Rosy Red minnows

[JnT]

I fished with Capt Jerry Blake a couple of years ago and we used Rosy Reds.There is no one around this area that has them.I found some in a Wal Mart about 40 miles away.Could I buy them and keep them in an aquarium or pond?Thanks for any info or tips.

[Jerry Blake]

Hey JnT,

I'm raising Rosy Reds in a pond about 30-feet by 70-feet by 3-feet deep. I run plenty of fresh well water in the pond to keep it aerated and to flush out ammonia and other wastes.

You can keep them in an aquarium also if you don’t crowd them. They do well in farm ponds too as long as there aren’t too many predators to eat them up like bream.

I keep them on my boat for weeks at a time even in hot weather by changing out the water in the bait tank (a large ice chest) a couple times a day with 58-degree well water and keeping an aerator on a timer set to run 30-seconds every 4 or 5 minutes. On a hot day or if I’m on the water all day I’ll drain ice-water from my ice chest or put ice in the bait tank.

I keep a few minnows in a small bucket while fishing for convenience but also to let them warm up slowly before going in the lake and to keep from having to get into the bait tank too often. When I use up all the minnows in the bucket I dump that water in the lake rather than putting it back in the bait tank.

Rosy Reds will outlive shiners 10-1 and this time of year you can’t get small shiners but the average Rosy Reds are 1 to 1.5-inches long – just right for finicky crappie.

[JnT]

How fast do they multiply in a pond the size you have?

[Jerry Blake]

They spawn all spring and summer and right now the ones that hatched this past spring are nearly an inch long. They grow pretty fast and I'll probably be using some of this years hatch by this fall.

Now I'm trying to catch most of my brood stock - holdovers from last year - and use them for bait before they get too big.

My pond doesn't provide all the bait I need but it helps. For someone only fishing once or twice a week a small pond like mine would produce plenty of bait.

[Moose1am]

Hey Jerry:

How do you catch those minnows out of the pond? I am thinking about getting one of those small cast nets to help me catch some minnows. I was wondering if you ever used those to catch your minnows out of your pond or if you use some other method?

Also what do you feed the minnows?

They spawn all spring summer and right now the ones that hatched this past spring are nearly an inch long. They grow pretty fast and I'll probably be using some of this years hatch by this fall.

Now I'm trying to catch most of my brood stock - holdovers from last year - and use them for bait before they get too big.

My pond doesn't provide all the bait I need but it helps. For someone only fishing once or twice a week a small pond like mine would produce plenty of bait.

[CrappiePappy]

Hey Moose - when you get ready to purchase a cast net, if you decide to ... here's the place to look -- www.nylonnet.com -- but, don't order one on-line ... request a catalog and look thru it, first !! The catalog has many more options. And the 1/4in mesh size isn't listed on-line. This would be the mesh size you would want for minnows. Most of the ones I've seen on store shelves are the 3/8" mesh ... and in fact, that was where I purchased my first one (WallaceWorld). It would catch 3-4in Gizzard Shad with relative ease ... but many of them would get hung up in the mesh openings. They would lose a lot of scales, and sustain other "injuries", when being removed from the netting. I found myself using the majority of them as "chum" or as Catfish bait ... rather than for the Hybrid Stripers I had originally caught them for.
I purchased a 1/4" mesh net from Nylon Net ... and have successfully used it to capture Gizzard Shad (in the Spring) that were small enough to use for Crappie fishing (1-2in's long). I would think that small minnows, of the same length, would still be catchable in this size netting. Of course, if cast nets aren't going to be ideal for your bait capturing adventures ... the catalog also has seines and minnow traps, and a bunch of other "stuff" that you might find interesting.

I also found a website you may be interested in - Lake Surface Temp Reports ... (includes Patoka) It gives the name of the lake, date temp is read, current pool elevation, Summer pool elev., and temps. Check it out at - www.lrl.usace.army.mil/wc/reports/laketemp.html
............luck2ya .............cp

[Jerry Blake]

Hey Jerry:

How do you catch those minnows out of the pond? I am thinking about getting one of those small cast nets to help me catch some minnows. I was wondering if you ever used those to catch your minnows out of your pond or if you use some other method?

Also what do you feed the minnows?

Hey Moose,

I use a minnow trap that is about 20 x 20 X 8 - inches that has one end shaped into a funnel and a sliding door on one side to get the minnows out. It’s made out of a galvanized flat mesh and I don’t loose as many minnows as I did using the round traps made with wire mesh – they get stuck in the mesh trying to get out.

I feed them commercial fish food. One of our feed stores here has the meal type, which is a fine powder and floats on the surface of the pond. They also have a sinking pellet and that's what I use in the trap. The pellets break down into pretty fine particles after they’ve soaked a while and the smaller minnows can swim into the trap to eat and then swim back out. When I have a trap out I don’t feed them any meal and only feed them occasionally the rest of the time.

I've used a seine some but it's a pain to use and damages the minnows a lot more.

[labill]

Jerry........I have a friend near Carlisle, AR that farms minnows on a number of ponds on his property. One of the minnow types he raises called "Red Tuffies" became one of his top sellers, and he started building up that strain. He is doing well selling to baitshops and individuals, and even to other minnow farmers as brood stock. I can't even guess how many new ponds he has dug to increase his volume. I have a feeling that your "Rosy Reds" and his "Red Tuffies" may be the same critter. Have you ever heard them called by that name? I thought they were appropriately named after I tried them for crappie. They were super tough!! And as you know, they love them. Oh, yeah, and I introduced this friend to crappie fishing and he is now hooked forever. And the best part, he brought the tuffies and I provided the boat. The downside....well, he talked me into helping with his JANUARY!!! seineing, draining and cleaning. That was the coldest I have ever been, the most worn out, and the smelliest. I found a new respect for his dedication to his money machine when I discovered he had been doing it alone for years!

Best of luck!
Louisiana Bill

[Roberta]

Check out Robyn's Rosy Reds at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/rosies.htm

She gives you all the info you need on raising them in a pond or aquarium. We tried putting some leftovers in a new aquarium and promptly killed them. Now that it's aged, I might try again.

The couple of times we've tried thme for bait, we didn't see any difference in catch rate, but we also have trouble finding them large enough to use for bait since we have to buy them at an aquarium store. They sell for them for feeder fish and want them really tiny. - Roberta

[jolle]

We have used rosie reds numerous times for crappie, and we have come to the general concensus that they didn't work as well as minnows, at least as far as fish preference. They are very tough, however. We do still use them from time to time because we sometimes can get them for free.