No knife picture, sorry.
I hope I am not high jacking the thread. If I am, mods just delete it.
I know this is not a trigger, but it is something I have wanted to try since 1982, but I haven't yet. I carry rat traps for squirrels, and while fishing I was thinking how I could use my rat traps to catch fish as well as a hook and line. Here is what I thought up, but I have not tried.
Sorry for the bad drawing, but I am sure you get the idea. Drill a couple holes in the trap base for mounting screws and mount it to a stick. Drive the stick into the pond bed, bait it, and set the rat trap. I was thinking that the fish may be able to wiggle free of the trap if it was even alive at that point, so I wanted to drill a hole and screw in a another screw to hold the fish when the trap is sprung. You would basically spear the fish. I doubt you would need a screw sticking out more than a half inch, but who knows.
I would also position the trap so the fish is actually funneled into the kill zone with other sticks or whatever. Just so long as you don't block the movement of the bail.
I was just thinking how my squirrel traps could be used for more than just squirrels. I know this would not catch a huge bass, but for pan fish in shallow water I think it may work.
The other thing I have tried with these traps is using them as spring loaded trigger to set the hook when a fish strikes. Mouse traps work great for this Rat traps work to, but I leave more slack in the line tied to the tree, because the travel of the trap is pretty long and strong. It is a poor mans speed hook if you will. Just tie off your line to the wire bail and the trip. You need to have enough slack when you tie it off on the bail so when the fish strikes, it will pull on the trip before the wire bail. I hope this makes sense. Then tie off the trap to a tree. Again, sorry for the bad picture, but you get the idea.
