SportFishing and Charters Forum - help with pinfish traps

i set out my 2 pin traps yesterday at 11:00 am with a few boston macs broke in half in each. both traps were on the edge of a grass flat in 2'-4' of water depending on where the tide was and the area has good tidal flow and they were 300 yards apart. i went back this am at 8:00 and each trap had 50-75 pins and grunts in em. the problem was only a half dozen pins and grunts were hand size. all the others were silver dollar size.

what do i gotta do to ensure i load up on big pins? was it the area? depth?

Do you really think you will find pins that big? Even offshore, they are seldom larger than silver dollar size.

Bait them with lobster heads.

Try making to openings a little larger. The big ones might not be able to get in. I set traps like that all the time and get good sized baits.

i set out my 2 pin traps yesterday at 11:00 am with a few boston macs broke in half in each. both traps were on the edge of a grass flat in 2'-4' of water depending on where the tide was and the area has good tidal flow and they were 300 yards apart. i went back this am at 8:00 and each trap had 50-75 pins and grunts in em. the problem was only a half dozen pins and grunts were hand size. all the others were silver dollar size.

what do i gotta do to ensure i load up on big pins? was it the area? depth?

I put mine close to the dock in 8-9 ft. of water, no grass close by and usually load up with hand size. Never catch any grunts.

If you want bigger fish make the entry holes bigger. The smaller fish will leave when all the bait is gone. You can't leave it soak for very long if you want to keep some of the smaller baits maybe just 2 hrs. The bigger the openings are the more fish will enter and the faster your bait will be gone. 40 or 50 pinfish will eat a 1/2 gal of bait in less 1 hour.

put them around oyster bars instead of the grass

I put mine 2.5 miles due west of the passagrille marker. Every time I do so, I end up with traps full of large pins and large grunts. I use the galvanized traps with rebar around the bottom. I use half a box of sardines in each. I have never had a trap work as well as these do. I bought them at Holy Mackerel Tackle. Hope this helps.