I wanted to make a live bait cage that I could use to keep my muskie suckers minnows alive overnight in the lake. I have kept the suckers alive in the boat live well by using an aerator, but if I have a large number of suckers or have some that have had hooks in them, some tend to not make it. I have had the best success keeping them alive in the lake water off the dock. This type of bait cage can also be used to keep your catch alive until later if you don't feel like cleaning fish right away or for whatever reason. Below are the materials, steps and final result of my first attempt at making a live bait cage.

Materials:
- Roll of 19 gauge vinyl covered wire mesh
- Plastic spiral wire binders
- Needle nose pliers

Step 1:
Cut the wire mesh to length. You should have 4 pieces of equal length for the two sides and the top and bottom. I made mine 3 feet long and 2 feet high. Next cut the two end pieces. Mine were 2 feet by 2 feet.

Step 2:
Cut the spiral binders to length for each of the corners.

Step 3:
Start to assemble two side pieces. Start to feed the spiral binder from one end to the other. If needed, use your needle nose pliers to feed to wire. Once the spiral is fed the length of the side, bend back the ends of the spiral to make sure if will not come undone and that there are no sharp points sticking out.

Step 4:
Continue to assemble the other sides of the cage until the complete cage is complete....

Step 5:
Cut out you opening in the top of the cage and run a spiral wire one one side so a "door" is created.

That's it. Use what you feel is best to keep the top closed. I use some metal snaps to keep the top closed. Also, I just ran some extra wire that the wire mesh was wrapped up in to make handles on both sides of the cage.

For a first go around, it turned out pretty well. It was used this fall and worked great!