Excluding trout and crawfish, what is the best baitfish for bass growth? The lake in the development where I live has Crappie, Bluegill, and some Sculpin. Do catfish have a lot of protein in them?

I fish a small mud hole, that has some big bass in it(8-11bs). No trout and a very limited crawfish population from what I have seen/looked for. There is bluegill, crappie, and bullheads, along with bass.

Pretty sure the bass get big from eating bullhead catfish. Not that the bluegill and crappie do not help but these bulls are always small but heavier/bigger than the gills and crappie. Plus the spines are not that pronounced, so they seem very easy to eat, while having much more mass than a crappie or bluegill.

Would really like to see some sort of calorie/protein/fat count for similar size bluegill, crappie, bullheads, pikeminnows, shiners, chubs etc.

First off, I bet there are some other fish in the lake that you may not know about. Probobly related to carps minnows or suckers. And these are the fish that will be the main food source for a predator like bass. They are spineless which is really important, and they are typically found in more open water environments making them more vulnerable than say, bluegill, whose body shape and size is ideal for escaping big predators in brush, rocks and weeds.

Are you near sacramento? I thought for some reason you were. If so look for sacramento blackfish, sacramento suckers, split tail, pike minnows and dace.

>First off, I bet there are some other fish in the lake that
>you may not know about. Probobly related to carps minnows or
>suckers. And these are the fish that will be the main food
>source for a predator like bass. They are spineless which is
>really important, and they are typically found in more open
>water environments making them more vulnerable than say,
>bluegill, whose body shape and size is ideal for escaping big
>predators in brush, rocks and weeds.
>
>Are you near sacramento? I thought for some reason you were.
>If so look for sacramento blackfish, sacramento suckers, split
>tail, pike minnows and dace.

Do you know a rough or estimated nutrition breakdown for each species? I think that catfish/bullhead would be best from a calorie perspective but I do not anything about this, other than guessing, and observing the meat of some of these fish.

The spine question is intriguing. If a small catfish is better than what ever other species is in the body from a nutrition stand point, then if you caught caught catfish and de-spine, then they are clearly the top choice.

So could the spines of a sub 2 or 1 pound catfish hurt a bass, or hinder it. I do not think it matters, but if they do hurt or hinder, is it reasonable to de-spine catfish you catch, possibly fishing for cats to specifically de spine them? Will this cause anything bad other than a bunch of bass devouring catfish?

I would assume the bass are headshotting these catfish and the spines never "engage" but this is all guessing.

No idea on the nutritional breakdown however I will offer some opinion here.

I would argue that the smaller the catfish the worse the spines are in terms of how they may damage the internal organs of a bass. Anybody here know what a madtom is? Getting stung by one of them in the 1-3" range can knock you off your feet! I get stung about once a month during peak fish sampling season.

Removing a spine wont do much in my opinion. Over evolutionary time, I think bass have evolved various ways to avoid eating foods that are harmful to them on a broad scale not individual assessment of prey items. Especially since they co-evolved with those Madtoms I mentioned. I think the both mechanically and behaviorally, bass are not going to be eating tons of catfish. In addition to this, I have caught tons of bass with fish in their throat, and only 1 of them I confirmed 100% that it was a catfish vs. like 3 that I've seen with trout, 20+ shad and 10+ minnows, carps suckers etc. (However you might liek to know it was a bullhead)

Nutritionally I dont think bass are smart enough to know that one is slightly more nutritious than an other. I think that evolution has played those cards for the bass by shaping them both physically and behaviorally the way they are. If catfish turned out to be the best prey item for them, they would have mouth and eyes directed more towards the bottom of their body. And we would encounter less overlap in habitat use of both catfish and bass.

Hope this helps?

Ryan

Yeah thanks, that helps a lot.

So carp is better than sunfish or bullheads, this sounds promising and I will have to fish some other lakes more.

What is your take on madtom baits and people livelining live madtoms?

Do the fish mistake the plastic madtoms as crayfish and eat the live madtoms due to extreme hunger?

I am sure they get eaten by bass. But I would think that spineless fish that live in open water are preferred to camo, spiny, tiny, bottom oriented fish.

I think in general, people tend to overthink everything in bass fishing. Bass will eat something that looks like something living. Unless it displays "aposomatic coloration" which signals "im poisonous" like a newt, it will probly get eaten.

I have caught bas on live sunfish before, so I know they get eatin up all the time so who knows? Myabe I'm wrong. but I think catfish is not a prefreed food item!

Thanks for all the information. Really interesting stuff. I have never been stung by a catfish or madtom, so I did not know about the pain.

Thanks for all of the info fellas. The lake I'm talking about is in Clovis. The pump water into it and during the summer they pipe ditch water into and I don't think any fish can get into the lake from the ditch. The only other fish I've seen in the lake other than the ones I mentioned are Koi. I see them from time to time but I don't think there are enough of them to put together a good spawn. I do think there are a few channel cats in the lake but I'm not sure if they have had a successful spawn yet. I need to get the HOA to put on a kids trout derby during the winter.