I live in a pretty unique geological area. This evening I went fishing in a place near the house where my wife would rather I not go. It has lots of springs, sink holes, caverns, etc. Nearly every time I go there, it is different. It is public property owned by the DNR.

I went there tonight to get some green sunfish to "can." I got them, plus several very nice LMB and some fat BG. My small cooler was full when I left.

I found a new sink hole that wasn't there a year ago. It was actually two sink holes with a common opening, divided by a rock ledge. The water level was at least 10 feet down from the ground surface. The rock ledge was about 8 feet down. The water was at least five foot deep on each side of the rock ledge.

On the "upside" of the sink hole were thousands of small green sunfish (1-3 inch). On the down side of the sink hole were thousands of what I assume are creek chubs, that were 3-6 inches. I brought home a bunch of the small GSF and creek chubs, which I've put into bags in the freezer. I plan to use them as catfish bait.

However, my main question for this long thread is -- are creek chubs invasive in ponds? I'll post photos tomorrow, but I'm fairly certain they were young creek chubs. It is possible they were young fall fish. In any case, I figure I could easily go there tomorrow morning and get hundreds of these chubs to use for bait in my pond and other ponds I've got access to.

Are there downsides to using chubs as bait in small ponds like mine? I'd like to try and use them to entice some of my now unwelcome and oversized channel cats that have become pests, and some LMB that just need to be taken out.

Thanks,
Ken


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