Do you love big bluegill?

Mixed in Some Big Golden Shiners

These things were hitting just as hard as the Gills I caught this afternoon......

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Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on March 3, 2012 at 12:30am: Golden shiners are a fairly common forage fish, I've learned. That came as a surprise to me.
I think they are mostly at home in weedy, backwater environments, too. Unless I miss my guess, they are akin to shad and herring.
But where those are more oriented towards open water, the shiner seems to be the opposite. At least the only place I've caught them, or known them to be caught, is close to emergent, vegetated shorelines.

We used to fish with them in Florida a lot. But those were shop-purchased. I dont recall them giving much trouble in the bait tank and they seemed to hold up well. But Ive heard the same thing about them, i.e., that they don't hold up well when caught in the wild.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on March 2, 2012 at 4:27pm: Golden shiners are a not uncommon forage fish.
I think they are more at home in weedy, backwater environments, though. Unless I miss my guess, they are akin to shad and herring.
But where those are more oriented towards open water, the shiner seems to be the opposite. At least the only place I've caught them our known them to be caught is close to emergent shorelines. And youre right; they dont hold up well once caught, at least not the wild caught ones.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on March 2, 2012 at 2:11pm: They are very hard to keep alive...I caught a dozen one afternoon last year, all lip hooked and only a couple made it until morning with good temperatures and aeration....I agree on the bait thing though, size translates to big predator....Big spawning channel cats will eat this size shiner up!

Comment by dick tabbert on March 2, 2012 at 1:10pm: Man what a great ice fishing bait for Northern Pike.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on March 2, 2012 at 9:34am: I don't know the science behind them Zach but I don't see a problem with the bluegill in the small lakes that have these shiners in them....Sometimes you can't get anything else to hit when you size down your bait for gills.....I've caught these things over 10 inches before in these lakes.....

Comment by Zach Pierce on March 2, 2012 at 9:29am: I would sure like to find a place I could source these so I could get them started in a pond. I bet these would sure put off some babies.

Comment by John Sheehan on March 2, 2012 at 7:51am: Jeffrey those Golden shiners do get that big here in New Jersey !

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on March 2, 2012 at 2:23am: Wow, Jeff - shiners on a #4 hook. Thats surprising! They can ne a handful when they are running. Great cut bait, too.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on March 1, 2012 at 8:32pm: I think the insects had these shiners in a frenzy as well Jim.....The lake was just active...the kind of day when you're constantly looking over your shoulder to see where that last strike came from!