Dockside Bait Pen

Anyone ever built/bought a dockside bait pen. I figure I waste about $100 a summer on minnows and was thinking about a bait pento hang from the dock.
Probably a 1″ x 1/2″ hardware cloth wrapped over 1/4″ hardware screen with a couple chunks of noodle to keep it afloat.
My main concerns are keeping the Otters out and keeping the crappie minnows in. I’m confident the hardware cloth will keep the Otters out, just hoping 1/4″ will keep the crappie minnows in. Idon’t want to go down to 1/8″ screen as it might get to full of algea and clog the flow. I’d also like to figure out an internal container to keep a 1lb of leeches.

Any thoughts???

There is a guy up around Walker who builds them. They are a stainless mesh with a door. Will last forever I think. Has a couple of ropes attached and you hang it from your dock. The deeper you can sink it the better the minnows last.

I bought one from him a couple of years ago at the Muskie sports show. I have never used it.

Dutch,
If ya come up with a name let me know please.

I like the idea, but why not just use a minnow bucket?

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Dutch,
If ya come up with a name let me know please.

How about pictures?

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Thanks Dutch –
Holy Hanna! they don’t give those things away.

Ralph, I go up to the cabin every other weekend and if I leave minnows in a bucket tied to the dock they never make it. I need something bigger and Otter proof.

Rip –
Same with leech lockers, some leaches may make it but most will die and I would like to buy them by the pound so I would need a bigger container.

Sent you a PM.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Ralph, I go up to the cabin every other weekend and if I leave minnows in a bucket tied to the dock they never make it. I need something bigger and Otter proof.

Gotcha. I figured there was a good reason.

Whenever I leave minnows dockside in the summer for any longer than a day, most of them die. The water seems to just get too warm.

gimruis wrote:

Whenever I leave minnows dockside in the summer for any longer than a day, most of them die. The water seems to just get too warm.

Yep, they do best when the container is sitting on the bottom, deeper the better. Preferably in the shade also.
When island camping in Canada, we have sunk a bait container off shore a ways in 20 foot of water, marked with a buoy. Probably not a good idea in a more populated area.

I’d like to put a door on my dock then drop a minnow trap underneath. Keeps it shaded cool.

Snapping turtles will go thru some tough stuff.

They do a little better when I tie them to the North side of the dock in the shade.

Bigpike, I’m kicking myself for not taking the time to put a hatch in the dock for a bait pen. I may still be able to cut one in and will give it a look this spring. It would also save space for more docking of boats.

Beads, Yeah – I’m worried about them fellers also.

Dutch, Thanks for the offer and if I cannot figure something out i’ll be PMing you.

EPG, I go through my share of bait but I have had times where I found myself storing minnows or leeches much longer than anticipated. Last opener I had 100 doz shiners for opener.

As mentioned above, its always best to store minnows in the shade and subsurface. Build a large holding cage that sinks. Make it bigger than you think you need. You could also store an occasional fish in there until you have enough for a meal.

As for leeches you can’t beat a cold fridge…34deg. You want to keep them dormant. I buy 5lbs at a time. In my experience putting them on the dock is bad idea. Get a 5 gallon bucket of lake water, toss in a pound of leeches and store them in a fridge. Change the water every other week and you’d be good. You can keep leeches for a month or more no problem. If the water starts to get funky they will die Very fast. So the trick is to have a large water vs leech ratio.

Tip from Mike W and work well for me. Add in a nice clump of live lake weeds to the container. Provides some shade and cover cuts the kill way down.

x2 on leeches. Keep them in the fridge.

-J

I’ve built a couple of different bait pens over the years. I have my boat in a slip on the St Croix and I kept a bait pen in my slip. It was for large baits though so it may not meet your needs. I kept bullheads, suckers and sheepshead in it for catfishing. Here a a few pics of my last one – it was made out of a 32 gallon garbage can with holes drilled all over it and a pool noodle zip tied around the top of it. I had a bungee cord across the lid that hooked on the handles to keep the lid on.
You are right to be concerned about otters. I had one bait tank made out of hardware cloth (chicken wire). I kept all kinds of bait in it and it worked very well. I had an otter get into it and he drowned. When I came down to my slip ready to go fishing I reached down and pulled up the bait tank and had a big dead otter stuck in the trap. I had never seen otters around our marina in all the years we have been there so it was quite a surprise.

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This whole thing about trying to keep bait alive brings with it all kinds of rules and associated problems because you can’t transport water from one body of water to another. Obviously if you have a dock on a lake and ONLY use it on that lake then no issues would arise. Also, keeping live game fish or panfish in a dockside pen may not be legal since a fish must either immediately be released if it’s not going to be harvested.

gimruis wrote:

This whole thing about trying to keep bait alive brings with it all kinds of rules and associated problems because you can’t transport water from one body of water to another. Obviously if you have a dock on a lake and ONLY use it on that lake then no issues would arise. Also, keeping live game fish or panfish in a dockside pen may not be legal since a fish must either immediately be released if it’s not going to be harvested.

I think you’re over thinking this. I can use Lake water to keep my bait alive and still fish anywhere I want. All I have to do is remove that bait from the lake water and put it in clean freshwater to go to any Lake we want.

As far as holding a fish in a bait cage? I guess I’ll have to look into that one. All I know is people that come up for the weekend. Fish for an hour Friday night then again Saturday morning. Then clean their fish for Saturday lunch… I can’t see how that’s breaking the law. Maybe if they just left them in their Live Well?? So you’re saying they can’t be transported to another holding tank from your Live Well without being cleaned? Please post The law you are referring to from the regulation book. Thanks

BTW EPG’s Question was about a minnow tank to hold minnows on his dock, to use on his Lake. I think it’s time for some people to get up and outside fishing instead of being keyboard DNR’s.

I would guess if a fish is in your pen tied to the dock its considered harvested,no different than if it was in the livewell of your boat that is tied to the dock.

I’m not breaking any rules by harvesting bait on the St Croix even though it is classified as Infested Waters. See Minnesota Fishing Regulations,Page 31, General Regulations: Bullhead, sucker, mooneye, goldeye and sheepshead may be taken by hook and line from infested waters for personal use as bait for fishing on the same river where the bait was taken. Guess what!! – In Wisconsin territorial waters it is legal to use gamefish for bait provided they meet length restrictions for the water body you are fishing and are included in your daily bag limit for that species. When you are fishing border waters “If it swims and it meets daily limit and minimum length requirements its bait – Baby!” – just check your GPS and make sure who’s territorial waters you are in.

Joe Scegura wrote:

I think you’re over thinking this. I can use Lake water to keep my bait alive and still fish anywhere I want. All I have to do is remove that bait from the lake water and put it in clean freshwater to go to any Lake we want.

As far as holding a fish in a bait cage? I guess I’ll have to look into that one. All I know is people that come up for the weekend. Fish for an hour Friday night then again Saturday morning. Then clean their fish for Saturday lunch… I can’t see how that’s breaking the law. Maybe if they just left them in their Live Well?? So you’re saying they can’t be transported to another holding tank from your Live Well without being cleaned? Please post The law you are referring to from the regulation book. Thanks

BTW EPG’s Question was about a minnow tank to hold minnows on his dock, to use on his Lake. I think it’s time for some people to get up and outside fishing instead of being keyboard DNR’s.

Totally true on the transportation of bait from one lake to your house, another lake, etc. As long as you have your own supply of fresh or bottled water, you can exchange the lake water with that to transport. Frankly, unless they were golden shiners or decoy suckers that are worth a lot of money I don’t really see why saving a scoop of crappie minnows is really worth that effort, but that’s my personal opinion. What I was saying on the dockside minnow trap is that you can’t just scoop those minnows up WITH the lake water and take them to another lake to use. If you only used them on the lake you had the dock on, which I think the OP is referring to, is perfectly fine.

The possession of a live game fish or panfish in a dockside trap isn’t quite as clear. Since every fish must be either released or harvested, keeping it alive for an extended period of time does not abide by that. That fish will count towards your limit since it was not immediately released, regardless of what you do with it at a later date. Page 13 of the angling regs under “Immediate Released or returned to the water.” Putting it in the livewell is probably a better idea than a dockside pen, but if you intend to release it, it has to be done immediately.

If its in a pen at the dock or in your livewell its part of your limit,not to hard to understand.Page 13 says A fish not immediately released is in your possesion.It doesnt say I cant toss it back later.All page 13 is doing is defining possesion!Nowhere does it say i cant put 6,2 or 1 walleye in my livewell or a dockside pen and release them at a later time,as long as Im not over my limit at anytime.

I would treat a dockside pen just like a stringer or live well, it’s in possession, but I’m not sure you can release fish once you have taken them into possession in Minnesota at least barring some tournaments. Could be wrong. I always hate seeing guys dig fish out of their live well for a glory shot of multiple fish. Then throwing back, definitely a gray area or maybe it’s a grey area?

Keep in mind before throwing fish in there he would need to catch some.

I think he mostly wants it for minnows.