Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Better luck with new bait

I caught a number of these little fellows in one of the small creeks running through my place using a minnow trap. Would these be shinners ? They are about 3 1/2" to 4" long.


I tried them out as bait, and immediately caught a couple of bass and missed on another one. My past fishing has been limited to 5 or 10 minutes of casting a spinner late in the evening, and the ponds haven't been very productive, but I usually catch 1 or 2 bass in the 12" to 14 " range. But, these were much larger and suprised me. I had no idea that any larger fish were there. Maybe, I've been using the wrong bait . Here's a pic of the second fish that I caught. I had problems removing the hook on the first one, and released him immediately - hope he made it.
(maybe I caught the same fish twice, but I don't think so. He appeared pretty lethargic when I released him)

Squeeky...

I am going to shoot in the dark here and guess creek chub. We will see if I am right. As far as bait goes, live is almost always is more effective than artificial. A LMB will eat just about anything that can fit in its mouth. The bigger the bait, the bigger the fish. They make LMB baits that are 6 - 10 inches long. I have seen one for muskies that is 12 inches long and costs $60 in Bass Pro Shops.

That ain't no creek chub...not what we call chubs, anyway. Looks like what we use when we're in Arkansas, and they were shiners. Wish we could get 'em in IA. Great bait...

It looks like a Shiner to me.

Shiner here too. I collected some fish from the little creek on our place a few months ago that looked like your pic. Most people agreed they were Golden Shiners. Here's video I shot when they were in a 10 gal tank:

My bad guys. I guess I shouldn't shoot in the dark.