Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass Fish ID, Description only

Hello All. I have a nearly unseeable small fish, about 2" or 3" feeding alongside my CC on the fish chow. It is in deeper water, not the CNBG near the banks - moves much faster too. Sometimes just a few, often times a few dozen swarm on the feed.

This is what I can see: deep V tail, dark(ish) on top and silver on bottom. It is longer than round. They are timid of a me but dont seem to fear much the many 5lb CC that are feeding with them.

The pond was stocked with LMB, CNBG, FHM and REB after the drought. Before the drought it had GSF - looks like birds got them all. Some fish (including the CC) survived the drought in a small deep pool that I kept up with well water. I know the pond to have bullheads and carp.

Before the dorught the pond may have had 'others', but no crappie.
I put out a minnow trap tonight, but as it rolled to the bottom I expect to find mostly baby bullheads tomarrow.

I would like to be hopeful it could be some kind of shiner from somewhere, but I expect eveyone to guess baby carp. Could it be baby CC? looks more fish-like than cat-like. Is there a shiner that would feed on fish chow? Thanks for the help!

If you don't catch any of the desired small fish try baiting the trap with fish food and set it parallel to shore near where you feed pellets in water 14"-18" deep. Post a close up CLEAR picture of them when you catch some.

No luck in the trap, it is baited with the same fish food in a mesh bag. I moved it up higher, but these fish do not look like the type to hang out near the trap.

I tried to fish them out using the hard fish food and a small hook - a futile effort. They stay deep and come up only to hit the food. If they see too much of me they stay away. When I walk away from the bank it is a feeding frenzy. This is why I feel it is not the CNBG, which sit in the water staring at me waiting for me to throw feed in. I threw in a small grasshopper on the hook, they mostly ignored it - then a CNBG hit it. I tried a small fuzzy lure, they ignored it. After a few tries with the lure caught a juvi LMB.

After a couple hours of chumming the water and trying to catch them with the hard food on small hook, the LMB moved in and started taking swings at them - very fun to watch.

Tomorrow I will try corn, if that fails I might break out the cast net. I take my camera with me bill - when I do hook/net them I will be sure to post a pic.

The cast net may get a few during the feeding frenzy.

I grabbed everything I thought I would need to catch this fish, except the camera. As it turns out no pic is needed, they are golden shiners.
After chumming the water I tied three small bait hooks about 1" apart, baited the first and slowly dragged through the feeding hoard of shiners - still took about an hour and I think it was just a snag - but one was all I needed.

With the mid-days light it was also obvious there were more than a few dozen, there were a few hundred. I understand they travel mostly by bait bucket, but I had never seen these in my pond since the drought and runoff refill this spring.

Should I be happy to have shiners in the pond? I always thought I would have stocked them if I could find a real source (not a bait shop - I knew better). The LMB sure seem to love them. If I get a feeding horde of the shiners going the LMB are very actively running at them. Are they very good forage? better than my stocked CNBG (which seem to move at a snails pace next to the shiners)? Should I encourage the shiners and continue to feed them? I have already stocked about 500 CNBG. With the shiners do I not need to stock more CNBG for the LMB's sake?

Thank you Bill for the encouragement. I was about to bust out the cast net - still new and neat in the box. I bought it to catch next years big mass of juvi bullhead's. It's amazing to see that big black beachball of fish just roaming the pond. Now that I know what they are I hope the cast net will help me to keep their numbers down. They are a real pain and apparently my LMB's have better eats than a nasty bullhead juvi.

Shiners will be a benefit to the fishery. Expect to see their numbers decline as the bass get larger and more abundant.You will need other types of forage such as the CNBG to grow larger bass. Stock the CNBG asap.