Multi species frustrations

[Johnsfolly]

Asian clams are plentiful. Don't know if they have a meaty enough foot to stay on the hook. Worth a try.

[Ham]

I'm ignorant of the mollusk in our waterways. Hopefully, no zebra mussels to be found.

[Al Agnew]

The Asiatic clam is often called a fingernail clam.  All the little shells you see littering Ozark streams, fairly round and seldom more than an inch long, are the shells of defunct Asiatic clams.  To find live ones, look for small to medium size gravel in fairly swift water and just dig around in it...the live adults are usually slightly buried in the gravel.  There is enough meat in one to use it for bait.

It's an invasive species that has been incredibly successful in America.  The first ones showed up in the Columbia River in Washington state in the late 1930s, and by the 1950s it had made its way to Missouri, first found in the Black and St. Francis.  By now it is probably common in all Ozark streams.  But the weird thing is that nobody can come up with a really good explanation of HOW it spread so fast.  The larvae are not parasitic like a lot of native species, so they could not have "hitchhiked" in the bodies of other critters.  Neither the larvae or the adults can swim, at best they crawl very slowly on the bottom.  Yet a study on the Ohio River showed the population spreading UPSTREAM as much as 200 miles a year.  It's been suggested that the larvae stick to birds' feet, but biologists discount that for the most part.  The only other explanation anybody can come up with is that man has caused the spread by transporting water containing the nearly microscopic larvae in bait buckets, and perhaps carrying live adults for use as bait.  Still, it's hard to imagine the things being spread in bait buckets across the mountain West and the Great Plains to get all the way across the country.

[MoCarp]

8 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

The Asiatic clam is often called a fingernail clam.  All the little shells you see littering Ozark streams, fairly round and seldom more than an inch long, are the shells of defunct Asiatic clams.  To find live ones, look for small to medium size gravel in fairly swift water and just dig around in it...the live adults are usually slightly buried in the gravel.  There is enough meat in one to use it for bait.

It's an invasive species that has been incredibly successful in America.  The first ones showed up in the Columbia River in Washington state in the late 1930s, and by the 1950s it had made its way to Missouri, first found in the Black and St. Francis.  By now it is probably common in all Ozark streams.  But the weird thing is that nobody can come up with a really good explanation of HOW it spread so fast.  The larvae are not parasitic like a lot of native species, so they could not have "hitchhiked" in the bodies of other critters.  Neither the larvae or the adults can swim, at best they crawl very slowly on the bottom.  Yet a study on the Ohio River showed the population spreading UPSTREAM as much as 200 miles a year.  It's been suggested that the larvae stick to birds' feet, but biologists discount that for the most part.  The only other explanation anybody can come up with is that man has caused the spread by transporting water containing the nearly microscopic larvae in bait buckets, and perhaps carrying live adults for use as bait.  Still, it's hard to imagine the things being spread in bait buckets across the mountain West and the Great Plains to get all the way across the country.

Read a study from Eastern Europe recently  on testing waterfowl's ability to pass larva and eggs of aquatic organisms, they passed viable fish eggs, they were fed....not a stretch eating a few clams and pooting few that could survive, as well as sticking to feathers etc, would explain a lot of "invasions"

[MoCarp]

On 8/24/2017 at 8:01 PM, Johnsfolly said:

He's the guy that I would to want meet up with to chase suckers☺!

If you want to catch suckers Hair rigging micro boiles will work hundreds of recipes on the net, but use this as it has worked in the past, it mimics the amino acids found in earth worms and a few other bottom critters they eat, work in a minnow trap too...

50g semolina flour,

50g corn flour (masa)

50g dried squid whizzed to a fine meal in a spice grinder

25g milk powder (powdered dairy creamer works)

2.5g each of citric acid, MSG, brewers yeast, and sea salt,

mix this to 3 eggs that you add 5ml of tai fish sauce...

mix drys shaking in a ziplock,

mix wets,

in a bowl pour drys in, make a well in the middle

add wets....mix with a fork.....if it sticks to your hand add more masa, if its too wet,  add an egg...

roll into tiny marbles and boil in a pot till they float, dry for a day then freeze....

you can use canned smoked Oysters in stead of the squid...just add wets to wets

also try fishing in riffle areas at night pre baiting helps mix instant grits and plain old oatmeal with a can of oysters.... lob in a few golf ball sized chum balls one day, then fish the 3rd day but only chum one or two balls where you are going to fish, basic rule is chum little but often....

 

[Ham]

I'm not sure I want to catch suckers any more.

[grizwilson]

2 hours ago, Ham said:

I'm not sure I want to catch suckers any more.

Having caught thousands of suckers that looks a bit much, ..... right up there with DuPont Spinners, fish traps, tremble nets... we will get it done on your terms, seen a place Friday with Hog Suckers, White Redhorse, yellow suckers and White (blue)suckers...catch able on  worms or corn if you can keep the trout and blue gill off em.

[MoCarp]

15 hours ago, grizwilson said:

Having caught thousands of suckers that looks a bit much, ..... right up there with DuPont Spinners, fish traps, tremble nets... we will get it done on your terms, seen a place Friday with Hog Suckers, White Redhorse, yellow suckers and White (blue)suckers...catch able on  worms or corn if you can keep the trout and blue gill off em.

That is exactly what brought about the advent of a boilie...Crawfish and the nibblers can't steal your bait...you will catch more chubs in a minnow trap baited with boilies

[Ham]

I hear you MoCarp, but I rarely put that much effort into making food for myself much less making fish food. 

[ozark trout fisher]

10 minutes ago, Ham said:

I hear you MoCarp, but I rarely put that much effort into making food for myself much less making fish food. 

I have a buddy who used to make a carp bait that takes hours to make and smells like someone left a pork chop out on the counter for 6 months.

We were fishing together once, and the only carp caught that day was...by me...by accident while bass fishing with a crankbait. That was the last time I've seen him break that god-forsaken stuff out.