Thread: Bullheads

i have gotin alot of them on minnows if you cant use live try dead or small shad down here in ga we mosty have speckled bullheads and they taste like crap i throw them back but yellows aint bad as long as there small

A 3-5# Bullhead is nealy a trophy and you won't catch many of them.

If you want a good Bullhead bait, use rotten shrimp... if you want to catch big Bullheads try frozen Anchovies or Sardines. Fresh chicken livers is also a good bait.

The smaller fish will always be the most aggresive and you'll have to weed through them to catch the bigger fish. If I'm not going to keep my smaller fish, I'll hold them in "jail" ( a wire fish basket) after catching them so they don't keep hitting my bait. The smaller fish are stupid because they haven't been caught that much... the larger fish, not so stupid.

I personally prefer the smaller fish for eating, contaminants/pollutants are cumulative and the bigger fish have more.

I am just tired of catching 6-8 inchers. 1-2# would be great. Dont have to worry too much about pollutants in most of my lakes, most are pretty pristine still with no houses on them and clean water.

I will give that a try though, maybe putting some bigger baits out when I find the small ones. I figured that the smaller ones wouldn't stick it out with the bigger ones for obvious reasons.

Too bad you don't have any lakes with flatheads, the big flatheads around here love them small bullheads. We catch them in a small river around here with nightcrawlers, don't know what kind of bullheads they are but they are black and only seem to get about 12 to 15 in. in size.

I know a medium size creek full of bullheads, and they're good eating out of clean running water. Most of these are from 10" to 14", but have seen them to 19" or so. They'll hit about anything their larger cousins, the channels, blues, and flatties will eat, just downsized a bit. I have caught them on crappie jigs tipped with soft baits. Nightcrawlers, crawfish, bread balls, grasshoppers, crickets, minnows, shiners, and small shrimp are effective.

Originally Posted by fish_4_all

I am just tired of catching 6-8 inchers. 1-2# would be great. Dont have to worry too much about pollutants in most of my lakes, most are pretty pristine still with no houses on them and clean water.

I will give that a try though, maybe putting some bigger baits out when I find the small ones. I figured that the smaller ones wouldn't stick it out with the bigger ones for obvious reasons.

Another thought is that your bullhead population my be overpopulated and the fish are stunted.

If you're catching a lot of fish close to the same size, this maybe be your problem. There may not be enough fishing pressurefor that species in that area. I've had this problem with Bluegills.

If this is the case, you need to have a "culling". You need to remove as many of the small ones as you can, take them home and eat them or give them to someone else that will eat them. I know you can't fillet a 6 or 8" bullhead, but I fry my small fish whole... head, gut, and skin them and fry them up! The fried tails are the best part, I nibble them kinda like potato chips!:p

When you can't catch the little ones easily anymore it's time to quit fishing that area for about a year. After the year is up, go back and see what you can get... you might be surprised!

Stunting hasn't been a problem in this lake. I catch small ones, others catch big ones. I have seen this in small lakes with a ton of yellow perch though. Went to one and took out 400 in 2 days and then took another 500+ out a couple weeks later. Over all I bet there was 20,000 taken out and every one of them was under 6 inches long. Once we started to catch a lot fewer fish we stopped fishing it. The next year we caught fish up to 10 inches and then the next we got a few over 12 inches which is awesome for a perch here.

Cleaning all those fish sucked big time but the fish and chips flavor won't be forgotten soon.

chicken livers work great, but hard to keep on the hook. IMO the big ones are attracted to the same baits that the smaller ones are. Move to a different location or to a different lake/pond/river. If the average bullhead size in a lake is 1/2 pound, it may mean that the lake is over-populated with bullheads and there is too much competition for them to grow.