Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Spotfin Shiners - Habitat, Cover and Structure

Guys,

I've found a source for Spotfin Shiners (SFS) but they are not cheap so I want to maximize my chance of success. The plan would be to try stocking some early spring in line with the plan to improve the forage base in my pond. Does anybody have any experience they can share? Specifically, spawning habitat, preferred cover and pond bottom structure were my first thoughts but all inputs are appreciated..

Thanks!

Bill D.

Once it's built - a way to find the shiners - used Spotfin for this example.


I'm also in Ohio and looking to not pellet feed, i.e., build or restock forage as necessary but within limits! So, in this forum I found a great reference source on finding locations to trap or 'collect' forage fish and their eggs.


So let's say your pond is in Greenville, Ohio 45331 is the important bit.

Go here and plug (your) zipcode into the Watershed: http://fishmap.org/watershed.html
- note some zipcodes have multiple watersheds so all you do is click on a watershed until the you have the one where your pond is located.




From there you find your watershed by clicking one after the other until your map comes up with your pond.





Once you have that up, you can look below it and if every species of finfish observed is listed by common name. Simply scroll down to the species you're interested in and click it.


Click that species.... it brings up all observations and breaks that into native, historic and introduced.




Zoom into your watershed and the locations where it's been documented by whom and when shows up.




Select a location and zoom in.... It shows, usually a common access area to possibly put a trap or egg collection up. The intersection of Holler Rd. and West Branch Greenville Creek



You can bet I'll be doing this as I found access to a stream that has populations of both SFS and BNM.

Be well...

thanks for this excellent tutorial! You can see in the last picture that the helpful person who documented the minnow being in that stream was none other than Brian Zimmerman. He collects and raises a variety of native fish for aquarium use or if he has larger numbers for pond stocking. He was very helpful for me in getting some neat sunfish types stocked in my pond.