Glass Minnows

[Algaegator]

I've done a small amount of research on these critters. Apparently, they're anchovies. I see them on the flats from time to time and usually they are being harrased by Spanish and trout. What I don't understand is why noone mentions using them for bait. Has anyone here tried them for bait? I'm thinking about getting a 1/4 mesh cast net to keep on my boat. What do you guys think?

[lordsfisher]

Interesting. Let's experiment with this and share our results. Yes I've noticed Spanish love these things, but I've never tried fishing with them. I suspected they'd make good bait, but I think a bigger bait will catch bigger fish. This time of year the most effective Spanish lures (small clark spoons, tiny gotchas, etc.) mimic these anchovies. I found small freshwater plastic jig bodies at Sportsman's warehouse that looks very much like one of these. You could make a speck rig out of two or more of these jigs and probably catch them easily with it. Small largemouth bass were tearing these little jigs up and the bigger ones I saw wouldn't touch it.

I think you could cover more water and catch more fish with a LURE that mimics these anchovies because the fish usually aren't that picky that are chasing these schools. But if you try the live ones, I'd be interested in knowing how it goes. I'm thinking you might have a hard time sneaking up close enough to these to cast net them, but I haven't tried it. One thing that might be good is to cast net a bunch of these, anchor and throw handfuls out. I bet they'll school up. I bet they'll die quickly so don't try to hang on to them more than 30 minutes. I learned this fish schooling behavior the hard way years after spending an hour catching little bait inshore then walking about a mile to the end of the Destin west jetties carrying the heavy bait bucket. After fishing for a couple minutes, I noticed a small school of bait fish swimming up and down the jetties. It was our bait. My buddy had left the lid open! If you throw the bait far from the boat, the bait will gather together and then often go for shelter under the boat bringing the fish to you. I see them do this on tv in south FL all the time.

This is how my experiment would go. Try to cast net some. Then troll with a small silver spoon until i catch something. Anchor and throw out handfuls of these every few minutes. I'd put one under a Cajun thunder. And throw jigs that look just like them. Hey I have fun catching short fish too. I'm down in Naples now and went out to the pier last night and it looked fun catching small spanish and ladyfish on jigs.

[What a mess]

They call it a Christmas tree when you through the net on bait that is to small for the mesh and they all get stuck in the net takes a while to pick them out and is no fun.

[lordsfisher]

Christmas tree

Been there, done that, but never heard that term.

[What a mess]

They can be bought as frozen block chum and are great for that never heard of them being used as bait live.

[CoachDitka]

About 4 years ago I was messing around with a friend of mine on a couple PWC's (the fishing was totally dead!). We were in Apalachicola bay, on the back side of one of the islands, and saw fish tearing up on the surface near shore. We figured they were mackrel, and since we had not caught anything, we decided we would head back in the morning and have some fun throwing spoons. Turned out to be glass minnows spawning, getting torn apart by endless trout and redfish. If I pulled in some seaweed on my spoon, you could see it was covered with eggs from the minnows. Every cast was either a red or a NICE trout. We fished for 2 hours and had to quit from exhaustion.

Anyway, not sure where I was going with that, other than fish LOVE glass minnows!

-Coach

[dolphinatic]

I like them on pizza

[big bend gyrene]

The mackerel love the minnows, that's for sure... few years back each trip out to a nearshore reef there were numerous glass minnow baitballs being torn up by the mackerel. We would throw artificials out and anything small and shiny produced a guaranteed hit. Funny thing was that the mackerel were so full all brought to the boat were throwing up chunks of glass minnows. That's some true love for a food right there... when you're so full you're throwing up but can't stop eating

Anyway, my vote is with chumming bait close to the boat and throwing small, shiny artificials to the macks almost guaranteed to show up... if they're in the eating mood they're going to eat just about anything you throw out so why fool with the Christmas tree effort? For whatever it's worth, will say that the macks seem to be one fish highly tuned to water flow, eating the minnows when waters flowing but much less willing to eat on slack tides. They'll still chase baits back to the boat for the sheer heck of it (seen them do it about a million times) but much less willing to open their mouths when the waters not moving.
BBG

[leonreno]

Probably very hard to keep them alive for live bait and too small to hook them and cast with out killing them. Also, probably hard to keep them from falling of the hook dead or alive. If the mackerel are feeding on them and they are small, they will not usually hit any lure that is larger than the bait, you must match the hatch. My favorite is the 00 Squid spoon from clarkspoon. Its the smallest one without the red bead. Was trolling with one and did catch a small trout on it when trolling over grass flats in about 6 feet.

[What a mess]

bubble rig:

Clea casting bobber 1/2 full of water, leader 2" straw from Mc Donalds the white yellow red one works fine. Rattle traps work good. Devils horses work great but you will lose a bunch. Clark spoon. Neon green grub reel as fast as you can. Don't cut off the school you will put them down. get to where you can make a cast. and it is often really good or anchor chum and get them heading your way.

[FlatCrazy]

I have netted glass minnows before. They are very fragile. Take my word for it that if you ever cover a school of them with a 12' net with 1/4" mesh you will begin to hate life. I gave up picking them out of the net after about 15 minutes. Took the net home and let the neighborhood cats eat them out of the net for me.

My guess is that even if you are lucky enough to find a school of "large" glass minnows they would still gill themselves. They are a long, slinder bait fish.

I made that mistake once and will never try it again. Throw a live white bait/LY into and around the school of glass minnows that is being attacked. You will get just as many strikes. There is not a red or trout alive that can pass up a good live white bait/LY rigged on a light wire "J" hook.

Just my .02