Mosquito fish instead of store bought minnows?

[FurFlyin]

Does anyone use Mosquito fish for bait? Minnows are apparently very hard to come by in these parts in the summer. I haven't caught Mosquito fish to use for fishing in nearly 30 years. I honestly can't remember ever fishing with them as a teenager, maybe I just enjoyed catching them like I enjoyed walking creeks and catching crawfish. Just for the heck of it I guess.

I called around for minnows today and I can buy them at a minnow farm about 20 miles from here, but I have to buy at least 5 lbs at a time and I don't have a way to keep them from dying in the heat. So....

After work today, I regressed to my childhood methods and walked a storm drain, with a large minnow net and probably caught 10 dozen or so Mosquito fish. I will hopefully find out tomorrow how well they catch crappie, but just to be impatient I thought I'd ask if any of you ever fish with them?

They are apparently very easy to keep because this stream is absolutely thick with them and it has no deep water, so I know the water gets hot in the summer and icy in the winter.

I've got a old cattle water trough that I may try to "stock" and see how they do. I need another hobby. LOL

[deathb4disco]

How about jigs instead of store-bought minnows?

[FurFlyin]

How about jigs instead of store-bought minnows?

I'm definitely a jig guy. I haven't bought a pound of minnows in the past year, but in my very, very limited spider rigging experience (3 trips) that minnow makes em hold on a little longer. I've tried with and without and tomorrow, barring all of them dying tonight, I'll be tipping jigs with minnows.

[CrappiePappy]

Hey, if you can catch'em for free & keep'em alive .... go for it !! When I was a young'un, my Grandpa would dip Brook Silversides (what he called "skipjacks") at night and we'd fish with them for Crappie. I did it a few times in my late 20's and wore out the Crappie with them. When my buddy & I had used up all the live ones in the bucket, I asked him "heads or tails" ... and cut the dead ones in half & we still caught Crappie on them.

Brook Silversides - what you see jumping/skipping across the shallows in the early morning & late evening hours. They eat micro-crustaceans, midge larvae, and small flying insects. I've also seen them jump after bugs flying under dock lights & even my old Coleman lanterns (back in my youth)

[tnduxcaller]

Could you please take a photo of the mosquito fish? We used to have a lot of top water minnows in the streams here in TN. Ours are just about gone. They are really good for smallmouth. They would pull the hook and split shot to the surface when a smallmouth bass got after them. Thanks

[FurFlyin]

I’ll have to wait until I catch more of them for a picture. Most of the ones that I caught yesterday were belly up this morning. The ones that weren’t dead are now mixed in with some toughies that I went and bought during storm delay #1. I don’t remember keeping an aerator in with them when I was a young un but maybe I did. They look a whole lot like guppies. I use to have an aquarium when I was a kid and I had guppies in it. They may be the same thing except these don’t have a colorful tail. We’re on storm delay #2 at the moment. Eating lunch now.

BTW, crappie like them just fine and so do bass. My son caught his PB largemouth this morning on one. 6lb 4 oz. That was a load on a 16’ Jenko.

[wolfhnd]

Years ago I threw a few leftover shinners in our ornamental pond. Within a month 6 turned into hundreds. First cold snap killed them all.

[CrappiePappy]

Could you please take a photo of the mosquito fish? We used to have a lot of top water minnows in the streams here in TN. Ours are just about gone. They are really good for smallmouth. They would pull the hook and split shot to the surface when a smallmouth bass got after them. Thanks

Eastern Mosquito fish (female) :



The Male Mosquito fish does not have the black marking at the base of the stomach area.

[Bamafan2277]

How far are you from Guntersville? I think Guntersville Tackle Outdoors carries minnows year round.

[whiskerwhipper]

From my trials and errors and more errors, mosquito fish aren't very hook durable. Goldfish, if legal, are 2nd best bait for crappie and on another legal basis, tiny bluegills caught on #16 fly hooks. Never tried goldfish(crackers count?) but did catch a big slab on a quarter sized Gill.