Does Bass eat Pleco (Armored Catfish)?

[NeroXyn]

I was struggling to match the hatch in my local pond and suddenly saw a dead Pleco stranded along the bank.
 

I thought It would need to figure out a pleco imitator if I knew Bass eat them.

[Choporoz]

I know nothing about plecos, but I'd bet yes.  They certainly feast on blues, channels and mad toms.  

   Might try lures designed to look like gobys.  Venom and Stanley come to mind.

[geo g]

Like everything else, we have them here.  Dumped by some in the Asian food markets for a cheap local supply.

[Buzzbaiter]

9 hours ago, geo g said:

Like everything else, we have them here.  Dumped by some in the Asian food markets for a cheap local supply.

More than likely just irresponsible pet owners. I’ve never seen a pleco in an Asian market 

[Bird]

Pleco's were very popular among aquraist and hail from South America. 

As with any evasive fish, probably outgrew the aquarium and someone thought for the sake of humanity......let's just throw it in our local waters. 

I'm sure Bass would eat them. 

[NeroXyn]

21 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I know nothing about plecos, but I'd bet yes.  They certainly feast on blues, channels and mad toms.  

   Might try lures designed to look like gobys.  Venom and Stanley come to mind.

Dark Sleeper comes to mind, but I don't think they come with a blacker color.

Nor that I know what Pleco does in the water. I presume dragging would imitate it eating moss at the bottom. I have yet found if Bass eats them, though. 

3 hours ago, Buzzbaiter said:

More than likely just irresponsible pet owners. I’ve never seen a pleco in an Asian market 

At that particular pond, I don't know any asian market nearby.

Another one that is actually near asian market, I don't see any wild pleco either.
Also, I thought Plecos are poisonous due to their diet (Or at least of what I know before I came to the US).

[geo g]

6 hours ago, Buzzbaiter said:

More than likely just irresponsible pet owners. I’ve never seen a pleco in an Asian market 

I have seen guys netting them in the Everglades and filling the bottom of a big John boat.  When questioned they sell to Asian markets for some soup they make.  Armored catch fish are prolific in some areas.

There are many recipes on line for these fish. 

[Eric 26]

You can try to find Storm wild eye sculpin to match. I use the storm wild eye goby’s in 1/8 oz and the pond bass go crazy for them even though their aren’t any goby’s in the pond to the best of my knowledge.

[bulldog1935]

Both plecos and tilapia in the lower San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers resulted from the San Antonio Zoo stocking them in the zoo canals, which they tapped off the San Antonio River headwaters in the 1920s.  I suspect this was not uncommon 100 years ago, for biologists to release whatever exotic fish they thought looked interesting. 

State fisheries agencies have only become cognizant of the risk of biological pollution on endemic species within our lifetimes. 

Florida has breeding ponds for the aquarium trade, which get washed into the wild every time it floods. 

[Dwight Hottle]

I don't think bass target them as food. I'll see large schools of them near the surface & never see any bass feeding around them. 

[Aaron_H]

I've seen gators eat them, but never seen a bass spit one up. I'm sure they'd eat the juveniles but I've never seen it.

[NeroXyn]

19 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

I've seen gators eat them, but never seen a bass spit one up. I'm sure they'd eat the juveniles but I've never seen it.

I'd be scared if I had an alligator in a city pond in the middle of big city.

21 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I don't think bass target them as food. I'll see large schools of them near the surface & never see any bass feeding around them. 

A school of Plecos? Must have been invasive.
 

[Aaron_H]

1 hour ago, Bryan F. S. said:

I'd be scared if I had an alligator in a city pond in the middle of big city.

A school of Plecos? Must have been invasive.
 

 

Come to Florida! It's rare that I fish a pond that doesn't have a gator in it.

 

The plecos are unbelievable here, stacked around the banks of every pond. I've snagged them occasionally, but you'd be hard pressed to put a dent in their population without a net or gig, or bowfishing them. I've heard they make decent table fare, but I'm not brave enough to try it.

 

They do make a satisfying crunching sound when the gators catch one, though.

[Timpson]

I don't know about that but I once had a tank with a channel cat and a pleco in it. The catfish tried to eat it I had a hell of a time getting the pleco out of it's mouth.