This seems to be becoming a popular topic, and excellent way to sample a stream with a bit of sport. I am pinning this topic with hopes that people will notice, and keep the discussion here for all to see.
Micro-fishing
Started by
Guest_Skipjack_*
, May 10 2013 11:17 PM
52 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_Doug_Dame_*
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Posted 11 May 2013 - 12:06 AM
Philip Kukulski and I micro-fished for dollar sunfish last year near Tallahassee. Not sure what size hooks he had, but they were very small. Lost a lot of bait to bluegills, but landed the dollars we were looking for. Only legal way to collect these mighty "gamefish" in Florida.
#3
Guest_Subrosa_*
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Posted 11 May 2013 - 06:49 AM
I took my 5 yr old grandson out on his first fishing trip last weekend, and if it weren't for the #24 hooks buried in my tackle bx we'd have gotten skunked. He caught his first fish, a 2" probable Greengill, along with a few other similar Sunfish and a nice 4" Chub. The hardest part was having to open up the eye of the hooks to take 6lb test line! Need to grab an extra spool full of 2lb!
Edited by Subrosa, 11 May 2013 - 06:49 AM.
#4
Guest_Mike_*
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Posted 11 May 2013 - 01:17 PM
Micro fishing can be a lot of fun, most minnows, darters, & other small fish are eager biters. (No Fishing Pressure) The hard part is getting the bait in front of them.
Some fish like Stonecats like to bite after dark, but the other Madtoms I caught did not care if it was day or night.
There are a number of websites that feature Micro Fishing: Micro-Fishing.com, Roughfishing.com, & nt-fishing.com are but a few.
This site is a good place to get the tiny hooks you will need. http://www.tenkarabu...hing-hooks.html
Give it a try, its fun.
Some fish like Stonecats like to bite after dark, but the other Madtoms I caught did not care if it was day or night.
There are a number of websites that feature Micro Fishing: Micro-Fishing.com, Roughfishing.com, & nt-fishing.com are but a few.
This site is a good place to get the tiny hooks you will need. http://www.tenkarabu...hing-hooks.html
Give it a try, its fun.
#6
Guest_catfishcain_*
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Posted 11 May 2013 - 04:21 PM
Chris Stewart from TenkaraBum.com is a really great guy. Even if you don't buy anything from him, he is a great guy to message or talk with. I buy most if not all my micro fishing tackle from him. I have even bought a few items from other dealers to test the waters and was not happy with their service.
Funny thing is the thing that got me into micro fishing was trying to sample the mountain steams for West Virginia. Being in the military my unit sent me to Camp Dawson up in the mountains for 3 months to work at an aid station (I'm a medic). Before I left I searched this site up and down for pics of the species that live in WV. Ive always been cheap so I decided to make my own net out of a window screen (none wire) and a coat hanger. Getto I know, but I also had bought some size 22 fly hooks from bass pro for some reason. I wanted to try and catch (at first by net) every species of fish in the local area. But the net was a failure and so I tried the hooks out and caught Creek Chub, River Chub, Blacknose Dace, Silver Shiners, Sand Shiners, and all sorts of juvenile fish like gar and sunfish. I later learned that the section of river I was on had greatly been affected by the coal mines back in the day. Since WV, I mostly do micro fishing and hardly fish for larger species. Large species can be fun when on the line but the smaller species are just as much of a blast when seeing whats on the end of your line. You never know what you can have. I went from only a few species caught on hook and line to over a hundred in about a years time.
Im crazy about micro fishing and want to get as many people interested about it as possible but I will admite it can have a down side. People that don't fish or that have just fished for larger species tend to over handle and hurt the small sized fish. I toke a guy micro fishing that never went fishing before and he caught some shiners and when he held them for the first time he held on to tight and squeezed the little guy to death. I was shocked but realized that most people should be educated a little about handling little fish and micro fishing in general before they go micro fishing. Thats one reason that i started working on a book about micro fishing. So far I have over 160 pages and am almost done with the writen part and am about to start adding pictures. If I can't get it published then its going to be available online for free.
Micro fishing got me so interested in ALL our native species of fish that now when I get out of the military I plan on getting a degree in fish biology and then seeing what job I can get. I don't care about how much money I will make or how many jobs are available out there. Most people say make sure you research to see if they make a lot of money and have lots of jobs available out there for it. But I've spent over 5 years in the military and am finished at 6 and have realized its better to enjoy what you do then hate what you do and have plenty of money.
One tip for spoting micros or fishing for them in general, is to go at night and use a high powered little flashlight (headlamps are usually to dull but can still be used) and look in the shallows of creeks, rivers, and lakes for any kind of fish. Once they are spotted then all you have to do is place the bait right in front of their nose. But make sure to check state regulations first because I am told some states it is against the law to use any kind of light to aid in fishing. Mostly because some people use lights to draw in bait fish that draw in game fish. Typically the fish will not dart off as soon as the light hits them. Pirate Perch on the other hand and a few other species are a different story. They will swim like crazy and will even run straight into rocks. By using this method I have caught species that were not thought to live in bodies of water that they had not been recorded in before. I've caught a Speckled Killifish on the Lower Little River in Spring Lake, NC. Granted I only seen it once and that was at night. But I really think micro fishing could get a lot of anglers (not all) interested into all the native fish species of North America and not just the large game fish. I think its a great way to increase membership in NANFA. Because once you draw their attention to small species then it could become just as interesting for them to use nets to sample lakes and streams or to go out and observe them in the wild enable to learn better ways to fish for them. That in turn could lead to them keeping native species in aquariums and so on and so forth. I know thats how i got into keeping an aquarium with native speices. I will never buy store bought again.
Funny thing is the thing that got me into micro fishing was trying to sample the mountain steams for West Virginia. Being in the military my unit sent me to Camp Dawson up in the mountains for 3 months to work at an aid station (I'm a medic). Before I left I searched this site up and down for pics of the species that live in WV. Ive always been cheap so I decided to make my own net out of a window screen (none wire) and a coat hanger. Getto I know, but I also had bought some size 22 fly hooks from bass pro for some reason. I wanted to try and catch (at first by net) every species of fish in the local area. But the net was a failure and so I tried the hooks out and caught Creek Chub, River Chub, Blacknose Dace, Silver Shiners, Sand Shiners, and all sorts of juvenile fish like gar and sunfish. I later learned that the section of river I was on had greatly been affected by the coal mines back in the day. Since WV, I mostly do micro fishing and hardly fish for larger species. Large species can be fun when on the line but the smaller species are just as much of a blast when seeing whats on the end of your line. You never know what you can have. I went from only a few species caught on hook and line to over a hundred in about a years time.
Im crazy about micro fishing and want to get as many people interested about it as possible but I will admite it can have a down side. People that don't fish or that have just fished for larger species tend to over handle and hurt the small sized fish. I toke a guy micro fishing that never went fishing before and he caught some shiners and when he held them for the first time he held on to tight and squeezed the little guy to death. I was shocked but realized that most people should be educated a little about handling little fish and micro fishing in general before they go micro fishing. Thats one reason that i started working on a book about micro fishing. So far I have over 160 pages and am almost done with the writen part and am about to start adding pictures. If I can't get it published then its going to be available online for free.
Micro fishing got me so interested in ALL our native species of fish that now when I get out of the military I plan on getting a degree in fish biology and then seeing what job I can get. I don't care about how much money I will make or how many jobs are available out there. Most people say make sure you research to see if they make a lot of money and have lots of jobs available out there for it. But I've spent over 5 years in the military and am finished at 6 and have realized its better to enjoy what you do then hate what you do and have plenty of money.
One tip for spoting micros or fishing for them in general, is to go at night and use a high powered little flashlight (headlamps are usually to dull but can still be used) and look in the shallows of creeks, rivers, and lakes for any kind of fish. Once they are spotted then all you have to do is place the bait right in front of their nose. But make sure to check state regulations first because I am told some states it is against the law to use any kind of light to aid in fishing. Mostly because some people use lights to draw in bait fish that draw in game fish. Typically the fish will not dart off as soon as the light hits them. Pirate Perch on the other hand and a few other species are a different story. They will swim like crazy and will even run straight into rocks. By using this method I have caught species that were not thought to live in bodies of water that they had not been recorded in before. I've caught a Speckled Killifish on the Lower Little River in Spring Lake, NC. Granted I only seen it once and that was at night. But I really think micro fishing could get a lot of anglers (not all) interested into all the native fish species of North America and not just the large game fish. I think its a great way to increase membership in NANFA. Because once you draw their attention to small species then it could become just as interesting for them to use nets to sample lakes and streams or to go out and observe them in the wild enable to learn better ways to fish for them. That in turn could lead to them keeping native species in aquariums and so on and so forth. I know thats how i got into keeping an aquarium with native speices. I will never buy store bought again.
#8
Guest_catfishcain_*
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Posted 11 May 2013 - 04:53 PM
By the way American Currents, is awesome. I got my first issue in the mail and for a micro fisherman that was like finding a pot of gold. Well done to all the people who contribute and edit American Currents, I was very impressed. If your a micro fisher then i strongly recommend joining NANFA, American Currents is well worth it.
I would be interested in submitting an article and I know atleast 3 other people that might be just as interested and may be even more knowledgable about micro fishing then myself. I think an article in American Currents about micro fishing would be awesome.
I would be interested in submitting an article and I know atleast 3 other people that might be just as interested and may be even more knowledgable about micro fishing then myself. I think an article in American Currents about micro fishing would be awesome.
#9
mattknepley
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Posted 12 May 2013 - 07:17 AM
I also think an article on microfishing would be not only appropriate, but fun. I think most of us NANFAns would agree that getting out, being in and on the waters, is the biggest thrill, most teaching experience, and self-renewing aspect of our interest in native fishes. From a pragmatic point of view, as Doug Dame said, it fills a gap in our collecting arsenal. What is illegal by seine, trap, or dipnet is legal by hook in line in many cases. And as described in a very recent AC, it may be the only practical way of sampling some species. (A Silver Bullet for the Crystal Darter?, Konrad Schmidt, AC vol. 38, #1) From an environmental point of view, it has the potential to be easier on the habitats we are sampling. I sometimes wonder what unseen damage I may have caused kicking up stones while dipnetting. Maybe I'm being oversensitive, but the occasional crunched cray that turns up gives me pause. (At least I know it won't go to waste when I turn it back to the waters. It's somebody's supper.) Of course, if I start leaving tiny hooks and piles of monofilament all over the waters, that potential won't be realized to its fullest. To conclude my 4 cents, I would second Catfish Cain and Subrosa's points that microfishing can also serve to positively introduce our children to our fishes, and invite positive interest from certain segments of the fishing crowd who otherwise would never realize the opportunity to connect with NANFA.
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#11
Guest_SunfishGuy99_*
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#12
Guest_Usil_*
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Posted 12 May 2013 - 03:22 PM
I read a fishing forum once where a guy was micro fishing for orange spotted sunfish, the only legal way to get them in his area. He was approached by a fish and wild life game warden and asked to see in his bucket. It had a few small orange spots in it. The game warden told him to dump the bucket as netting was not legal. He explained he was micro fishing but the warden did not believe him and made him dump the bucket anyway. I don't know what you can do in this situation if your explanation is not believed.
Edited by Usil, 12 May 2013 - 03:23 PM.
#13
Guest_Skipjack_*
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Posted 12 May 2013 - 03:58 PM
I read a fishing forum once where a guy was micro fishing for orange spotted sunfish, the only legal way to get them in his area. He was approached by a fish and wild life game warden and asked to see in his bucket. It had a few small orange spots in it. The game warden told him to dump the bucket as netting was not legal. He explained he was micro fishing but the warden did not believe him and made him dump the bucket anyway. I don't know what you can do in this situation if your explanation is not believed.
Prove it. Don't have a net with you.
#14
Guest_fishfray_*
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Posted 18 May 2013 - 05:44 PM
This is for some of the more hardcore micro-fishers out there. Do you guys only micro-fish in smaller and/or clear streams? Would it be possible to catch very small fish in rather fast water that is very murky? I know that there are fish there, im just not sure if they would be able to find the bait or not
#15
Guest_BenCantrell_*
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Posted 20 May 2013 - 08:56 PM
Clear streams are more enjoyable, but I like to microfish in big rivers while I have bank poles set up for bigger fish. Muddy water usually isn't productive, but tea-stained water often is. I get spotfin shiners, sand shiners, emerald shiners, mimic shiners, and logperch in the Wisconsin River. Fish are good at finding food!
#19
Guest_jakemyster44_*
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Posted 02 June 2013 - 04:12 PM
Awesome, has anyone microfished in the maumee? many spots are so rocky that seining is not really a good way to catch the fish there, so i may try microfishing.
I have only seined the Maumee twice so far as a start to stocking my new aquarium, but I have found seining to be quite effective. It is a bit harder to seine over the loose cobble, but it can be done, and thats actually where I caught most of my fish. Seining the rock flats at Weirs rapids is less of a challenge. I had good luck microfishing at Weirs rapids as well, and was able to catch a good number of orange spotted sunfish, I kept two of the smallest for the my aquarium.
#20
Guest_fishfray_*
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Posted 02 June 2013 - 04:25 PM
I shouldnt have made it sound like seining in the maumee is impossible, because clearly it is effective in most areas and I do it a lot. Thats awesome that you were microfishing at weirs, did u catch anything besides o-spots? I know some spots around the dam that should be good when the water gets low, if I can avoid the crowds.
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