Our fathead minnows are caught in the wild and almost always have sticklebacks mixed in. One year, a bait dealer gave me almost 100 gallons of sticklebacks because fishermen don't like them. While our fish would prefer fatheads, they will eat the sticklebacks as well. That I can tell, they ate all 100 gallons of sticklebacks. Keep in mind that LMB will eat baby members of the catfish family that have very sharp spines. Sticklebacks will make just as good of forage but not as good of bait as fatheads.

Norm Kopecky