So I have had a small forage pond which I stocked with 50 LCS in fall of 2014 and I would like to collect some of the larger ones to stock into my main pond. half of the forage pond is very shallow but I only see activity in the shallow area when the LCS are spawning. Since I cannot guarantee that I will be at the farm when the LCS go shallow I was hoping to catch some in the next week or two while they are in the deep area of the pond. What would the best way be to catch them?
Travis always said they were hard to catch in a trap but perhaps with the right fish food in the trap I could get them? I also remember him saying they were too fast to be caught in a cast net. I am hoping that the relatively small area of this forage pond means I might be able to snag a few with a cast net. Here are some pictures of the pond when it was filling up in 2014:
The picture "Pond1" is from the dam when the pond was 3' from full pool.
"Pond3" shows the dam and the "deeper" part in front that I was hoping to be able to throw a cast net.
"Pond4" is from the corner of the dam, most of the dirt is now submerged.
If anyone has snagged any LCS without using a seine net (which I might have to resort to...) please let me know how!
Rockville, I'm curious on this one too, glad you asked. What did you observe when you saw them spawning? What is the ritual? Who guards eggs? Do M and F stay close or only male watch nest? What do eggs look like? Are eggs scattered on vegetation or laid in a 'nest'?
I only caught one of my adult LCS and it did enter a trap that had been left out for a few days. I think it is unlikely traps will be a high yield situation. The small one posted first i believe was the one that came in the trap.
I did catch one a larger one in a seine net so netting sounds like a good plan too. (next 2 pictures)
Here is mine, not sure about male or female or age. Post pictures if you can of yours (I'd also like to see pictures of LCS young if you can catch them in a net)
I occasionally catch one with my cast net in the feeding spot in my small pond. I only put 4 in it ..They are very fast fish for sure...If you have lots of them you should be able to get a few in a smaller area...try baiting them up to a certain spot you can toss the net easily.
you did see them spawning once though?..that's awesome...
Last edited by BobbyRice; 11/15/1603:17 PM.
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When I saw spawning activity it was one fish seemingly guarding a small shallow area, the fish would cruise around a 3' diameter. It was definitely a LCS and not a bass as I have seen plenty of bass spawn. I cannot say for certain that it was spawning but it was doing something in that shallow water in late April... The fish appeared to be between 6 and 9 inches long but he was a good 10-15' from shore in about 10" of water.
I do not live on the property and make it up there every 5 or 6 weeks. My parents are there every weekend but beyond releasing the LCS when they arrived my Dad has no experience with them. If I can catch some this month I will absolutely post pics here for everyone to see.
Last edited by RockvilleMDAngler; 11/15/1603:33 PM.
ccreek - your 1st fish pictured is a shiner, 2nd fish is a lake chubsucker (LCS). What species of shiner did you stock?. The shiner in the picture is not a golden shiner. It could be a color morph of a spotfin shiner if you stocked them?
Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/15/1608:56 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
Bill, thanks for weighing in on the ID of that fish. When I first caught it I wasn't sure if it was my first sighting of a surviving LCS or not. AT that point I had never seen my LCS again since stocking and had no idea how big they would be. Later I caught the larger LCS which when I researched online seemed to match pictures of other mature LCS.
So for the first one, I have no idea. I only stocked FHM and GSH, but they came from the travelling bait truck that came to our local baitshop. I bought several bulk bags of FHM and GSH. I imagine it could have gotten in through that mechanism. The bait per the bait shop man has its origins back into a larger bait outfit in Minnesota but I can't be sure of that.
I'm not sure the bait truck would have special shiners that they sell at the same time like spotfins? If it is a spotfin, then I wish they would have given me more than 1 so I can try to get a stable population going
I did wonder about the various types of suckers but the mouth on that top fish isn't quite right.
I can go back and try to look at the date the picture was taken but I'm pretty sure this fish went in my traps right at ice out when it seemed that all the fish were really hungry and even the goldfish were readily going into traps. That activity stopped once the water warmed up. So I think these are early ice out colors. Actually now that I look again, you can see the winter look to the grass in the background of the picture that has the LCS, that was the one at ice out. Behind the top picture is green grass so I can't really say what month it was till I get home and check the dates on my pictures.
searching online it appears that this fish may resemble a male spotfin in spawning colors?
my fish:
online comparison image:
The strange thing is that the top picture fish in my pond has scales that are light alternating with dark. The bottom fish seems to have a dark band all the way around the scale with a clear center like a diamond tile pattern.
The spotfin in the bottom picture has a blue band of color behind the gill cover, mine does not seem to have that.
Spotfins and golden shiners do not cross breed. They spawn in a completely different manner and in different habitat areas. They belong to different genera and it is rare for different genera to cross breed. It would be similar to crossing a LMB with a BG.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/18/1608:51 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management