When I lived in Maryland I made a Crawfish trap out of Chicken Wire. The key
is to make the entrance to where they cant get back out. They sell minnow
and crawdad traps at most bait stores, I have even seen them at K-Marts.
Justy bait them with some old chicken or beef parts.

The only problem with catching your own bait is that at sometimes of the
year it gets pretty scarce. I have a place stocked with Shiners so if I know
in advance I just walk over and net some. The neighborhood has 2 fountains
and very small ponds, about 10 feet deep and 50-60 foot circles and the
other one is twice as big. Once a week either me or my son throws some dog
or cat food in to feed them. The fountains and waterfalls gives them plenty
of Oxygen, and I have my own big aeration tank pretty much all to myself.

---
Chuck Coger
http://www.fishin-pro.com


"CR" wrote in message
om...
I recently hired a guide to take me smallmouth creek fishing. We
fished artificials with not much luck then switched to creek minnows.
The action immediately improved, we started catching rock bass and
smallies. I was really hoping that I could catch just as much with
artificials but it seems that live bait catches more fish. I feel like
buying live bait is cheating, plus I like to keep things simple and I
don't like the idea of rigging up some complicated live bait tank with
an aerator. However, if I could be fairly certain of catching minnows
or crayfish myself, in whatever creek I'm fishing, then it seems OK to
me.

So my question is, "Is it possible to catch my own bait (minnows,
crayfish), consistently, from any given stream, with a few simple
tools like a cast net and bait bucket?"

Chuck.

P.S. All the fish we caught on minnows were lip-hooked and released.