and froggies.

On the topic, can anyone suggest another minnow to consider stocking on a small (40 yards across, 15ft deep) pond?

[outdoor ran]

nyquil lama, you might want to check on the new Wi. live bait laws. Just a heads up.

[blackdog1101]

Does anyone know what the law is here in MN about using small perch as bait? Could a guy legally catch a few small perch and use them as bait?

[Eric Wettschreck]

No. You can't use perch, or as we did in the old days, perch eyes as bait.

Where I live there is a small dam coming out of the lake. At the corner of the spillway is where the minnows like to hang out. All I, or my kids do is dip our hand in there and get a handful. Works great for the days fishing.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Boiler is right on with this one.. Perch are considered a game fish in MN... you may not use a perch or any part of a perch as bait.

[blackdog1101]

OK thanks guys!

[PmDavis300]

so the only thing you can use is minnows, no sunnies or anything?

[Scott M]

Minnows only, or bullheads under 7" for catfishing.

Shoreline seines work well for spottails. I bought one a few years ago and easily got my money back. But you need two guys to run it.

[Flaco651]

Bullheads and larger creek chub I'll catch with rod and reel. While I'm fishing for the bigger chub, I will set a minnow trap to get smaller ones. Haven't used my seining net that I picked up late last season yet.

[Maximum12]

There's a small lake in St. Paul that has a good population of shiners - we caught them after growing annoyed with all the fish passing through the Vex & ignorning our offerings, so we downsized to the max & wallah! Shiner. We threw a couple of the natives on our tip-ups. Might have to go back & catch a few for the rest of the open water season.