In Search of the Elusive Wild Shiner

I have been attempting to catch wild shiners with no luck. I live on a lake, and have a dock behind the house. I can see shiners in good numbers around the dock. There are also tons of Bluegill of various size from fry to adult. After studying Youtube videos I purchased a Gee's Minnow Trap in galvanized steel. I baited it up with bread, and placed it in about 3 feet of water on the bottom. I could see shiners in the area where I placed it. The next morning, nothing, as in zero anything in there. I moved it shallower, rebaited, and checked it the following morning. There were a few juvenile Bluegill in there, and zero shiners. I rebaited and placed it back in. Checked it that afternoon with the same results. Bluegills, no shiners. Now I have it moved back into deeper water where I see the shiners congregating. I have it suspended just below the surface at the level that I see them swimming. I also suspended the bread in the trap so that it would not float, and the shiners woudl have to actually go in to feast on it. Too early to see if there are any results, but I would like to ask you that are more knowledgeable what I may be doing wrong.

Watch Richard Gene the Fishing Machine on youtube he shows you how.
Best way we have found is at night with the Green lights and a minnow dip net.

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I've never baited shiners in my life but I have caught a ton with a cast net.

Tom

My uncle and cousin used to chum them with fish-flavored cat food, to get a high concentration of shiners, and then cast net them. The cat food they used was a brand called Puss-n-Boots, I haven’t seen that brand in years but any fish-flavored should work. You’ll need a large trashcan with aerator to keep them alive as you will get dozens. If you will chum from time to time, even when you are not going to net any, it will make them quicker to chum up when you are.

A couple different guys commercially fish for them at Lake Garcia just west of Vero Beach. Both of them are from Okeechobee. Ive seen them tossing dough balls made from bread in the water, apperantly just to get them started.
But they also have quite a few large bags of some type of dry food on board. Looks like the bags of animal feed gotten from feed stores. One of them told me all of his go to Fast Break tackle in Okeechobee.
Surprisingly both bait shops in Fellsmere, which is close to Stick Marsh/Farm13, and Garcia, told me their minnows come from Chicago.

Checked the suspended trap this morning. Nada. I must have the smartest fish population in the world living around my dock. I have considered cast netting, but there are a decent amount of weeds in the area which woudl foul the net. Also there would be a fair amount of bluegill bycatch that I would have to sort through. As far as keeping them alive, there is a small pen I have in the lake in the back yard. No aeration necessary.

Some bait fish do better than others when kept in a cage.
Pinfish do pretty well if you feed them, otherwise they eat each other.
They can also be caught in a trap easily.
Pilchards don't hold up well in cages and you wont be trapping them either.
I did ask one of those commercial guys how they hold up in his large tank, and he said he slows them down with oxygen. Might be worth asking a bait shop how they keep them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yobuck

Surprisingly both bait shops in Fellsmere, which is close to Stick Marsh/Farm13, and Garcia, told me their minnows come from Chicago.

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Those bait shops aren't getting any wild shiners from Chicago.

Are you just looking for bait minnows, or wild shiners? There is a HUGE difference.

Tom

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yobuck

A couple different guys commercially fish for them at Lake Garcia just west of Vero Beach. Both of them are from Okeechobee. Ive seen them tossing dough balls made from bread in the water, apperantly just to get them started.
But they also have quite a few large bags of some type of dry food on board. Looks like the bags of animal feed gotten from feed stores. One of them told me all of his go to Fast Break tackle in Okeechobee.
Surprisingly both bait shops in Fellsmere, which is close to Stick Marsh/Farm13, and Garcia, told me their minnows come from Chicago.

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The Kissimmee chain is were we used to net them. When we were going on somewhat of regular basis it didn’t take but a few balls of the cat food to draw them in. We had fish camp when I was a kid and we used soybean cake along with a sardine/stale bread paste as chum around our pier for fishermen. It worked extremely well for a variety species. We also used bags of catfish pellets, certain times of the year, when we wanted to catch a washtub full of whisker fish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by T_om

Those bait shops aren't getting any wild shiners from Chicago.

Are you just looking for bait minnows, or wild shiners? There is a HUGE difference.

Tom

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I was just stating that I was surprised they got minnows from Chicago, never bothered to ask about their shiners, and I am aware of the difference. Ive seen Stick Marsh bait shop deliver shiners to waiting anglers at Garcia in what would appear to be clear plastic pillows filled with water and several dozen shiners.

It’s likely you are not using the right bait for those shiners ?
Not sure what they would like though .
Might try something like dog food ?
Might need to be oily ...not sure
Are you sure they’re actually shiners ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

It’s likely you are not using the right bait for those shiners ?
Not sure what they would like though .
Might try something like dog food ?
Might need to be oily ...not sure
Are you sure they’re actually shiners ?

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Fortunately Florida has strong populations of Golden Wild Shiners throughout the state. They also are schoolers, so if you get them in an area you can usually castnet plenty. Minnow style traps and hook-n-line usually don’t produce very large numbers of them.

This is the best minnow trap that I have ever used. They have 4 entrances so they catch 3 to 4 times as many baits as most traps.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/live-...8-minnow-trap/

How to build them.

YouTube

[QUOTE=jackie53;3682887]Watch Richard Gene the Fishing Machine on youtube he shows you how.
Best way we have found is at night with the Green lights and a minnow dip net.

Here is the Richard Gene video

https://youtu.be/hA8KxCGZ_xQ

That's Huntersville Richard says he learned to fish living by Rodman as a kid!!!

Guntersville

Over my way no good shined except at let store $1 each!!!! North MS!!

Gold

If I were you, I'd consistently bait several areas for shiners where you've seen them before. Dog food, hog feed, or other feeds are good choices to draw shiners in. I've also used quick or rolled oats with success. When the shiners find the oats floating or suspending, a lot of times you'll see them plucking the individual oat flakes or "popping" at the surface. At that point, you can either throw a castnet on them or pick them off individually using hook/line. You can get more shiners in less time with the cast net due to its size and effectiveness, but you probably won't have many throws on the same bait spot before the fish spook due to the intrusive nature of the net. Plus, the net can be hard on the fish physically. Personally, I like to catch them on rod and reel using a small light wire hook, baited with a tiny piece of sticky bread or biscuit dough, under a small float. When the action is fast, you can load up fairly quickly this way. Plus, it is fun. If you go the hook and line route, try to minimalize handling the fish and taking of slime or scales.