Bull heads for Bait

[RonT]

I have a unique fishing opportunity this weekend. Fishing an old DNR rearing pond that get fished very little. The owner of the land has told us we should use bull head minnows for bait. Anybody tried this, if so were you successful and where does one buy bullhead minnows? Thanks for any information you can give us.

[HooknHorns]

Check the catfish forums. The smaller ones are refered to as willow cats I believe.

[Kettle]

I have not done this, although I do catch my own bait often, creek chubs out of the Kettle river. Good luck fishing, if you ever need a fishing partner up here in northern pine co. PM me got a small boat and ambition.

Kettle

[Brad B]

Being a cat guy I will say this. Most people will look at you as if you are crazy for using bullheads for walleyes but they are a unknown bait option to most people. now the real truth is they are probably one of the best baits for trophy size eyes especially on rivers. this doesn't mean they won't work on lakes either. use a 4inch or smaller one and you can catch some nice eyes. I told this to a guy and he tried it and ended up catching a 23 inch eye on a 4 inch bullhead. I have also seen pictures of other cat guys that have got 30 inch eyes on bullheads when fishing the minnesota river. as far as getting bullheads to fish with you can check around with bait shops in the area and see if they happen to get any mixed in with their fatheads. my local shop in monticello gets bulleheads mixed in with their fatheads. they sort them out and put them in a different tank if they have enough. I asked the kid how much they wanted for some and he said the same price as a scoop of fatheads. most cat guys will go out and trap their own bait using minnow traps and if you put it in the right body of water you will get bullheads. if you do this just make sure it is not from a infested lake or river since it is illegal to harvest bait from infested waters. I have been tempted to get some and try them up on mille lacs since it is still under the hwy 210 cut off line(you can't have any bullheads north of Hwy 210)

let us know if it works for you.

[Brad B]

I have not done this, although I do catch my own bait often, creek chubs out of the Kettle river. Good luck fishing, if you ever need a fishing partner up here in northern pine co. PM me got a small boat and ambition.

Kettle

I wish you where closer to me as I would be willing to pay top dollar for larger creek chubs. down here around the metro if you can find them at bait shops you will pay close to a dollar a piece for large ones. Flatheads love them alive and channel cats love them cut up in chunks. they are one of the best cat baits next to sucker minnows. they should also be a good eye bait in rivers

[reinhard1]

i catch some big creek chubs in the creek running into grindstone also. the pool at the culvert. use them for pike and have cought some nice smallies on them while fishing for pike. good luck.