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Topic - Minnows
""I'm happy to feed my bass some fathead minnows for a few weeks to train them. I have a bait farm nearby that is reasonably priced. How long would the minnows live in a kiddie pool? I could aerate it, but would the ammonia buildup kill them or anything? I currently don't have a mesh/netted place for them to live in the pond and would have to keep them in a pool or bucket in the garage.""

How well the minnows live in a kiddie pool or bucket will all depend on how well you maintain good water quality and size of the container. The two main harmful water quality factors are dissolved oxygen(DO) and as you mention ammonia (NH4). A bubbler will help maintain good DO. DO with a bubbler aerator should not be a big factor unless you have lots of minnows per gallon of water. Some aquatic plants or filamentous algae in the pool should absorb ammonia and keep the ammonia at acceptable concentration. Regular water dilutions or exchanges with fresh pond water will help to maintain good water quality and reduce ammonia.

The other good option is do not overcrowd the minnows in the small pool or use a bigger pool. 3 or 4 dozen FHMinnows should be plenty to train the bass to eat your welfare training baits. If you need more, go buy more from a bait shop or trap or catch some small fish from a pond or ditch/creek as in the video below. Creek chubs are common in most small Midwest creeks and large drainage ditches. Note that the one larger "bluegill" that he caught was actually a green sunfish. 4 minnows a day X 12 days = 4 dozen minnows. Those kids even had the white heron or egret trained to eat BG!

This is how I would welfare train the bass to eat your minnows. You can also use small 1.5"-2.5" BG that you catch from a local pond. For every small fish you add to the pond I would trim off the tail or a couple of side or belly fins. Make them very vulnerable to the bass eating them. The bass will quickly respond to the free meals.

When you have only one or two bass remaining do this good option for real hook shy bass. After the bass are eating your minnows and are used to you standing there feeding them go get some small 2" BG or some local creek chubs that you can trap or catch with small hook and worm. Hold or store them as you did the minnows. Then each day for a few days trim the tails and add 2 -4 BG to the bass. After a couple days then rig each one as a minnow or small sunfish on the end of a line as in the following link. Notice closely how he attaches the fish to the line on his pole. Variations to this barbless hook rig hook-up can be created depending on individual conditions.


When bass are readily accepting and are pulling BG off your line, and when you are ready to remove the last bass embed a hook in the BG. Be sure to allow the bass to firmly swallow the BG before 'setting the hook' to insure catching it. Don't waste all your valuable money and time by having the bass spit up the BG. This results in strong negative reinforcement to the bass that you are not their friend.

I have seen LMB get so hook shy that when they see a human standing on the bank with a stick (fishpole) they turn and swim away. A human standing on the bank waving a stick is a signal to the bass there is TROUBLE in paradise and they should be very wary and cautious. I have had to lay flat on the ground to make me appear low profile to catch hook shy bass.