Catching Shiners

[campkopasquat]

catch shiners?

When I'm up in Maine, I have to travel about 30 miles to a guy who sells shiners. I was wondering what is the best way to catch my own. There are a couple streams near by. Do I need a minnow trap?

Anyone catch leaches? I hear they are great for Smallmouths.

Camp

 

[Ed T]

You want leeches take my wife, they seem to find her no problem.

I think a standard round minnow trap with bread as bait works well, you just have to find were they are at. Good Luck

 

[campkopasquat]

Thanks ED

 

[M99ER]

Why shiners? Dace work even better and they're more common. There's 2 types normally, one that we mistake for chubs and another with a black back, one called longnose dace. The methods below are universal:

I don't like bread just loose in a trap for several reasons.

1:
The bait can eat it from outside the trap
2:
When they eat it they puff up and get soft so for sewed on bait they don't work well.
3:
If they will be kept for a long time, they poop and foul the water. I've been able to trap minnows in the fall and use them in January for ice fishing by NOT feeding them. Just keep the water as close to 32 degrees as you can and change it as soon as there's discoloring or any bait dies.
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Here's how to trap them:
Tie some string or wire across the diameter of one half of your trap and put a small split ring in the center of the wire. Using a coffee filter, put about 10-15 pieces of RAW elbow macaroni and tie/bag it up with a metal bread tie. With the tag ends of the tie, attach the bag to the ring on the wire in your trap.

You want the bag to be suspended away from the edges of the trap and also not block the entrances to the trap on either end. The bait will enter the trap and can only peck at the bag but not get anything to consume.

I've used this method up against several of my stubborn friend's simple 'bread or suet' in the trap and I've usually trapped double what they can on average.

Some streams have lots of bait while ones identical in the same area hold almost none. I make sure I can see bait in the waters I am about to trap. Otherwise it could be wasted time. Hmm, sounds like fishing...