How to Trap Leeches

Prepare the traps. You'll need several metal coffee cans for this. Though the larger ones work best, any metal can will do. If you cannot find any coffee cans, a burlap sack with a wide weave will also work. Dump out any leftover coffee grounds and wash the cans out before using. Add rocks to the bottom of each can or to each sack to weigh them down. This helps them stay submerged in water.

Add bait to your cans. Fish heads or liver are great attractants and will result in a large haul. Crimp the top of the coffee cans so that the center is closed and two small slits remain on either side. This will keep larger predators from eating your bait.

Submerge the traps in body of water with a lot of shoreline vegetation. If the water is deep you may want to attach floats of some sort to the can to make locating and pulling them up easier. Gently fill your traps with water before submerging them so you don't loose your bait.

Retrieve your traps the following morning as early as possible, preferably before the sun rises. Carefully pull up each trap and pry the tops of the cans open. If you'd like the leeches to take care of sorting themselves, leave these open cans in shallow water overnight. This allows the horse leeches time to crawl out of the can. They are the only leeches with suckers that are strong enough to allow them to scale the coffee can. Fish are not attracted to horse leeches, so you definitely want to get rid of them before you begin fishing.

Store your leeches properly. If you trap leeches in the springtime, you can store them for use throughout the summer. You'll want to keep them in containers with fresh, non-chlorinated water. The refrigerator is the ideal temperature for them, or you can store them in a Styrofoam cooler in a cool spot. Remove dead leeches weekly and change the water regularly. The leeches will not die without food, although they will shrink a bit. To prevent this, add a small piece of liver periodically.