Please Help: Why Can't I Catch Minnows?

[Tim Beer]

Hey guys. I'm at a total loss here and I'm hoping somebody can help me out.

I've been trying to catch minnows for bait for the last 6 days. There are tons of minnows swimming around my dock, I see them swimming around in huge schools every time I walk out there. However, none of them seem to swim into my minnow trap. I have literally only caught two fish in that thing... interestingly, both were tiny baby blue fish, not the minnows that swim in huge schools back there. These minnows I'm speaking of would fit easily into the mouths of the trap but wouldn't fit out of the holes in the trap... (i.e. they are the right size for the trap).

So here's what I'm working with:

- Gee's minnow trap.

- Tried it at the top of the water, medium depth and on the floor of the lagoon.

- I have left the trap out there the majority of the days and over night every night over the last 6 days.

- On separate occasions, I have tried raw chicken, dog food, white bread and bagels for bait.

Can anybody please poke a hole in what I'm doing wrong here? The fish are there, my trap is there... What am I missing here?

Thank you so much in advance for any advice you can offer. Please excuse my ignorance.

Tim

[Bassn Blvd]

I'm kind of confused. You mentioned minnow and blue fish in the same body of water. I refer to minnows as freshwater bait, anywhere from1-2 inches long. I think of blue fish as being the toothy saltwater critter that fllod our beaches every winter here in S. Florida.

If you're talking about the freshwater minnows, then perhaps I can help. Get rid of that trap and buy a minnow net, looks loke a swimming pool net you use to clean the pool. all you need to do is just scoop up the minnows. It's so easy that a 5 year old can do it.

Are you sure you don't mean shad or shiners?

[Tim Beer]

Really sorry about that. See, told you I'm ignorant.

I just assumed they were minnows. This is saltwater I'm talking about here. They are just tiny fish that people seem to refer to as "Minnows" around here (Ocean City, NJ). I'm not exactly sure what species they are. Still, do you think you could help me out?

[mikey5string]

go buy a sabiki rig. the size depends on the size of the bait. For 3-4" alewife I use a #4. Those are Japanese hooks size so its different from a US #4 hook. They are very small. If the bait is bigger, you can size up.

Put a bell sinker on the end and drop it in the water where you see the bait. Let it go to the bottom, give it a few twitches and you catch them. Most sabiki rigs have around 6 hooks so you can catch up to 6 at a time. Pull it up, put the fish in your bait bucket and repeat.

If the bait is schooling, this is an easy method to catch them quickly. I catch alewife even if I dont see them, just drop it in the water off the dock and I get em. Usually dusk into the evening works best for alewife but YMMV.

[Bassn Blvd]

You're not ignorant, just a NEWBIE, lol. The small fish you see could be a number of different species. You said "minnows" and confirmed it to be saltwater. The minnows are refered to as glass minnows, at least here in Florida.

You need a cast net to catch'em. Specifically, a glass minow cast net. The glass minnow cast net has tiny, 3/16 inch holes, as apposed to a regular cast net at 1/4-1/2 inch mesh.

Click this link to see what a glass minnow looks like. Are they the same you see around your dock?

http://www.google.co...O-hz-wfBkn_8FXQ

Here's a cast net picture. You can find some for less than 100 bucks.

http://www.google.co...DcpJ0n68ZTgkutA

The Sabiki rig won't catch true glass minnows. Get a cast net.

[Bluebasser86]

You're not ignorant, just a NEWBIE, lol. The small fish you see could be a number of different species. You said "minnows" and confirmed it to be saltwater. The minnows are refered to as glass minnows, at least here in Florida.

You need a cast net to catch'em. Specifically, a glass minow cast net. The glass minnow cast net has tiny, 3/16 inch holes, as apposed to a regular cast net at 1/4-1/2 inch mesh.

Click this link to see what a glass minnow looks like. Are they the same you see around your dock?

http://www.google.co...O-hz-wfBkn_8FXQ

Here's a cast net picture. You can find some for less than 100 bucks.

http://www.google.co...DcpJ0n68ZTgkutA

The Sabiki rig won't catch true glass minnows. Get a cast net.

I second the cast net, way faster and more productive than a minnow trap.

[SirSnookalot]

Cast nets or sabiki, I use #6 hook. If the minnows are small I generally don't fish with them unless I'm using a small hook, they die quickly. This is what we do, put a little squid or shrimp on a couple of the sabiki hooks and drop them down into a rocky area and pull up larger to fish to use as bait, like spots, or tiny jacks. These baits stay alive much longer, not saying they are any more effective. Schools of bait fish come and go, I would invest in 5 gallon bucket and an aerator to keep them alive, catch a few dozen before you start fishing, it's nice to have a little minnow net to fish them out of the bucket.

The artificial bite has not been very good as of late down here, I have been bait fishing the last few weeks, live bait is the equalizer, does make fishing a whole lot easier.

[clayton86]

iv been in the same position here in Kuwait but I don't have a trap and a cast net I don't think would work were way to high up on the pier. What iv been doing with some mixed success is I had my ice fishing gear sent up I tip my ice jig with some FishBites squid warm water formula drop it down and just watch em swarm it and catch em that way did it today but couldn't catch bait fast enough to use it for the needle fish and sharks swarming all over

[Bassn Blvd]

Clayton, I throw cast nets from bridges all the time. Sometimes I'm 15-25 feet obove the water. There is a certain technique used to effectively throw it from way up- above 10-15 feet.