Minnesota Bass Forage

[Central Bassman]

You hear a lot of the pro’s talk about matching your baits to the best forage (bait) in the lake, What do you guys think is the biggest forage for bass in Minnesota?? Is it Sunfish? Perch? Crawfish? Or Minnows??

I have my own opinions on this but would like to here what everyone else has to say???

[EBass]

Good Q - I'm going to say minnows, but I really dunno

[Deitz Dittrich]

I'm going to say Sunfish and Crayfish make up about 75% or more of a basses diet here in MN. Of all the bass I have had in my livewell, they have only puked up sunfish and crayfish. We all know they eat frogs as well... and I have caught a couple of bass that had bullhead tails sticking out. But I would still be willing to bet.. mostly sunfish! Then craws.. which may or may not change to vice versa depeding on the lake.

[fellowx]

Good topic! I was going to start a new thread about this too. You hear the pros and bass books talk about how Crawfish is the #1 food of choice for bass but I only see sunfish around the lakes. My guess would be "sunfish" as the primary forage food but I keep reading about Crawfish, and shad as the food source.

[Deitz Dittrich]

We have shad on the Mississippi, but thats about it. I would say that more lakes have craws that you think... they live on the bottom of the lake and you wouldnt see them much.

For instance I have never seen a crawfish on lake Chisago.. but I have had fish puke them up right next to the boat.. so I know they are there.

[Wayne Ek]

Craws for sure. But I think alot of the shallow bass prey on sunfish/crappie. And the deeper fish prey on perch.

[Central Bassman]

See i think it depends on where you fish in Minnesota and the structure/cover you are fishing.

[ikeslayer]

What do you mean central???? enlighten us

ike

[Ray Esboldt]

I say the bulk of a largemouth's diet is whatever prey with the highest protein is most readily available around their hangout. Like Deitz said, just about every lake has crayfish. But, I've fished lakes that I think have healthy crayfish populations where I have welled fish in a tournament, and they never puke up a crayfish. They puked up everything else under the sun, but no crayfish. My guess is that crayfish are not terribly high in protein and are nothing more than a filler meal.

Here's the oddest one I have saw. A livewell full of snails barfed up by bass, shells and everything. Why in the world were they eating those?

[ikeslayer]

how bout worms??? are there worms in our lakes? why do we catch them sometimes so easily on worms?

ike

[river rat316]

Worms are one of those lures that look like nothing but can imitate everything, same with tubes. I personally hardly ever fish with stuff that is an exact representation of something. I just want it to have the correct movement and action to trigger the fish into checking it out. Crawfish however are supposed to be high in protein and if Im fishing a rocky area its more than likely what I'm trying to imitate until the bass tell me different, in the weeds and the slop I would think there keying on bluegill/minnows and make an attempt to represent that. Its not always like that, have caught many fish on jig & pig in the slop or a fluke or senko around rocks, but I usually start out my day that way!

[ocf1]

I would say perch is a major pattern that I prefer to key in on.

[Central Bassman]

Ike... Here what I mean by that…I don’t know the best way to say it but ill try!!! To me it seems like if you are fishing in the metro lakes, the main forage would be sunfish. Just because there are so many of them and to me a lot of the metro lakes lack perch. But when you are fishing up in Northern Minnesota I would think the main forage would be perch just because there are so many of them up there unlike most of the metro lakes.

River Rat has it right on… Fishing hard bottom = Crawfish….When you are fishing docks most likely it is Bluegills/Minnows… When you are fishing reed/milfoil it could be Bluegills/Crappies/Millows…. I don’t know if that makes since but…

[Lunker]

I think it depends totally on where you are fishing, and what time of year. On river systems for example, most of the diet is going to be crawfish, and right after the crawfish numbers explode each year(I have seen bottoms alive with crawfish that hatched) it will probably be more like 99%. Also in the rivers and streams you have minnows not in the lakes like shad, chubs, etc. In the lakes you are talking more directed towards sunfish, perch, and again crawfish. Often whichever species is most abundant(and easy to catch) is most preyed upon.

[rushing]

Kinda surprised no one has mentioned bullheads. Most southern Minnesota lakes are full of them and alot of the bigger predators on these lakes use them for forage. Seen several very big largemouths caught with bullhead tails still sticking out of their throats.

[Central Bassman]

That is a good point Rushing

[SluggoMaster]

Don't forget about tulibee. Those are pretty common on some lakes too, as well as golden shiners.

[ikeslayer]

i have also heard of shad? Do we have shad in any of our lakes (threadfin,or gizzard i know are in the miss, or alewives????)

ike

[fishtastic]

It might sound funny but Mike Iaconelli recommends massaging the fish's belly to try to see what it had for dinner. If it feels crunchy and hard it might be a craw, if it's disc-shaped and revolves end over end it could be a bluegill. I've tried this in the past with no luck - I don't want to put too much pressure on the belly of a fish I'm going to release.

Of course the other option, and the most reliable, is to cut open the stomach of the fish you clean. I pulled this partially digested craw out of a pike last week.

[RK]

Hiya -

That's another reason why smallies are so cool - a lot of the time when you're reeling them in they barf, so you can see what they're eating...

As I think Deitz already said, just because you don't see a lot of crayfish doesn't mean they aren't there. Different species have different habits. On one lake I fish, you'd never know there were crayfish in the thing by looking in the shallows, but if you drop a camera down outside the weedline in mid-summer, the things are all over the place (suprise, surprise - it's an awesome jig and pig lake...). I've had scuba divers tell me the same thing about other lakes. Many crayfish species are nocturnal as well.

Especially on northern lakes, I think perch are a pretty important forage species, especially in late summer. When largemouths move out onto rock spots in August, I think perch have a lot to do with it.

For smallmouths, I know we tend to think crayfish is their main diet, but I think they're fish eaters a lot more than people think, especially in clear lakes. This is definitely true on lakes with ciscoes or smelt, but also seems to be the case on lakes with a perch/panfish/shiner forage base. When I'm in search mode for smallies, my first question is whether they're looking up or down. Sometimes smallies can get so dialed in on one mode of feeding that anything else gets ignored. If they're looking up feeding on perch or shiners, you can bounce a tube under them all day long and barely get bit, but get clobbered swimming a grub or 4" sickle-tailed worm, or throwing a soft jerkbait like a Fluke. On many of the lakes I fish smallies on a lot, they're looking up 9 out of 10 days... In August when the smallies go 'out to sea' on some of these lakes, the best way to catch them is often 'strolling' with a white 6" worm behind the boat - when we work around a point or something, they guy in the front will cast to the structure, while the guy in the back drags a worm on a 1/16" jighead 100' behind the boat. It might only be 6 or 7 feet down over 25 feet of water. Often the fish that hit out there are far bigger than the ones up on the rocks. Other colors work, but white (like a fish's belly) is by far the best (actually - the best was a 6" white/glow Ribbontail Power Worm Berkley used to make - but they discontinued the color ). We also catch them out there casting a white, pearl, or pearl chartreuse grub on a 3/8 oz jighead. Those fish aren't eating crayfish out there...

Some random thoughs...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Coach Dog]

Great info!

[lookincalifornia]

i am a big "match the hatch" guy. seems like the tails i see sticking out of big bass throats are crappie tails. even in ponds with stunted bluegill populations. perhaps they are easier to see.

just to shoot my theory down, i've caught bass out here on a perch patterned fat rap. there aint a yellow perch within a two day drive of the central valley

[funbilly]

I'm in a fun league in the noth metro. and 90% of the fish we have caught have had these blackish greyish slugs in their mouths. I don't know if they are eating them or if the slugs are just hangin aroun for a meal. If they are eating them, how would you match that!

[bassNspear]

Well it was a prove fact today when my Bro and I were out on the lake today that we saw something crazy. We were up site fishing 4lb largemouth this afternoon on a lake close to home, and we saw a 5+ largey chacing after monster sunfish. The bass was in about 3 feet of water, and was making a wake like a musky come towards the boat. It was eating sunfish like i eat McDonalds french frys.

After that, we saw three more 4+ largys chancing sunfish that were monster fish. It was a great day on the water, where we were getting fish up in the shallows with jigs. Fun time, yet easy time, when you can see the fish out in front of you with the sun out, and no wind.

[EBass]

I think those are blood suckers - the lil leech looking things inside their mouth and sometimes on the cheek or fins. I take a pliers and rip them off.

I don't believe they are eating blood suckers, but ya never know. Try to match that hatch