Bullhead traps were full today.

I put my bullhead traps out yesterday afternoon and checked them this morning. Trapped 39 bullheads from big to small. Checked them again this afternoon and picked up 6 more. That is more than enough to last me for quite a while and I hope to have the boat in the water this weekend. I’ve got them all soaking in the Quarantine Tank for about 2 days until they regurgitate all the crud in their system. I learned the hard way that you have to do that before you dump them in your bait tank. Time to do some cat fishing.

What part of the state are you getting bullheads in ? I have not seen one in decades down in SE MN . We used to catch them all the time 30+ yrs ago and my grandparents would fix them and we’d eat them.

Not that hard to find. You can catch them pretty easy with hook and line or catch them in minnow traps. One of the better baits for flatheads.

Must be a MN thing. I don’t think we can do that in WI?

Once the bullheads start showing up in feeder creeks sucker are usually there. And then the big channels start showing up, clockwork every year.

I can’t seem to figure out how to catch a bullheads without it swallowing the whole dam hook….

riverruns wrote:

Must be a MN thing. I don’t think we can do that in WI?

I’m not sure about trapping but WI allows a person to use anything for bait as long as a person doesn’t go over their daily limit.

Use a small circle hook under the bobber.

Come to think of it, I do recall some people from WI trapping/netting bullies. (whether it was legal or not, I don’t know )

2019 WI Bait Laws:

Bait minnows may be taken, where allowed, by the following methods only:
• Hook and line.
• With seines no more than 35 feet long with a mesh no larger than one-half inch
stretch measure in inland waters. Fifty-foot lengths of seine may be used in Minnesota
and Iowa boundary waters.
• With dip nets no more than eight feet in diameter or square.
• With traps no more than 24 inches long and 16 inches in diameter or square with a
throat measuring one-and-a-half inches or less. All traps must bear their owner’s name
and address and be emptied at least once every 48 hours (once every 24 hours on trout
streams). Note: Except for bait dealers with the proper permits, the transporting of
live, harvested minnows or suckers away from the water where they were caught
is not allowed.

But there’s more and here’s the whole WI bait rules:

https://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/fh/fh0301.pdf#page=18