Fish Traps (Bait Traps)

Thirty some-odd years ago, when I lived in Texas, I used the trap below in freshwater to catch live bait -- mostly minnows or small brim.  It was very effective. 

I'm finally cleaning through all the junk I moved but never used and I came across this bait trap in my old, unused fishing gear.    I've never used it in California waters --I've clearly not even used it in the last 33 years, but it's still in good shape. 

I looked in the regs and think it is legal to use in freshwater to catch bait, but maybe not legal in salt water, but I'm not sure.  It's about 16" long  (less than three feet) and the openings are larger than 1/2" -- probably about 3/4".

I'm looking for opinions about whether this thing is legal to use in California waters and if it's ethical to use it as well.

What do you think?  Legal to use?  Ethical to use? Should I keep it or dump it?

Dave 

used something substantially idntical to bag crawdaddies in the delta, bot at Fish'man's w-house.

There legal to use in certain places.  It could be used to catch eels in the river too.

Dave, that looks like a nice quality minnow trap. Don't throw it away. You can use it in most freshwater locations to catch minnows or crawdads for bait. For minnows, you may want to suspend it above the bottom by using a small buoy (or your kayak). For crawdads, just drop it to the bottom in a rocky area. When using it, make sure that none of the "minnows" are juvenile versions of fish with minimum size limits (like a baby steelhead, etc). I would also be careful using it in anadramous waters or places that require "barbless artificials" because the trap is technically a 2nd rod/line...and you can only use 1 rod in most waters that require barbless artificials, etc. Best bait is a can of wet catfood and some dry dog food.

Thanks for those replies.  I'm definitely going to keep it.  I used it often back in Texas --- 33 years ago -- for bait in freshwater setting. I'm planning to move to northern CA soon and am trying to jetison belongings that I won't use and don't need -- but I think I will hang on to this. 

Hang onto it. If nothing else Frank and Mike of "American Pickers" will come by and make you an offer.