Seining Minnows

I just bought a minnow seine and was hoping to trap some minnows from the creek behind my property. Can anyone give me some tips? Is it best to seine at any particular time of day or night? Would a light at night attract more minnows? Any help would be appreciated.

seining minnows is hard work. i recommend a minnow trap.

I find seining a lot more productive than traps. It works best with 2 people. You need to cut sticks or buy large dowell rods to tie each end of the sein to. Each person handles one stick. It is best to find a pool in the creeek that dead ends against a ledge or peters out to a narrow end. With the net spread out and each person holding their stick more at less at a 45 degree slant, you go (best upstream) slowly keeping the net as close to the bottom as possible. At the end of the pool lift the seine up flat and then fold it together keeping all the bait in the bottom of the middle of the net. Carry it on shore unfold it and pick out the best bait for your bucket. You can also use the end of your stick to poke and prod in and under rocks and ledges to scare out bait especially craw dads. Every now and then you luck up and get soft craws which is God's best bait for every fish I know of.
If you seine by yourself roll up the ends of the net on the sticks till it is just over arms width long and use the net the same way you would push a wheelbarrow. It is hard work, but a bucket of small creek chubs or stone toaters will catch you more small mouth on a creek like the Rolling Fork or Elkhorn Than you will ever manage with artificial.

Growing up, we always seined minnows on the river. We did the best before dawn. Yep, in the dark.

I was pretty young, and my dad would tell me.....

"son go out deep, keep the sein on the bottom, and most of all, if you step in a hole, or get an undercurrent pulling you out, KEEP THE SEIN ON THE BOTTOM!!!! I'll pull them in, and if you don't let go, we'll get you back too."

Not sure he was ever happy about that last part though...LOL


While all that is true, I have to add, for some reason, I always preferred to fish with minnows we seined. It seemed we not only did better, but I don't know, it was like a primal thing of gathering our own bait. I can't really put it into words.

So, good luck my friend, and I hope you always have a full minnow bucket.

Danny