In a survival situation, every little bit of food you can capture adds to your chances of staying alive. If you’re in an area with fish, one of these small pop bottle funnel traps can be a great way to catch small minnows for either bait, or food if conditions are really bad.
I’ve been using these types of minnow traps for as long as I can remember. They are a great way to catch bait, and are really easy to make. They’re also pretty much free, and a great way to recycle those old water bottles.
How to make the Plastic Bottle Fish Trap
- With a Sharp Knife, carefully cut off the top of the pop bottle (as shown above). You can use pretty much any kind of plastic water bottle to make this type of trap.
- Shove the head or cone of the bottle into the body of the bottle. To further secure the head, you can poke a couple holes through the cone and use a bit of fishing line to tie the sections together.
- Throw in a couple small rocks to anchor the bottle to the bottom, poke a couple small holes in the bottle, and then add some small scraps of bait or small insects to attract the fish.
- Place the bottle in some shallow water, and secure it with some line. Once the fish swim through the funnel, they will not be able to swim back out.
- The more of these you can set, the better chances you have of catching something substantial enough to sustain you.
 Examples of Plastic Bottle Fishing Traps
how are you suppose to keep the minnow in the tap with out the top coming off and you loose all your bait? then what do you do?
I have used these for several years, have a couple in the garage now. They work great for bait fish, around the end fitted togather, you need to poke a couple holes and I use fishing swivals to hold them together and tie a rope to, also add some small rock so it will sink, and if someone steals it, it’s no big loss, it’s free.
Crawdads… the fresh water lobster is all I have to say. They also make good bait so putting in some bacon or something like that to attract them is a good idea. As for keeping the top on, use your heads people. Poke some holes in it and tie it on.
Placement, place the bottom of the bottle facing up stream and hold the bottle down with rocks. Fish swim against the current for the most part. As for the fish staying in the bottle, they have to find that little hole to swim back out of and that is nearly impossible for them to do. Unless you are starving, don’t worry about some getting away.
WOW,,, Thats all I can say.. Good Idea. May have to try this next time we go fishing.
My jaw just dropped. I used to make these as a boy to catch minnows for bait for larger fish. I taught lots of people how. Damn that was 20 years ago.
I just tested it this weekend with my son, and it works great…
I have some experience with traps but this is a NEW and effective way of catching bait for larger fish.
Is this for catching bait? :)
I make this trap when I take my son camping he loves this idea and the fact that no matter how bad the fishing is we always catch something in the bottle trap. It’s a good way to start kids out slow and it’s exciting to them and keeps them interested
I’m Going To try a 2 Litter Bottle and Also A3 Liter Bottle This weekend When I Take My Son fishing.I Put Out Minnow Traps And I’ve Had 3 Stolen So Far This Year.How Can Someone Steal A Trap.Are Times That Ruff That Someone Steal A Kids Minnow Trap 3 Different Times From 3 Different Locations.I Mean If You Steal The Bottle Traps Carma Will Get Them.I’ll Keep You Posted Of My Catch Of Minnows And Fish From My Bottle Traps And Hopefully I’ll Catch The Person Who Stole My Traps.
Another note is that for this to be most effective, you need to find a little eddy where the current is less strong than the rest of the river or even flowing in the other direction (even better if there is weeds or other structure in the area). This is where the flow is less strong and the minnow can hide from predators and take shelter.
I’ve used this, with success, to catch our corn snake when it had escaped.
Thanks for the tip, I tried it out and it worked really well. Caught some small fish good for bait.
We used old tires for cat fish back in 1950’s they like to hide in them just tie a rope or cable strong enought to pull it back out of the water fine a good place leave it for a few days pull it out of the water lots of times you will have a large cat fish in it;
I’ve used these for years to catch bait. Today I made one out of a large kitty litter container. As the container is white and not clear we shall see how it works. large entrance is nice, but it might be too big