Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Holding golden shiners for bait

Hi I don't technically own a pond but i have one in my backyard. I wanted to place some chicken wire with some rebar to fence off a area to hold some golden shiners as bait. Will this work? and will they live long enough to reproduce? I was thinking of feeding them pellets as well?

Welcome to the forum!

Reproduce, I doubt it. They reproduce on submerged grass near the edge of a pond. I know that they will eat floating fish food pellets such as Purina Aquamax 500 or 600 sized pellets.

Instead of chicken wire, I would look into using smaller mesh that is made from a plastic material. Golden Shiners are pretty fragile, and wire tears up fins and bodies when it's hit or bumped.

If the pond is deep, you could make a square or round cage and keep them in that. http://stoneycreekequip.com/form/netting.htm The mesh will last for years and years. I have some that's been outside and in/out of the water for about 5 years now and it's not deteoriating a bit.

Hey - another bill cody. Welcome. Does the pond have a dock to get access to a cage or live box? Easy access to the cage that is best placed in deeper water (3-6ft deep) is important to feeding, maintenence such as cleaning the mesh for good water flow through, and checking on the health of the fish.

Why not build a large or small live box or a fish cage with a top/lid to keep predators out? Other fish such as small sunfish, or feeder gold fish as bait. could also be kept in the cage. The chicken wire fenced off area will not keep predators from eating all your shiners. Shiners and sunfish will likely eat cat or dog food, but koi or pet fish food would be better for the fish long term. Alligators may be a problem for plastic mesh cages in some FL ponds. Feed the shiners every day or two and they should live in there for months to even a year with good cage & fish maintenence. Do not neglect them and they should live well in a cage or live box.

There are a lot of old posts here about fish cages and how to build them, plus where to get durable cage plastic netting. Metal hardware cloth (1/4"-1/2" mesh) can also be used for cage material with PVC pipe as the frame. Cecil Baird1 prefers box shaped cages, I like cylinger cages. All my cages only have a top circle rim (sometimes bicycle rim) and pvc side legs to keep it upright when out of the water. I also have two rectangular live boxes 1/4" & 1/2" mesh with 1/2"PVC frame. A lid is sometimes very important.

Here are some links to old posts for lots of reading about fish cages and building them. Let us know how things work out for this.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showgallery&Number=328176
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=304501
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=129073
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=104020
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=11750
http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/rearing-bass.html
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/116055-fish-cage-ideas.html
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=219337

One was enough !!!

Thanks for the advice, yah the chicken wire would have been a bad idea and i would have also had to worry about birds and raccoons eating my bait. I'm just going to make a PVC fish cage, my dad's a plumber so we already have most the material laying around the garage. Thanks for all the links Bill! definitely going to help me while i construct this cage.

No offense ta either one of the Codys but just gotta ask. Buckey Bill, how many yrs have ya been takin trips ta Fl? If I have ta, I'll look up young William and check for similarities.

Bob Oh - you are too funny. You better look up Sir William. You should know one more quality person in FL since they are in shorter supply in FL each winter when Oh Bob is snow birding south.

Bob it is time to go out and chase the parrots off your roof.!.!

The squakin freaks had already ripped some of my roof even before I got here 10-4-14. Guess this is one of those ongoing fueds like the GHB wreak on us?
Am I to think you believe my presence down here is attracting more meth headed homeless freaks and driving ouy those with morals and conscience?

Hey Bob did you notice he didn't deny it?

Reminds me of a call a taxidermist I know got. This smart aleck teenager calls him up and says, " Hey man would ya mount ma mom?" The taxidermist says, "How old are you son?" The kid replies, " 19." The taxidermist reponds with, "I mounted your mom 19 years and 9 months ago." The taxidermist sad the phone seemed like it went dead followed by a click.

Bill is a man of action but few words. Would'nt have been shocked if he had replied that it all depends.

I had a cage like that once. I caught a nice 10 to 12 pound CC and didn't have time to clean him right away. I had him on a stringer but we were having trouble with turtles getting on fish if you just let the stringer in the lake so I got clever and tied off the stringer with the CC in the cage for protection. Annybody want to guess what a big CC can do to one of those cages in a couple hours?

Bob, sounds like you need a good quality, quiet, pellet gun.