Also, they bite gently. That might be why you don't catch any. Surry Co NC. Ric Swaim. If too abundant I would think they could make it difficult to maintain an algea bloom. Since it's in english Mankato, MN. I think young clams, as in newly hatched, parasatize fish. The clam waits untill a fish seems close then blows it larvae out its siphon tube. The larvae are alot like an adult, except when they feel a fish then close their "shell" onto the fish, where ever they may be.
They actualy live off of the fish for a while untill they drop off on a new habitate. I don't think this is a serious problem, and I will check my sources on this, it could be a few select species that do this.
Northwest Ohio - Malinta OH. Bill Cody. Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent. All american freshwater mussels "clams", but not fingernail calms Sphaeriidae , produce glochidia glochidium; pronounced glock idium. These are temorary, obligatory, and typically harmless parasites of fish.
Glochidia are very tiny. Specialized features are present for parasitizing fish. Glochidia are indiscriminately released from the gravid female mussel and become scattered and sink to the bottom. Fish become infected by the glochidia by brushing the bottom, stirring the bottom or by taking in water near the bottom.
Obviously bottom oriented fish are more succeptable to infestations. Then the juvenile stage breaks out of the cyst, settles, and then burrows into the bottom where growth to the mature adult mussel occurs. Fish that are infected with glochidia and transferred to other waters can spread the mussels into new water bodies when the encysted young mussel breaks out of its cyst.
Birds do not transfer mussels, clams or very rarely plants on mouths or feet. If and when waterfowl spread water plants it is almost always in their manure in the form of seeds and spores. Mature Fingernail clams mentioned above produce immature, fully formed individuals inside the parent. Joined: Oct Mary Parish, Louisiana. Dudley Landry. Hall of Fame Perhaps the most common of these organisms is the yellow grub, although the white,black and eye grubs are also widely found in fish ponds.
All these parasites have similar life cycles based on intermediate hosts such as snails or birds. Although these grubs are not harmful to humans eating the fish, they are unappetising and result in physiologic stress to fish. To control these parasites, their life cycle must be broken. Perhaps the easiest way to achieve this with the yellow grub is to eliminate snails, which serve as intermediate hosts.
Pond owners should avoid introducing snails and infected fish during stocking. If snails become established, vegetation control will limit their available food and cover. Perhaps the best approach to snail control is stocking redear sunfish which will further reduce snail populations. If these measures fail to control the problem within an acceptable period, it may be necessary to drain and dry the pond to eradicate these parasites. Blue heron through its feces to snails, to fish, then back to the blue heron when it eats the fish.
Thanks all; It appears then , according to Bill Cody, that they probably came as cysts on stocker fish. I've been curious because I dammed up a dry gully to create the pond. No previous water and they can't migrate like turtles. A bait floating 12 inches off bottom won't catch half as many fish as one dropped smack dab on the gravel. Because shellcrackers aren't particularly susceptible to lures, most anglers use live bait.
Worms, grass shrimp and crickets are probably the top three in popularity, but waxworms, meal worms, leeches, catalpa worms and bits of crayfish tail or mussel meat also get their attention. If you simply can't resist trying lures, curly-tailed jigs seem among the best, perhaps because their undulating action looks somewhat like a worm or insect larva twisting through the water.
Stick to the smallest sizes, and hop the lure across the bottom with a slow, steady "lift, fall, lift, fall" retrieve.
When possible, use slider-type jig heads where the lead is encased in soft plastic. Shellcrackers are quick to spit out hard items found in their food, perhaps because many creatures they eat are encased in shells. They seem to hold a jig with a rubber-encased head a little longer because of its fleshy feel, allowing an important added instant to set the hook.
Another tip: if plain jigs aren't producing, try tipping your lure with a tiny strip of panfish pork rind for added visual attraction. Or use a marriage of live bait and artificials. A jig tipped with a redworm or waxworm will nearly always outperform an unadorned lure.
Yes, shellcrackers are persnickety and hard to catch at times. But no self-respecting redear angler would have it any other way. Don't let summer pass without giving them a try. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Keith Sutton: Shellcracker Short Course. Rams add Beckham Jr.
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Usually the redear sunfish is found within bluegills and channel catfish that are moving up to spawn in the shallows. One thing that I have noticed while targeting shellcrackers exclusively is there propensity to occupy chunky rock shorelines that are fairly deep say 8 to 12 feet deep early in the spring.
The shellcracker can be found in this deeper water as they stage just outside known or likely spawning bays or pockets. Shellcrackers spawn in very shallow water but like to stage during preparation for the spawn in deeper water. Of course there are plenty of shellcrackers caught while bobber fishing for bluegill in the shallows. However, shellcrackers feed down.
While bluegills and other panfish generally feed up in the water column shellcrackers eat clams and snails primarily. It stands to reason that these great panfish are looking down to eat. So if you are targeting shellcrackers you should focus on the bottom where the majority of shellcrackers will be looking. This is just one little point of many that can increase your shellcracker catch substantially.
This is why I like to use a single split-shot and a panfish hook tipped with a small piece of nightcrawler. It works. Since people are normally targeting bluegill and other species when they catch the occasional redear sunfish or shellcracker, the most popular rod for bluegill is an ultralight rod. Especially when targeting trophy shellcrackers that can weigh 1 to 2 pounds.
The medium light rod or even a medium action rod has a little more power for quickly landing a big shellcracker. Even more important, when fishing for big shellcrackers, is the hook setting power. More than the stiffer action for fighting the shellcracker, once hooked. Choosing a reel for fishing for big shellcrackers is vital for consistent success. The most important thing to look for in a great spinning reel for shellcracker fishing is the drag.
Most popular reel manufacturers incorporate a good drag in their reels. I would just stay away from really cheap reels and stick with at least the middle of the road reels for the best opportunity to land more shellcrackers. Again the most important aspect of a good shellcracker fishing reel is the hookset. Using light line or braid is another important part of a serious shellcracker outfit.
A smooth drag is vital to sink that hook into the tough mouth of the shellcracker without snapping light line. The Orra spinning reel is durable and the drag is silky smooth. A silky smooth drag is important when fishing for shellcrackers, especially when using light line.
The best line for shellcracker fishing is quality line with a small diameter. I use 10 pound invisibraid as my main line. I attach a monofilament leader to it of 6 pound test line. This setup seems to get me more bites. The small diameter of the invisibraid allows the hook to float freely and more naturally in the water as you work the bait through the cast. The split shot is added about a foot above the hook.
Many people catch shellcrackers with jigs, but an old timer once told me that he never used a jig because the natural and instinctive impulse that the shellcracker has developed from eating snails is to instantly repel anything that they feel in their mouth that is hard, like the crushed shells. This made sense to me and so I stick with a small hook that is kept super sharp and a small piece of nightcrawler. Yes red wigglers work and crickets work or maggots, but as I have eliminated these things over the years my catches have improved and probably more importantly my hook-up ratio has improved and I think it could be that the small piece of nightcrawler feels so much like a nice little snail they love so much.
That is until this spring when I added a third. The smallmouth bass has got to be my all-time favorite, but the coho salmon is right there with it. A new species emerged as a top runner when I decided to fishing for redear sunfish on what is now my home waters.
A fellow outdoor writer Rick Bramwell was coming down from Indiana to visit. Rick wanted to catch some redear and I had no spots to take him. I did have one clue from a bass fisherman that accidentally caught a a big one in a tournament.
He was from out of state or he may have been a little stingier with where he caught it. Lucky for me he gave up the location giving me a starting point. It was a challenging week of searching the elusive redear. At night I studied videos and articles in search of answers, that without the tip from the bass fisherman, may still be unanswered. I remained patient through the questions in my mind and the cold front that would last a week. You see, the redear sunfish usually comes accidentally while targeting other fish, usually bluegills.
This is no different for me. They were all caught while targeting other species. During that week looking for a redear spot to take my friend, I came to respect the hard fighting and challenging sunfish. I fished 4 days straight, at least 8 hours each day, and I caught exactly 0 redears.
I failed to land a single redear, but I did lose two big fish that I thought might have been redear. Both were on a stretch of chunk rock leading into a small pocket. Steep drop near spawning pocket, something I learned from my nighttime studies.
This is where I would focus my efforts in hopes that my hunch was correct. Rick arrived with much anticipation. He had caught redear on Lake Barkley before, but it had been many years ago.
One was in 11 foot of water on that drop and the other was across the lake in 2 foot of water in the bushes. No rhyme or reason, but a clue that we were in the right area. The first place I tried was that little spawning pocket. The first fish that morning came quick. It was a redear but it was small, maybe 8 inches. It felt good to catch one early and that would be the only small fish that day.
I went on to catch 15; 13 of them were over a pound with one topping 2-pounds. It began a quest to learn all I can about this elusive adversary. Now with each spring, the smell of dogwood blooms and the sight of yellow flowers swaying in the shallows will forever trigger an excitement.
Much like the cool days of fall just before the rut. May 18, , is the day that project redear was born. Project Redear is my personal quest to learn more about the redear sunfish. The mission is to learn the habits and different ways to catch these elusive, hard fighting and excellent eating panfish. Personally, I like to put these fish in a league of their own. Redears, like bluegills, are colonial breeders, often bedding up by the hundreds in a single colony.
Where big ones are found, boats often stack up in bays and canals. Anglers use long poles baited with worms, shrimp, and crickets. The best anglers claim to be able to smell shell cracker beds. The most of us simply follow the crowd of anglers. An earthworm threaded on a thin wire hook, so that it can wiggle around, is a sure fire redear bait.
Worms may be fished on the bottom or left dangling under a bobber with baits near the bottom. Redears in our region often bed on pea gravel bottoms. I carry a long gigging pole to probe the bottom in deeper waters to locate pea gravel. When the spawn is on, you can bet that readears will have their dishpan size beds made in those areas. Missouri Department of Conservation fisheries management biologist Nick Girondo manages lakes and streams in Phelps, Dent and Pulaski counties.
He says the readears have become more common in the region over the last few decades.
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