Bird seed bags. You can go to the store and buy bags you can hang from tree limbs or porches, that are pre packed with bird seed. Birds like small finches will land on them and pick the seed out thru the pours of the bag. These you can use in your wire minnow trap.
When my grandfather used maize he was using minnow traps made from screen wire and quart fruit jars, and the outer ring of the lid. Very effective in lakes, and free. The Cherokee were poor but, resourceful. It's the little things that might keep one fed, and my grandfathers children didn't have pocket money but, they never went hungry.
It's like making fire with a couple of sticks. When you first try, it seems impossible, but you keep at it, until you figure out the concept. Then you have fire anytime you want it in under a minute.
Keep asking question of any and everyone, and you will eventually hit a combination that will work for you. Minnows in a lake, are like minnows in a stream. They both have to eat, and neither is smarter than the other. You just have to figure out what make yours tick, and you'll never have to buy bait again.
I'll keep thinking and you keep tryin, and we both might learn somethin.
By the way, grasshoppers are in season here, along with crickets and earth worms. Throw a few of each into your trap. I don't know of any kind of fish that will turn any one of the three down.
