We go on an annual fishing trip to Lac Seul and minnows always seem to become scarce and very expensive! With three guys in a boat we can go through over 250 minnows in just one day! Has anybody every trapped minnows on Lac Seul before? If so how do you do it?

I have done it with a minnow trap and hard dog food set in a back bay - is this legal in Canada?

Also how about making salted minnows - how would I do that? It is not legal to bring live bait into Canada.

As far as I know know trapping minnows is 100% legal in Manitoba.

I live way up North in Manitoba, last year we went out and trapped a pile of minnows to use throughout the year. Just packed them in sour cream containers with salt and froze them, worked out great. Kept me supplied all summer and winter.

Jimmy

Jimmy - What do you use in your traps and where do you usually put them? In back water areas with weeds and grass?

Did you let the minnows die and dry out at all before you packed them in salt?

G,

Where we get our minnows we don't have to bait our traps.

We just drop our traps in and watch them fill up...way up north in Manitoba when the minnows run they really Run!

We haul them out, pack them on ice, Get them back to town, salt them and pack them in shallow containers. Usually pack about 15-20 per container, we try to just keep bigger ones, throw the small ones back to grow.

Not much to it, just make sure you use a big cooler with a lot of ice that you won't use for other food...The smell is hard to get rid of =P

Jimmy

It's definately legal in Manitoba to trap/catch your own minnows. The tailraces of a couple of the hydro dams around here are hotspots for dip-netting, lots of people do it. Done it a few times, minnows for the rest of the year! Put them straight into formaldahyde, "shock kills" them, take them home, sun dry 'em, salt 'em, freeze 'em. I don't see how trapping is any different from netting. We've set traps on Lake of the Woods, I assume it's legal in Ontario too but don't know for sure...trapping 250 minnows in a day would be tough unless you're in a real hotspot! A friend who has a cabin in NW Onario puts bread in his traps. He puts it in a little brook running into the lake and gets chubs in it, but only 5-15 a day. Good luck finding a hotspot!

250 minnows in a day!!!! what are you fishing for?

Trapping 250 a day? LOL

Pretty easy. Up North we can do that, I just tired of putting down my beer and packing minnows =P

Jimmy

Walleyes :div20: We average over 60 fish per person per day. That is 180 minnows plus all the missed bites, minnows falling off or tearing in half etc.

Will they bite on powerbait? Could save yourself some money that way if so. lol

Yes - however you get out fished by about 4 to 1 with a real minnow. We got hard up when our resort ran out of minnows last year and tried power worms, leeches and munchies. Nothing worked like the minnows! My buddy was using what ever he could find in the bottom of the boat and with the pieces of minnow he was catching about 4 walleyes to my 1 with powerbait :frech32:

I plan on salting some before the trip this year :div20:

Only residents of Ontario are allowed to trap minnows,and they must have a valid fishing licence. Its all in the fishing regulations.

Use leech's more durable than minnows.

i bought a minnow trap over a year ago and he hasn't gotten wet.

i used to make them all the time out of an old coffee can, works great.

i'll get this one going soon and get some bait, i plan on doing lots of fishing this summer.

You can not bring live or salted minnows into Ontario from the US. I believe you can catch and use your own, but you can not transport them across. Been a while since i read the regs, but i think this is correct.

this may be true, but walleye around these parts don't always bite on leeches....