What lures best mimic mosquito fish?

[QED]

Local pond seems to only have mosquito fish and bluegills as bait fish.  The mosquito fish seem more prevalent.  What lures (in your experience) work best in that particular context?

[galyonj]

I don't think we have mosquitofish where I'm at, but I just read up on them and they're about the same size as the minnows that a lot of people down here love to use for live bait.

 

You got a bunch of options in that case. Small paddletail swimbaits, curly-tail grubs, small poppers and crankbaits, stuff like that.

[Deleted account]

Minnow colored stuff in the crappie box.

[huZZah]

I like light little jigs with hair that I toss and pull across the surface or just under it. I pop em a little and try to look erratic. Berkeley minnows aren’t my favorite but they also get the job done in the same way. 

[MAN]

I use these Bass Assasins to mimick little mosquito minnows if I am going to use a lure.  95% of the time I will just bring a little dip net catch them and put them under a cork.  They are the easiest minnow to catch in the world. 

 

[WRB]

Roboworm Alive Shad Smelt or FX Sculpin Baby Bass.

Iovino Little Slugger Shad.

Tom

[GreenPig]

Small jerkbaits, floating minnows & Fluke Jr.

[QED]

Thanks everyone, all good suggestions.  The most nearly similar plastic swim jig I could find was the Storm WildEye Swim Shad, which is more minnow shaped than shad-like, since the shad I've seen have a taller profile than standard minnows.  I still have some old bagley and rapala balsa minnow baits so I'll try those too.

 

A bit surprised that neither I nor the collective wisdom here found anything that was modeled specifically after the mosquitofish which are fairly common in the SF bay area and the san joaquin valley delta.

[Deleted account]

25 minutes ago, QED said:

A bit surprised that neither I nor the collective wisdom here found anything that was modeled specifically after the mosquitofish

Mosquitofish are too small to be a bass staple. Sure in a niche situation it's the way to go, but that is not normally the first choice. That having been said, there are tons of things that do a good job imitating them. For those not familiar, picture a skinny female guppy.

[mrpao]

They do make an excellent food source for smaller bass hanging around in the shallows though.

I've also caught some nice crappies using the large female mosquito fish as bait.

[RealtreeByGod]

In terms of looks and size - bouncing around a 1 or 2 inch Gulp! Minnow on a small panfish jig or Trout Magnet will be the closest, but you'll have to break out your UL and wade through all of the bluegills and greenies you'll get as bycatch. 

[QED]

Some stuff I found that are close enough to mosquitofish.  The Blue Fox Vibrotail Minnow (lower left) so far seems to be working best.  It's a 35ish year old lure that I bought off ebay!

[Bluebasser86]

Yo-Zuri Aile Killifish is what you're looking for. I have a few of them I use in ponds a lot on 4lb test and bass absolutely do eat them. I even caught a flathead a little over 20lbs on one of these tiny crankbaits out of a pond once. I don't believe they're made anymore so they're a little harder to find but still plenty out there.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yo-Zuri-Killifish-Freshwater-Ultralight-F645-HOK/dp/B004Q6XCDQ