Who else uses their tiny hooks to catch baby fish? There's a spot in my local river about 4' square, tucked right up against a bridge, that houses 20-30 baby sunfish during any given point in spring. I focused on that spot for a while a couple days ago, and I caught some nice little babies. 

Redbreasts? They don't have the bluegill stripes or the longear gill-squiggles. Top one has very faint stripes, but I'm certain the bottom one is a redbreast. I've only seen a few of these around here for some reason.

Bluegills. Very common in the area. I love the colors on the babies!

Longears, I believe. I see fewer of these because they mostly breed downstream of a small bridge, and everybody fishes downstream of the bridge. Sometimes people catch a couple dozen sunfish for catfish bait, because apparently there's a pond somewhere that has catfish the size of small children. 

Very lively. Same pattern as the one below. 

Bluegill stripes, but much duller than the other baby 'gills. 

Any idea what these might be?

I caught these two in a trap. They weren't interested in the bait, but they'd drift inside to check the trap out. I'm including these because Longear face and ears, but lots of purple near the tail. Unusual longear colors, bluegill with weird face, or what? 

Those are most of my baby fish pics. Now let's see yours! By "baby" I mean ones that are small compared to the adults of that species, though I know that's subjective. If you look at it and say "Oh, look, I caught a baby _____", that's what I'm looking for. 

It's not really a challenge, I just want to see what everyone else has caught. I like seeing baby fish because they often look different, and I also like seeing what happens when people go to a game-fishing lake with tiny hooks.

Now THAT is impressive. Is that a little bass-baby? How'd you manage to catch something that small? A tiny hook in a patch of reeds?

It's not technically a microfishing catch, there are no hooks in the world small enough, but this is the smallest native fish I've ever seen. Found him when I was checking a bundle of wild-found hairgrass over. This little dude was less than a quarter inch long, though it was hard to get a good measure on him, since everything but his eyeballs and organ section was pretty much invisible. That's a smallish spoon (and a random hair), to give you a sense of scale.

Edited by Betta132, 15 April 2015 - 01:22 AM.

Ryan, is that last one a pinfish?  The blunt head looks odd.

Ryan, is that last one a pinfish?  The blunt head looks odd.

 I have always assumed so - I don't really know that much about baby Pinfish even thought I catch adults more than I like. I guess it could have been Archosargus rhomboidalis but I never spent any amount of time researching it.

He's blurry because he was vibrating!  

here are some more....

baby black grouper

baby Yellowtail Snapper

baby gag

baby red drum

ok im done now 

Neat thread. I like Ben's LMB.

Betta, your sunfish look like maybe they're hybrid bluegills. I've seen these around quite a bit, they seem to be in areas where they're completely isolated and multiple sunfish species exists. They all start interbreeding and you end up with a toss up as to what the heck kind of sunfish are in the pond.

Those are some adorable babies! I especially like the grouper and the snapper, they're really pretty.

I have some pictures of baby fish found in sargassum. I'll have to dig them out of hiding, but I should have them in a day or two. 

The hybrid thing would make sense. Those guys live between a two-foot dam and a dam/sidewalk. Downstream of the sidewalk-dam, I mostly catch longears with a few bluegills now and then. Upstream, mostly 'gills with some of the hybrid-looking ones mixed in. Could be interesting to see how the isolated population changes... 

Does "catching them" on camera count?  I might win the "most fish in frame at one time" award, no?

Teeny fishy baby.png

Sure, videos work. And if that's an actual award, you probably just won it!

Also, you just helped me ID a swarm of fish babies that I saw a few days ago. I thought they might be bass, since they moved together near the bottom and were near a large bass, but they wouldn't hold still for long enough to be photographed properly.

I tried to raise the tiny fry, as I'd gotten them home before I noticed them, but they didn't survive too long. I suspect the temperature fluctuated too much, or it could have been due to them being brought home in a small bag without much water. I thought I'd rinsed the plants out well enough to remove all the critters, but apparently not. 

They moved like most species of fish fry, just jerking around in midwater, so probably not darters. Other than that, I have no idea what they were. 

Just caught this guy on my tiniest hook. He's under an inch and a half long. Largemouth bass, I think?

Edited by Betta132, 01 May 2015 - 04:39 PM.

That's an awesome video Michael!

And Betta, yes, it could be a largemouth, but I also couldn't rule out spotted from that photo. Maybe someone else here can.

Gaff top cat Cape San Blas