Minnow trap

From REWILD.info Field Guide, the free Field Guide To Rewilding

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Materials 3 Process 3.1 Cut the bottles 3.2 Fit the bottles together 3.3 Poke holes for threading 3.4 Tie the bottles together 3.5 Make the trap breathable 3.6 Tie a line 4 Sources

Minnow trap made from two 2-liter bottles Fish caugh using the minnow trap pictured in this article

[edit] Introduction

Minnows can serve as bait fish for trying to catch something bigger. You can also eat minnows themselves.

You can make this trap easily with some basic materials. Even though the materials mentioned here came from civilized sources, you can likely find primitive equivalents, and you can almost always find plastic bottles anywhere, sadly enough.

[edit] Materials

• Two large soda bottles (2 or 3 liter--as long as they match in size)
• Knife - or something to cut the bottles (scissors, glass shard, flint blade)
• Wire - or something to use to tie the bottles together (twist ties, cordage, yucca fibers, zip stays)
• Nail - or something to use to poke holes in the bottles (knife, thorn, pushpin)

[edit] Process

[edit] Cut the bottles

Cut the bottom off of one bottle and the top off of the other bottle. You will keep the remaining bottle tops and discard the bottle bottoms.

[edit] Fit the bottles together

Make sure that only the larger bottle top has a lid, and then fit the smaller bottle top into the cut end of the larger bottle top with both spouts pointing the same direction.

[edit] Poke holes for threading

Poke holes through both bottles at the open end in order to put the wire through and tie the two bottles securely together.

An article in Boys' Life magazine recommends using a nail heated in a flame in order to easily poke through the plastic.^[1] I found that method difficult and unnecessary, so I just used the nail alone to poke holes.

[edit] Tie the bottles together

Thread the wire through the holes and tie off.

[edit] Make the trap breathable

Poke holes in the outer bottle to let water flow through the trap more freely.

[edit] Tie a line

You may also want to tie some kind of cordage to the trap to make it easier to pull in from the water.

[edit] Sources

Attribution

• Text and images copied from To Winnow Some Minnows by Rix White at WildeRix licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Web

• REWILD.info forum thread entitled Feral, Failed, and Fabulous!

References

1. ^ Oliver Shapiro. Boys' Life. "Make Your Own Minnow Trap"