Bait fish by season?

[Catt]

Scientist not agreeing on something aint that amazing

[Paul Roberts]

Well...You are all correct! So Shaddap now! ;D

Defn:

"Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate."

This would describe crayfish just fine. But...hibernation is really meant to describe something special that occurs in some mammals -warm blooded animals.

The info I had was that craws become active/inactive at the 50F mark. And indeed, as a trout fisher, by mid spring, about the time water temps broke 50F, the brown trout would be packed with craws like bellies full of gravel. There was a definite migration. I also sampled creeks with nets and seines while teaching aquatic ecology to fly-fishing groups, and found craws packed in leak packs (in slack eddies) in winter.

But, I've read of some species that can be "active" at somewhat lower temps.

In ponds and lakes, most crayfish seem to do the same thing I saw in streams. I dunno what craws do exactly in my bass waters, but they do disappear by winter, and reappear along shorelines in spring. This was really noticeable in one pond that is part of my LM spawning check beat. The craws appeared along shore in late April as water temps reached upper 50s just prior to the bass spawn. I started seeing their freshly dug burrows (under cobbles -not in mud 'chimneys' like the southern ones) then, and even watched some cleaning out burrows.

Here's a cool report from IF this past winter; an article on ice fishing for catfish in Colorado reservoirs. The guys used UW video and found areas of deep water in which they described the bottom as carpeted with thousands of over-wintering crayfish. How cool is that!

[WRB]

We have had a good exchange on crayfish, crawfish, crawdads or whatever we call them. Good information and links to look at for coloration and habits. No reason to shut up, good reason to continue with other prey type information like bream; bluegill, pumpkin seeds, green sunfish, copper nose, shell cracker or whatever else this group of prey fish maybe called.

WRB

[Matt Fly]

Please, someone give some info on blue herring.

Would love to here some info on Tilapia.

   

[Muddy]

There is no one on the site with as much knowledge about baitfish than Matt, Catt;s a close second.

[WRB]

Wild shiners like the golden shiner are common in a lot lakes from Florida the native region all the way out west where fisherman have introduced them as baitfish.

Shiners are very similar to herring, they both like cool highly oxygenated water and can be just under the surface to just above the thermocline, similar to bass. Shad are open water baitfish and use cover for shelter and feed on plankton, shiners feed on tiny aquatic life.

The best way to learn about these baitfish is catch them. Shiners like the same areas as bass; hard bottoms with weed edges in about 12 feet of water during the summer.

Try chumming with ground up chicken based dog food*. To catch shiners use a ultra light rig with 4# mono, gold #16 treble hooks and small gold swivel. The swivel acts like a weight. Make a dropper rig with 2 gold trebles, one about 3" below the swivel, then longer 18" leader for the other treble hook. You can bait the lower treble, shiners will hit the gold treble without any bait. Fly line the rig and let settle into the chummed area and twitch the rig.

Shiners can be fished using the split shot rig like a plastic worm.

To catch tilapia use fresh frozen peas for both chum and bait.

Baitfish are fun to catch and learn about them at the same time.

WRB

PS; * mixture of Alpo and whole oats.

[WRB]

Freshwater sculpin (collidae) are another bass baitfish we tend to overlook. Sculpin are rock dwellers, usually mottled brown with black patches and tan colored bellies. Sculpin are colder water baitfish that bass target during the winter period, but also year around.

Soft plastics often replicate the size, color and movement of sculpins, unknowingly to the bass fisherman.

WRB

[RoLo]

To catch tilapia use fresh frozen peas for both chum and bait.

I'll have to give peas a try, Tilapia are almost as delicious as Bass

[softwateronly]

On 7/24/2009 at 3:46 AM, Catt said:

See if this helps

Bait Fish by Matt Fly

Part 1 http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1134661967

Part 2 http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1134662267/

Bumping all these great posts....

 

Found this guy and a few others struggling near the surface after the ice came off Saturday.  The seagulls were happy and I was surprised.  I've been fishing this lake for 15 years here in SW MI and never saw shad.  Flathead minnows, dace, and shiners seemed to me the only baitfish available but I was wrong.  I assume gizzard shad?

 

scott

 

 

[Functional]

from my minimal experience the colors and jaw look more threadfin to me. 

 

stock up on some sexy shad color. 

[roadwarrior]

Threadfin

[A-Jay]

Up this way, the Round Goby has become a Scooby Snack for Fat Brown Bass 

and just about everything else in the food chain that can slurp them down. 

 

 

My personal seasonal progression regarding a brown bass's food source

starts soon after open water.  Yellow perch spawn and bass will be in the mix.

Crayfish & goby pretty much all season.

Mayfly hatch in early summer, short lived though.

Then Perch & crayfish again until hard water. 

Learning where the food is and why has paid off. 

A-Jay

 

 

[Jigfishn10]

7 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Up this way, the Round Goby has become a Scooby Snack for Fat Brown Bass 

and just about everything else in the food chain that can slurp them down. 

 

Scooby snacks have a totally different meaning around here.  

[A-Jay]

6 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Scooby snacks have a totally different meaning around here.  

What a shame.

A-Jay

 

[Dogface]

23 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Up this way, the Round Goby has become a Scooby Snack for Fat Brown Bass 

and just about everything else in the food chain that can slurp them down. 

 

Crayfish & goby pretty much all season.

 

A-Jay

 

 

 

Maybe a little off topic but what is the biggest goby you folks have ever seen?

 

A few years ago I snagged one while fishing a jig on the St Lawrence. It was 10 inches long. I may have used it for bait but I had no tackle with me to fish anything that big. At the time I did not think they grew that big. 

[softwateronly]

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Threadfin

You sure?  Michigan?  On a lake that freezes solid every year. Water is probably around 37.  Ice came off Saturday and water was still turnover cloudy. 
 

scott

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, softwateronly said:

Bumping all these great posts....

 

Found this guy and a few others struggling near the surface after the ice came off Saturday.  The seagulls were happy and I was surprised.  I've been fishing this lake for 15 years here in SW MI and never saw shad.  Flathead minnows, dace, and shiners seemed to me the only baitfish available but I was wrong.  I assume gizzard shad?

 

scott

 

 

 @TNRiver46

 

I was informed the way to tell the difference is Gizzards have their mouths towards the bottom, that Shad looks like a Gizzard to me the way TNRiver46 explained the two to me.    

11 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

You sure?  Michigan?  On a lake that freezes solid every year. Water is probably around 37.  Ice came off Saturday and water was still turnover cloudy. 
 

scott

This was gonna be my second argument for why that's a Gizzard, I saw your location.  Those threadfins should have started to die off once the waters fell below 45-50d

[Team9nine]

24 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

You sure?  Michigan?  On a lake that freezes solid every year. Water is probably around 37.  Ice came off Saturday and water was still turnover cloudy. 
 

scott

Agreed. Can’t tell from your picture, as the mouth shape is one of the best ways to tell, but threadfin north of the Ohio R is a rarity that would require warm water discharge of some type through the winter as a refuge to survive. DNR has occasionally stocked them here in Indiana in lakes as a temporary food source knowing they won’t survive our winters.

 

Thread (left); Gizzard (right)

[softwateronly]

4 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Agreed. Can’t tell from your picture, as the mouth shape is one of the best ways to tell, but threadfin north of the Ohio R is a rarity that would require warm water discharge of some type through the winter as a refuge to survive. DNR has occasionally stocked them here in Indiana in lakes as a temporary food source knowing they won’t survive our winters.

 

It’s a natural lake on the MI side of Michiana that connects to a small stream that connects to the St Joe which in turn connects to Lake Michigan some   70 miles down stream.  I’m privy to our lake assoc water quality studies and the states dnr reports and shad have never been mentioned or stocked. I probably saw a dozen struggling fish near the surface and dozens  of successful seagull hunts over the weekend.  This lake is part of a flowage and has a robust ecosystem for not being particularly rural. 
 

scott

23 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 @TNRiver46

 

I was informed the way to tell the difference is Gizzards have their mouths towards the bottom, that Shad looks like a Gizzard to me the way TNRiver46 explained the two to me.    

This was gonna be my second argument for why that's a Gizzard, I saw your location.  Those threadfins should have started to die off once the waters fell below 45-50d

The water has been consistently below 45 since late November. Seems like threadfin survival is not possible. 
 

scott

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Dogface said:

 

Maybe a little off topic but what is the biggest goby you folks have ever seen?

 

In my case, you're looking at it.

Part of the reason for the photo op.

A-Jay

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, softwateronly said:

Bumping all these great posts....

 

Found this guy and a few others struggling near the surface after the ice came off Saturday.  The seagulls were happy and I was surprised.  I've been fishing this lake for 15 years here in SW MI and never saw shad.  Flathead minnows, dace, and shiners seemed to me the only baitfish available but I was wrong.  I assume gizzard shad?

 

scott

 

 

Looks more gizzard to me, rounded nose 

 

I’ve only seen 6-8 alewives in person so I’m not too good at those 

[softwateronly]

32 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Looks more gizzard to me, rounded nose 

 

I’ve only seen 6-8 alewives in person so I’m not too good at those 

Me too. Always thought their body was more elongated or tubular. When I was a kid, they’d wash up dead on the beaches in the summer sometimes. A smell that’s hard to forget.  
 

scott

[TnRiver46]

Just now, softwateronly said:

Me too. Always thought their body was more elongated or tubular. When I was a kid, they’d wash up dead on the beaches in the summer sometimes. A smell that’s hard to forget.  
 

scott

Smelled like the downstream end of the mega strike factory?