Went out and tried to get creek chubs and came back with two dozen of these in an hour and a half.
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Went out and tried to get creek chubs and came back with two dozen of these in an hour and a half.
Attachment 67455
Attachment 67456
We call those Green Sunfish or Ricefield Slicks. Alive they are #1 bait for Flathead Catfish. Blues and Channels with hit them too. They don't grow too big when baiting for Flatheads either.
how do you hook these when using as bait? i am going to attempt to use some for some very hook shy large mouth that are in one of our farm ponds.Quote:
Originally Posted by NIMROD
We call them Goggle Eye round here.
What we call goggle eyes around here have a mouth more like a bass and red eyes.
stick a 6/0 gamakatsu octapus hook right in the top of the back
Green sunfish for sure and excellent flathead bait. They can be fished on circle hooks as large as 10/0. DO NOT use them live in small waters such as ponds that do not already have them; they can be invasive and are extremely hardy and adaptable fish and not at all fussy about water conditions or oxygen content either. Where it is legal, they and the other sunnies are also excellent muskie live bait, especially where suckers are the main live bait used for muskies and they have gotten used to seeing suckers presented. In some waters they regularly reach 6 to 8 inches and then are excellent sport in their own right on light tackle. They hit hard and fight hard often taken bigger baits than most sunfish will touch. They are also as good eating as any other sunnie when they are big enough.
I like to hook them through the eyes or lips as most big fish swallow them head first given plenty of time.
Yep we call a similar fish '' Warmouths'' by Goggle Eyes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackhawk19
Hard to find many streams , lakes, and older ponds in the south that don't already have these.Quote:
Originally Posted by no1son
Greenies are widely adapted and can be invasive if introduced into waters that do not have them. Once you got em you generally got em for ever.
They are excellent bait where they already exist, both for catfish, especially flatheads and bass from Iowa south. While they are illegal to use as bait up here, muskies around here prefer sunfish to the legally available suckers and bullheads. One sees some idiot use them every once in a while with often dramatic success. There are times when the uninformed who bait with sunfish simply cannot get the bait back out of the water before a muskie grabs it. Just one better not get caught by the game wardens doing it. The penalty is stiff.
Back some 40 years ago, I spent a winter in Tampa. Down there the local golden shiners were used in some pretty large sizes, as much as 8 to 10 inches, for bass. One caught one's own on a tiny little hook baited with a bit of bread. Back then they were fished live under a bobber at the edge of hyacinth beds. They are as good as shad for catfish cut bait too. We have them up here too and they are excellent walleye bait and in the smaller sizes for larger crappies, too, but we cannot get them regularly from the baitshops. Since that septicemia deal blew up around the Great Lakes an in Wisconsin, Minnesota has shut off a whole lot of outside cultured bait and that includes those shiners.
Those are very good/easy to catch flat head bait. We call em "black perch" I know it's a green sunfish. Big hook right behind the dorsal fin.
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