Do smallmouth always go crazy for shiners/minnows or was the bite just strong today?

[Ohioguy25]

I accidentally caught 4 shiners in my crawfish trap today.  I’ve never seen behavior like this before, the small river/creek I fish in a spot that’s about 3-5 ft deep they were swimming into shallow water where they were visible and hammering it out in the open, I saw every take. Several were pretty big, some of the biggest I’ve caught this year. I’ve never seen smallmouth this aggressive. I literally caught 10 fish with those 4 minnows reusing dead shiners that the fish didn’t swallow.

 

It was amazing, I would have to think that I’ve just discovered the best smallmouth bait, not that they just happened to be feeding abnormally. Is that how they always respond to shiners? I need some more!!

[Bluebasser86]

You caught those shiners in your crawfish trap, so there's probably a bunch of them around, making them likely to be a food item the smallmouth are keying on, or at least one towards the top of their list. If you put a prey item a fish is keying on in front of it, it'll probably eat it. Make sure you know what kind of baitfish it is though, I know some of the smallmouth rivers I fish have baitfish species that are protected and not allowed as bait.

[Ohioguy25]

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

You caught those shiners in your crawfish trap, so there's probably a bunch of them around, making them likely to be a food item the smallmouth are keying on, or at least one towards the top of their list. If you put a prey item a fish is keying on in front of it, it'll probably eat it. Make sure you know what kind of baitfish it is though, I know some of the smallmouth rivers I fish have baitfish species that are protected and not allowed as bait.

But crawfish are their number one food source and they weren’t touching those

[Bluebasser86]

18 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

But crawfish are their number one food source and they weren’t touching those

#1 food sources change and what is most available doesn't necessarily represent the #1 food source. A soft rayed shiner is much easier to catch and digest than a craw, which is why baitfish like shad, herring, and trout are so sought after by bass. Digestion takes energy, so the more difficult something is to break down the less energy the fish gets for it's effort. 

[Ohioguy25]

21 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

#1 food sources change and what is most available doesn't necessarily represent the #1 food source. A soft rayed shiner is much easier to catch and digest than a craw, which is why baitfish like shad, herring, and trout are so sought after by bass. Digestion takes energy, so the more difficult something is to break down the less energy the fish gets for it's effort. 

Optimal foraging theory, makes sense. I always wondered how/why craws made up 80% of their diets when they’re low in protein, hard to digest, and have a pretty solid defense mechanism that can scare bass off, especially the bigger ones. Perhaps it is more exotic to them, sort of like we enjoy eating things like chicken wings and crab legs despite the low yield/work ratio. My guess would be that it’s because they are one of if not the only shellfish in their ecosystem, and so they stick out and are more desirable/different than the hundreds of different minnow species populating the river.

[TnRiver46]

Minnows have always been my best smallmouth live bait. Live craws get me some but not much. Minnows are magic (I like stone rollers and shad even better than shiners) . However I can always catch shiners off my dock in a minnow trap in about 5-10 minutes of soaking so I use them a lot and they work well 

[Bird]

Growing up, seining minnows was the norm before every fishing trip.....can't think of a better SM bait. 

 

Try a pearl fluke in the same waters. 

[Spankey]

21 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

But crawfish are their number one food source and they weren’t touching those

Just not their favorite that day. Tomorrow might be different. 

[Ohioguy25]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Minnows have always been my best smallmouth live bait. Live craws get me some but not much. Minnows are magic (I like stone rollers and shad even better than shiners) . However I can always catch shiners off my dock in a minnow trap in about 5-10 minutes of soaking so I use them a lot and they work well 

What do you bait your trap with? Why do you suppose minnows work so much better than craws if crawfish make up the majority of their diet?

[Spankey]

1 minute ago, Ohioguy25 said:

What do you bait your trap with? Why do you suppose minnows work so much better than craws if crawfish make up the majority of their diet?

Probably how they present themselves. Most likely overall numbers are higher. 

[roadwarrior]

Well, my "observation" would suggest otherwise. Yellowtail (threadfin shad) seem to be the primary forage 

on the Tennessee River. The density is massive, maybe billions, but certainly hundreds of millions. There is

no room in the coves for water!  Oddly, we find store bought minnows outperform natives by a significant

margin. Maybe the bass are simply attracted by something a little different.

 

Back to craws, I often find them in bass literally stuffed to the gills. So, yes they like them, but I think

the bass are forced to settle for shad as their main course.  Moving baits seem to be the ticket in

the spring and fall, but  I always have a jig with a craw trailer rigged.

 

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

What do you bait your trap with? Why do you suppose minnows work so much better than craws if crawfish make up the majority of their diet?

I think whatever is right in front of their face makes up the majority of their diet. They don't always do what the books and magazines and internet articles say 

 

[MGF]

I catch a lot of river brown bass on jigs, ned rigs and tubes...crawdad type stuff?...but this past week it's been flukes.

[Ohioguy25]

On 9/27/2020 at 1:19 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

You caught those shiners in your crawfish trap, so there's probably a bunch of them around, making them likely to be a food item the smallmouth are keying on, or at least one towards the top of their list. If you put a prey item a fish is keying on in front of it, it'll probably eat it. Make sure you know what kind of baitfish it is though, I know some of the smallmouth rivers I fish have baitfish species that are protected and not allowed as bait.

Do you think the minnows I caught in the creek yesterday (different watershed than my river) will work just as well as the shiners did? They appear to be either fatheads or creek chubs, not sure though.

[Mbirdsley]

Yes they will go crazy for shiners and golden shiners.  What ever is natural in your stream/river is what they are munching on.  Some of the biggest smallies I have ever caught have been with big golden shiners, circle hook on a slip sinker on the bottom of the river. 
 

pro tip: try and use circle hooks so it limits the chance of gut hooking them. 

[Sam]

On 9/28/2020 at 8:42 AM, Bird said:

Growing up, seining minnows was the norm before every fishing trip.....can't think of a better SM bait. 

 

Try a pearl fluke in the same waters. 

"Try pearl fluke in the same waters" gets a X2!!!

 

Go for the size of the minnows.

 

Manage the weight to get to and stay in the feeding depth.