Of Baitfish and Streamers

[Gray Ghost]

Does anyone know the predominant bait fish species in Adirondack trout ponds and lakes? I've never really paid much attention to this, but boy it could be darn useful when choosing the right streamer pattern.
(duh ) The only species of baitfish i've known off the back of my hand are creek chubs (probably not the real name) and suckers. Just hoping someone out there can throw some other species my way.

[Hugh]

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/index.html http://academic.emporia.edu/mooredwi...st/fishlab.htm http://www.fishbase.org/search.php?lang=English Heres some sites rhat maybe of interest to you,also search the NY Dec site I believe they have A listing of ponds and lakes and have a listing of species swimming in them including baitfish,also add golden shiners ,emerald,and icicle shiners and alwievs and lets not forget ciscos to almost anybody of water thats easy to get to,also its not enough to know whats in a body of water you got to know what the baitfish prefer for instance ciscos and alwieves like the depths,eneralds and goldens like shallower areas etc. Hugh

[Hugh]

Forgot to mention also that trout arent squemish about eating there own,and Ive caught many brookies on a Slaymakers Little Brook Trout bucktail. Hugh

[Gman]

Are dace minnows in ADK ponds?

The same type of ponds up here in Ontario are full of them. They are less than 3" long usually much smaller. The more common name for them here is mudminnow. They have a dark line down the side and a red belly, smooth scaled and quite plump. They live along the shoreline and rarely venture beyond shoreline debris. Trout cruise the shorelines poking there snouts into weeds and debris looking for them. They are such an influence that when ice fishing a trout pond we often take one step off the bank and drill a hole!

I tie a fly for them that seems to work well. It's a muddler but I replace the squirrel hair wing with black hair (bucktail, calftail etc.) and I put on a bright orange floss body ribbed with gold tinsel. I tie the fly with flourescent orange thread on a mustad 9672 #6 or 8.

[Gray Ghost]

I know there are black nose dace in some of the streams I fish because I've used them as bait on plenty of occasions (this is where bait fishing is allowed, of course). In an earlier post, I mistakenly referred to them as creek chubs, but that is another fish altogether. I found a good link on baitfish which I will post.

[Gray Ghost]

Here it is:

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/fish/fishspecs/minotext.html

[Gman]

The minnow I'm talking about is without a doubt a Northern Redbelly Dace.

[Creekwader]

Shiners (common and golden) have been introduced almost everywhere from bait buckets so I'm going to say those are the most populous. Dwarf white suckers, creek chubs, dace of various types, brook sticklebacks, and smelt are other popular minnows. Somewhere in the ADK lake survey site they give some statistics on minnow distribution if my memory is correct.