Though there are some restrictions on the capture and use of minnows. Some states ban their capture in specified waters; other states forbid their use in various waters because many good fishing lakes have been practically ruined by the introduction into them of trash fish that were used as bait. Do not use carp or goldfish as bait for that reason. Always use wild caught native minnows on your fishing excursions when possible instead of using minnows bought at a local bait shop.
Where legal, minnows may easily be taken with a minnow trap baited with fragments of food such as cracker crumbs. These traps are made of galvanized wire or glass, the design of each type being similar. The typical wire trap is rectangular. The funnels may number from one to four. The glass trap is usually round.
Glass traps are most effective in streams, and commercial bait dealers often use them. Raising Bait Fish'' Circular 35, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, gives useful advice on the various kinds of minnows and their capture.
Walk along the bank of a stream and study the water closely to locate a minnow school. Having sighted one, go upstream from the minnows and seek a spot where there is little current, with water depth less than a foot. It is likely that you will find such a spot near the bank. Scoop out a shallow depression into which the trap may be set, bait the trap with cracker crumbs, and place it in the depression with the funnel opening facing downstream. Some of the cracker crumbs will float downstream, thus making a chum.
The minnows will follow this chum into the trap. The trap must be visited within a few minutes to remove those minnows that have been captured. If this is not done, the minnows will escape as soon as all the crumbs have been eaten. Using one of the wire traps, my method has been to prowl along the shorelines of a pond or lake, either afoot or in a boat. Usually the minnows stick close to weed beds in the shallows where they are safer from predatory fish. Having located them, I sink my baited trap, taking care to attach to it a rope with a stick of wood for a float. This is to make it easy to find the trap again. While a brightly painted piece of wood as a buoy makes it easier for you to relocate your trap, it also is so conspicuous that the wrong person may see it, lift your trap, and rob it of its minnows. I have had it happen. In one instance the trap itself was gone.
Another way to collect minnows is with a baited lift net. This net is square, with ropes attached to the corners meeting above it at a single rope which in turn is attached to the tip of a pole. Cracker crumbs are wetted and tossed into the water over the sunken net to draw the minnows. Most states specify the maximum size of these nets. Here too consult the laws of your state.
After capture the minnows are placed in a minnow pail which has an inner container of wire netting or of galvanized metal with a bail for lifting it out of the pail with its contained minnows. The inner container is perforated to let the water escape when lifted, making one of the minnows easy to capture and hook. The angler, having selected a minnow, lowers the container into the pail again. It is necessary to aerate the water in the pail at intervals to keep the little fish alive. To do this, empty out some of the water, and refill it with fresh water from the lake or stream you are fishing. If you are in a boat, keep the minnow pail out of the sunshine by placing it under a seat. Water-aerating minnow pails have now been placed on the market. They are an improvement.
There are several different ways of hooking a minnow. The simplest is to hook it through both lips. If care is used to keep from grasping the little fish too tightly, thus hooked it will keep lively for some time. Another way is to hook it lightly through the back just behind the dorsal fin, just deep enough to hold the minnow without injuring the spine, taking in with the hook little more than the skin and a bit of flesh For trolling you can kill the minnow and run the hook through the mouth, down through the body, and then out. It is well to do this so that the minnow's body is curved and will spin through the water. With this hook-up, use a swivel or two to avoid twisting the line.
As minnows are so popular and effective as bait, here is a brief summary of the range and characteristics of some of the tougher species that best withstand handling and hooking, and are durable on the hook.
Suckers are widely distributed, ranging from northern Canada down into Georgia, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. This fish is durable in the minnow pail and good bait for walleyes and muskies.
Fathead minnows, which reach a maximum length of 3 1/2 inches, are found throughout southern Canada and from Lake Champlain west to North and South Dakota, and south to Kentucky and the Rio Grande. Their preferred habitat is ponds, streams, and shallow lakes. The lateral line appears on only half of their bodies. The male in spawning season has a black head and tubercles on the snout and under the chin. They are good bait for panfish and are also used for pike.
Creek chubs may be identified by a black spot at the base of the dorsal fin, the large mouth, which comes back to a location below the eye, and a small barbel just above the mouth corners and concealed in a groove. In this species the male is considerably larger than the female. The latter has a maximum length of 5 inches. These fish are very tough and tenacious of life. They are often called horned dace, and are found in creeks and rivers from Montana and New Mexico to the Atlantic Coast and south to Florida.
Golden shiners are found from Canada to Florida and throughout the eastern United States. They are the most popular of baits, their color making them conspicuous and attractive to the pikes, bass, and panfish Hornyhead chubs, excellent bait for members of the pike family, are durable on the hook. They are found from the Hudson River to the Rockies and south to Oklahoma. Their preferred habitat is large creeks and the smaller rivers with swift water and gravel bottom.
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