67 



USE OF TRAPS 



Screen and glass traps are commonly used by minnow 

 dealers. Similar in design and differing only in the 

 construction materials, both consist of a pot and an 

 entrance funnel or funnels. In design, the screen trap 

 is more variable, being round, rectangular, or square, 

 and having from one to four funnels. Glass traps 

 usually are round and possess only one funnel entrance. 



Wire traps of several designs, containing one to 

 four funnels per trap, are frequently used by minnow 

 dealers to collect bait. Traps of this type are most 

 efficient when set in quiet waters and attended daily. 

 They are baited with bread or cracker crumbs and placed 

 on the bottom of a stream or pond or suspended above 

 the bottom at a desired depth by the use of a stake. 

 The traps should be attended daily and all fish re- 

 moved on each occasion. If the minnows are allowed to 

 remain in the trap for any extended period, many become 

 injured by continued contact with the screen sides. 

 In a pond or lake where a gocxi population of minnows 

 is known to exist, one wire trap, 2 feet long by 16 

 inches square, containing a funnel at each end, will 

 take as many as 500 minnows in one day's operation. 



Glass traps are used mainly in streams. This type 

 of collecting gear has proved highly efficient; not 

 only can a large number of minnows be obtained in a 

 relatively short time, but they can be collected with 

 little or no injury. Operation is simple. The first 

 step is to follow along the banks of a stream until a 

 school of minnows is located. The next step is to seek 

 an area upstream from the school of minnows where the 

 current is weak and the water depth does not exceed 1 

 foot. (These locations areusually found near the banks 

 of the stream.) At this point a small depression, about 

 thfe size of a glass trap, is gouged out of the bottom 

 and the trap, baited with finely ground cracker crumbs, 

 is placed in the depression with the funnel opening 

 facing downstream. Within a few minutes, by current 

 action, some of the food particles originally within 

 the trap will be drifting downstream, attracting the 

 fish below. Immediately, the minnows will move upstream 

 toward the source of the food supply; within a half 

 hour, the food supply in the trap will be exhausted 

 and a number of minnows will have been captured. The 

 minnows should be removed from the trap as soon as the 

 food is gone, as experience has proved that the minnows 

 will soon escape. On one stream in Michigan, four 



