Tessa its probably turtles getting through the basket. The crappie I put in the baskets I clean them everyday. I never leave them over night in the basket because ...more I've had the same problem before.
nice catch. Not sure you'll see this since it's been a while, but I have a question if you don't mind. Do you keep your catches in a fish trap like ...more that? I'm pretty new to fishing since moving to a property on Lake Granbury a few years ago. I've tried doing that twice, once with it hanging in my boat slip and once from my kayak. Both times, something literally chewed through the metal and let my fish escape. I've also kept bait in them in the boat slip and pulled it up to find a horror scene of headless shad in a wire cage that had some new holes bitten in it. I went though 5 or 6 of them. Is there a secret to using those traps to keep catches in? Like, does it only work in a boat that you keep pretty much on the move? We have a huge turtle population where I live. Think that's what's getting in them? Or does Lake Granbury have a secret massive piranha population that no one knows about? sorry for the super long post, but I couldn't send a dm. I'm new to this and they to learn from experienced fishers like you so I'd appreciate your advice on this. Is like to be able to use some kind of fish trap or keep net (OMG the mystery predator takes about 12 seconds to get into a mesh net!) to store fish until I'm done. if you have a product suggestion I'd love to hear it. Thanks.