Live Bait Q

[WormFisherman]

I just started getting into using live bait, but have no clue what I can and can't do. Theres a stream right next to my house full of creek chubs and I'm wondering if I can use them as bait in a different river. I looked online and the only thing I found closely related to this was that I can't stock any fish. Any help is appreciated.

[tycomps]

I just started getting into using live bait, but have no clue what I can and can't do. Theres a stream right next to my house full of creek chubs and I'm wondering if I can use them as bait in a different river. I looked online and the only thing I found closely related to this was that I can't stock any fish. Any help is appreciated.

chub are legal-

The following are defined as baitfish by New Jersey Statute: Alewife (anadromous and land-locked forms), blueback herring, golden shiner, banded killifish, mummichog, spotkin killifish, rainwater killifish, American brook lamprey, fathead minnow, bluntnose minnow, stonecat, tadpole madtom, margined madtom, all shiners, daces minnows, chubs and the American eel.

[WormFisherman]

Thanks. Just making sure I don't do anything dumb.

[acabtp]

Theres a stream right next to my house full of creek chubs and I'm wondering if I can use them as bait in a different river.
IIRC, there isn't a law against that in NJ, but please, please, PLEASE do not do that! It is a very bad idea for the future of the fisheries you enjoy.

That (moving baitfish) is exactly how parasites and diseases like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia are spread. If you are not familiar, VHS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_hemorrhagic_septicemia) is causing massive fish die-offs up in the Great Lakes region and has spread to Lake Champlain and other areas. VHS is just one such disease, there are plenty of others.

The spread of diseases, parasites and invasive species is very largely accelerated by the transport of bio-materials (like bait fish) from one place to another. It is important to limit this as much as possible, so please only use bait fish in the body of water you collected them from!!

[WormFisherman]

IIRC, there isn't a law against that in NJ, but please, please, PLEASE do not do that! It is a very bad idea for the future of the fisheries you enjoy.

That (moving baitfish) is exactly how parasites and diseases like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia are spread. If you are not familiar, VHS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_hemorrhagic_septicemia) is causing massive fish die-offs up in the Great Lakes region and has spread to Lake Champlain and other areas. VHS is just one such disease, there are plenty of others.

The spread of diseases, parasites and invasive species is very largely accelerated by the transport of bio-materials (like bait fish) from one place to another. It is important to limit this as much as possible, so please only use bait fish in the body of water you collected them from!!


Is this the same for the fish bought from fishing stores?

[baetis]

I'm not sure what the current laws are with regard to bait, but I've noticed that some bait stores warn you to keep your receipt with you these days. (When buying minnows or herring).

[Eskimo]

Is this the same for the fish bought from fishing stores?

My thoughts on this:

I used to keep Fat Head and Rosy Red (a similar yellow-colored minnow) bait minnows quarantined in an aquarium for a while before using them as live feeders in another aquarium. I have observed that the minnows you buy in the stores are in pretty bad shape. They are raised, shipped, and stored in over-crowded conditions. Many are sickly and die even after being placed in better conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if they carried a heavy parasite load.

Pet shop feeders also share water with fish coming from South America and Asia, providing many opportunites to be exposed to new diseases and parasites.

I also used to catch wild minnows with a minnow trap or baiting a tiny hook. Wild minnows on the other hand generally appear to me to be healthy. They live under uncrowded conditions and natural selection quickly removes those that aren't in peak shape to escape predators. I'm sure they carry parasites, as do most wild fish. Most wild animals in general carry a parasite load.

Given a choice, I feel that wild minnows are far less likely to transmit diseases and parasites into another body of water than domestically bred bait minnows.

Fish on!

[NorthJerzyG]

Pet shop feeders also share water with fish coming from South America and Asia, providing many opportunites to be exposed to new diseases and parasites.

Def agree with that. I was in the pet store recently and was telling the guy there to treat his f'n feeders once in a while. Got tired of seeing my fish look like death after every feeding. Melafix can get expensive if you have to use it 2/3 times a week.

[Skunk City]

Def agree with that. I was in the pet store recently and was telling the guy there to treat his f'n feeders once in a while. Got tired of seeing my fish look like death after every feeding. Melafix can get expensive if you have to use it 2/3 times a week.


Good for new fish or fish getting their a$$es kicked by others, but won't do anything for internal parasites or bacteria. I just lost about $400 in established African Cichlids due to a new $5 fish coming in with a parasite. SUCKS to say the least!

[NorthJerzyG]

Sorry to hear about ur tank, but with mine, it really only happens when I add new fish (feeders).

I'm assuming its a bacterial infection. Melafix says its good for eye cloud and body slime which they seem to pick up from the feeders. Day or two later and a 50% water change and they're good as new. Then they look like this..........

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i419/NorthjerzyG/IMAG0289.jpg

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i419/NorthjerzyG/IMAG0283.jpg


Any ideas on what else to use for bacterial infections, if that's actually what it is?

[Eskimo]

Any ideas on what else to use for bacterial infections, if that's actually what it is?



Is that a Redin Pickerel? That's awesome.

I lost all my fish when I lost power for almost two weeks following hurricane Sandy. Right now, all I have in my aquarium is a shoal of feeders to keep the filter biologically active until I can catch more fish.

Adding new fish to an established aqurium, even if they are feeders, always carries the risk of introducing a new disease the aquarium. One of the things I do to lower that risk was quarantine my feeders for a while before feeding them. As I said, the pet store and bait store minnows are in bad shape. They were often sick, sometimes poisoned on their own ammonia, and usually starved to lower their waste output.

I have a separate, established aquarium that I add a dozen or less feeders to at a time. Over the period of a week or two, the hopelessly sick ones will die off. The healthy ones will bounce back. I suspect the healthy fish carry fewer pathogens due to their own immune system fuction. The other advantage to quarantining feeders is they are eating flake food. A feeder that is "gut-loaded" with a healthy diet is far more nutritious than an emaciated, starved minnow.

I don't know what's happeing with your pickerel. Perhaps it's not bacterial, but has to do with spikes of ammonia in the aquarium. Things have to happen slowly in an aqurium not to throw the filtration system off balance. The ammonia oxidizing bacteria adjust thier population to meet the daily availability of waste produced by the resident fish. Perhaps when you dump in a dozen feeders, the added waste from the predator metabolizing all those fish at once and the waste produced by the feeders themselves may cause a spike in the ammonia making the fish appear to have an infection.

Well, that's just my theory. I usually only feed a little at a time at least once a day to keep everything in balance.

[NorthJerzyG]

Yeah, I usually like to keep a few at a time in the tank to let them forage at their own pace rather than go for a feeding frenzy. The rest of the feeders go into a holding tank for them to be fed.

The "infection" only happens when I get a batch of really beat up lookin feeders so I assumed it was coming from them. Also, its not a regular occurrence, but it's happened more than once.

[Eskimo]

What else do you have in that aquarium besides the pickerel?

As I said, I suffered a massive die-off during the last power outage, so my tank is bare. I'll get some vacation time after Christmas, so I may go looking for a Redfin myself. I have caught them before in the Passiac using small, fast moving lures.

[NorthJerzyG]

Sorry to hear about ur tank as well. I got lucky during the storm, only out for 48 hours. Its just two the two esox in there now. Didn't want to crowd them so it's just them and the food, lol. Lookin at upgrading my setup after the holidays, or when I finally get my boat back in the water.

And, back to the original topic, (sorry for thread jackin). Whenever I use bait, which is not nearly as often as I used to, it's always store bought. I have used chubs before but only a few times. Never saw any better production with them than using shiners. The important thing I remember reading is NOT to release any live ones you have left over into the lake/river you fishing.