GSH, nice torpedo shaped body, easy for predators to swallow. Harder for them to catch as they can fly! It is the bait of choice for many (see post today about CC wanting to bite on a live shiner over chicken livers) They also reproduce in small ponds well. They tend to thin the herd on any other competing fish. They also like to take pellets at feeding time which can be a downside.
I sourced mine from the local bait man, got a full bag when his normal bait shipment came in. I also had luxury of putting them in when there were no predators so that I could stock smaller numbers and wait a couple of years for reproduction to kick in.
I have absolutely no vegetation in my pond right now, I also don't have any FA algae either which I believe is due to the presence of good numbers of GSH. Having no vegetation and no FA has led to very green water, secchi dish readings are currently running 11-12", they were 10-11" last week. Funny thing is I can take a bucket of pond water, set it on the dock, the water will clear within a day and then FA starts growing a few days later.
I stocked 3 dozen GSH from a local bait shop six months before my SMB and RES were stocked. If you are looking for larger ones you are more than welcome to come and get some of mine.
I just got a couple dozen from a local convienience store that sold bait. I looked them over and they seemed to be lively and healthy. I suppose a person could run into problems if he got some diseased fish or something but mine seemed to do fine.
Put a dozen in my 3 acre pond and a dozen in my 1/20th acre forage pond. Caught one later on hook in main pond at 6" but can't say I ever saw much of them. Likely LMB eventually got them. But in my forage pond a different story. First year FHM in that pond went gangbusters (RES, FHM and GSH in this pond). Would catch a GSH in a trap once in a while. This year the reverse. Rarely catch a FHM but can get lots and lots of smaller GSH in a minnow trap.
I hope the small ones go over the overflow pipe into the main pond during larger rain events and populate or supplement the main pond.
Wow, what size LMB (or gape size!) is needed to swallow a 9" GSH?? Can a LMB even catch a GSH of that size? What a great forage fish for larger predators though...
snrub, I have followed in your footsteps and am now raising fhs in my settling pond and they are doing well and making lots of babies. Now I am thinking of the shinners. have u tried the in your settling pond or just the forage pond? do u think they would reproduce or survive in a pond that will get muddy when it rains?
Tracy
Last edited by TGW1; 08/06/1607:53 AM. Reason: sp
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Thanks Shorty, I may do that someday in the future (add them to my settling pond). I did a bucket stocking of GSH'ers back around 20 months ago. leftovers from a couple of fishing trips, maybe a total of 40 bait sized gsh. I have seen one since then and it was around 3 to 4 " or had doubled in size. I have no idea if any reproduction has occurred. It was recommended to me not to stock gsh's due to possibility of disease, so I did not add any more to this heavy stocked forage lmb pond. But I added them prior to asking for the recommendation on adding gsh. oop's
Tracy
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
I ran another quick seine survey this afternoon, lot's of GSH, YOY RES, and BF tadpoles. I am very happy to see the RES after the significant winter kill that I had at ice out.
Nice haul Shorty ! Any analysis of your thoughts on the survey ?
No RES over 2" which was interesting, last year in October I ran the seine and hauled in lots of 3-4" RES and had a hard time finding any under 3". Back in late April and early May I ran the seine without single RES in the haul, all GSH and BF tadpoles. I was very worried that I had had complete RES winter kill event at ice out. My guess is that I had a few survivors but can't be certain of it. I did get a few sexually mature RES from Nedoc back in May and put them in the pond, I am just glad to see some recruitment occurred.
In your pictures there are no fish with red ear tabs, are the sunfish in your pics bluegill or red ear sun fish? I have in my pond some fish that look like yours just thought they were female bluegill. PS> the gsh are easy to tell what they are.
They are all RES as there are no BG in my pond. The red ear tab marking on RES doesn't start to show up until they are 2" to 3" and YOY BG and RES are hard to tell apart until they get bigger.
Having fished golden shiners for largemouth in Florida many times, I can say for certain a bass four pounds and up can easily suck a 9" shiner down. The last time I shiner fished with my late father in Orange Lake, Florida, I paid $1.50 each for 8-12 inch shiners.
Anytime largemouth and golden shiners co-habit, the shiners will be a preferred forage. A shiner's fusiform shape is "eye candy" to a largemouth.
It is almost impossible to find "large" shiners in my part of the country and I've been thinking about building a small pond to grow them.
I’ve considered using one of my grow out ponds to grow out shiners and then stock them in my large pond. Was hoping they’d do a good job of sucking up carp eggs but seems they may just destroy my water quality even further so I’ve held off.
The golden shiners and redears appear to co-habitate well in a forage pond.
Same experience here Bill. My RES fingerlings and GSH thrive in my 1/20th acre Forage Pond
I have moved lots of RES fingerlings and GSH over to my main pond from the forage pond. I need to seine it like Shorty did but I just keep after it with a cast net about three nights a week.
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