went to check my trap today.

this is what i got, mostly golden shiners with a few blacknose dace:

including this big *** creek cubsucker:

and as i was leaving i looked into the water and saw a few eastern red spotted newts. one pair was courting getting read to mate:

Nice catches.

How is the water in your creek that clear after those rains though?

there is a lot of flow in the creek.

i went down there on friday afternoon and the water looked like coffee after you add the milk ;D

what kind of traps are you using Dave?

I caught a newt like that just much smaller and fed it to our pet praying mantis this year. that was pretty cool.

You going to make some gumbo?

i'm just using the regular ole Frabil round minnow traps with an entrance on either end. i have a square crawfish trap that never seems to catch anything but 1 or two fish. possibly because it only has one entrance. this trap was baited with whitebread and a few chunks of tuna.

must have been pretty cool to see a praying mantis eat a newt!

Cool pics dave.

Those newts are in most of the lakes I fish. Last trip out you couldnt hardly fish a brush hawg without it getting tea bagged by one of'em.

i'm just using the regular ole Frabil round minnow traps with an entrance on either end. i have a square crawfish trap that never seems to catch anything but 1 or two fish. possibly because it only has one entrance. this trap was baited with whitebread and a few chunks of tuna.

must have been pretty cool to see a praying mantis eat a newt!

nice. Are you stocking the trapped fish in your tank for food or as additions to the tank?

and yeah, it was pretty awesome. Who knew a praying mantis would be so strong. It absolutely decimated the newt which was about 3/4 its own size.

i'm just using the regular ole Frabil round minnow traps with an entrance on either end. i have a square crawfish trap that never seems to catch anything but 1 or two fish. possibly because it only has one entrance. this trap was baited with whitebread and a few chunks of tuna.

must have been pretty cool to see a praying mantis eat a newt!

nice. Are you stocking the trapped fish in your tank for food or as additions to the tank?

and yeah, it was pretty awesome. Who knew a praying mantis would be so strong. It absolutely decimated the newt which was about 3/4 its own size.

nope i just release 'em on the spot. i just like collecting them to see what i can get.

back when i was still getting fish for my tank, this is where most of my fish came from. only my bluegill and crawfish came from a different pond, but they can be found in the creek too.