How to Build a Catfish Slat Trap
- 1). Gather material for traps and check the prices for white oak strips, ropes, blocks, rocks, and nails. Also give yourself some dedicated space for your rip saw, a table top or work bench, hammer, screwdriver and other tools. Cut bunches of strips of the various sizes, depending on how many traps you will build. Keep strips organized to make it easier to build different sections of the trap.
- 2). Build trap frames using 2-inch-by-2-inch-by-5-foot wood strips in the corners to form the frame. Use thinner slats on sides leaving 1-1/4-inch gaps for small fish to swim through. Use nail cutter to clip off nail points to avoid splitting the boards.
- 3). Construct a wooden door using the same slat material as the trap and add the door to one end with barn hinges. Screw in place. Tie the door shut with wire.
- 4). Make a wooden, funnellike entrance by making two wood squares. The first square will fit the end of the trap. The second should be about one-fourth the size of the first and nailed 1-1/2 feet back from the larger frame. Stack two funnels inside each other, nailing in place the forming slats. The second funnel should start about 2 feet back. The fish swims through the fist funnel, following the bait only to the opening of a second funnel, with the narrow opening of the first funnel restricting escape. It is like a giant minnow trap.
- 5). Add rocks to make the white oak trap sink. Tie it with a trail rope to a concrete block. Face the opening downstream so the bait from the trap flows out and fish follow the bait stream back into the trap. Traps can be used in winter when you have more current, and the muddier the water, the more fish you catch.
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