Do Bass Eat Pikeminnows?

[aholodnick]

Anybody know if bass feed regularly on northern pikeminnow. They have the in my neck of the woods in some bodies of water. 

 

[CaliBassin]

If it can fit in their mouth.... yes!

[aholodnick]

1 hour ago, CaliBassin said:

If it can fit in their mouth.... yes!

Fair enough haha. Mostly just wondering if the bass in my area eat them as a main forage, like frequently enough to invest in a bait that mimics them. Maybe @PNW bass would know something on this since he’s from around my area.

[basssavage24/7]

I say yeah there's even a few Glide baits with that profile.

I had a pet Bass and would go to the creek to trap minnows to feed it. Bass never had a second thought didn't matter if it was Creek chubs sculpins or pikeminnows.

Why they would want to eat one I don't know. As someone who has aten a northern pikeminnow. They don't have firm white meat it's squishy and have an absurd amount of tiny bones.

   Biggest one I caught tho was like 10 or 12 lb and would have been new state record, but their trash fish where I'm at didn't think anything about it.. so I just killed it threw it back in the water to feed the crawdads.

[CaliBassin]

9 hours ago, aholodnick said:

Fair enough haha. Mostly just wondering if the bass in my area eat them as a main forage, like frequently enough to invest in a bait that mimics them. Maybe @PNW bass would know something on this since he’s from around my area.

Try throwing a 6 or 8 inch little creeper trash fish. Seems like it would have a similar profile 

[Powerworm]

Never seen it with my own eyes, but when you see 200 small ones schooled up, why wouldn't a smallmouth have it's way with them.  I believe they do

[aholodnick]

2 hours ago, CaliBassin said:

Try throwing a 6 or 8 inch little creeper trash fish. Seems like it would have a similar profile 

That would match it pretty good. I was also thinking a gan craft 148 or 178 in their ryujin ayu pattern. Matches them almost perfect.

[Rogervang]

Yes they do. We use to catch them for fun and sometime even catch bass while reeling in the pikes.

[BrierBob]

Isn't there a bounty on pikeminna? Those things belch like a human. I catch smallmouth in the same place I catch those ugly things.

[CaliBassin]

46 minutes ago, aholodnick said:

That would match it pretty good. I was also thinking a gan craft 148 or 178 in their ryujin ayu pattern. Matches them almost perfect.

Love Gancrafts! Definitely try it out man

[PNW bass]

13 hours ago, aholodnick said:

Fair enough haha. Mostly just wondering if the bass in my area eat them as a main forage, like frequently enough to invest in a bait that mimics them. Maybe @PNW bass would know something on this since he’s from around my area.

Wish I could tell you definitively... but honestly I don't know. I would bet money they do... they seem to eat everything that fits in their mouths! 

I guess I can't say I've ever had one get puked up after catching one... the way I have gills, crappie, kokes, and the like...

[basssavage24/7]

1 hour ago, BrierBob said:

Isn't there a bounty on pikeminna? Those things belch like a human. I catch smallmouth in the same place I catch those ugly things.

Yes some retired guys make some good money at it. The most ive ever heard a guy making here was 35k in a year. They tag them here. If you catch one with a tag its like $500. 

[dqb]

G-Ratt has a Pike Minnow pattern in their Sneaky Pete, might be a good starting point (~35$) to see if they get bit in your water.

 

[mkohan]

So this is my first post, but I think I can help with this question and provide a different insight at least how it pertains to my home waterway the snake river(lower granite).

Do I know for sure if they eat them or not? I don't but I know enough people that catch and make money off the pikeminnow bounty program to give some insight on pikeminnow behavior. One of things they all do if they catch bass, they move. They don't catch pikeminnows in numbers in areas holding bass. Is that because bass are to aggressive and dominate the area? Or is it because they occupy different sections of river? I truly believe it is the later. 

Pikeminnows are aggressive feeders of eggs. The smallmouth I target feed on smolts and crawfish and of course small smallmouth. Could they kill a pikeminnow trying to "Not Allowed" with eggs during the spawn? Maybe, but they are without a doubt spending a majority of the time in different parts of the river where I am fishing.

The smallmouth I'm catching spit up crawdads and smolts. The good thing is pikeminnows are close enough to smolts and I doubt a smallmouth gives a ish what it is other than food or something that looked at it sideways.

The better thing is they are smallmouth I've caught plenty in 20 feet of water on wakebaits that have crawdads coming out their gullet. They are aggressive, piss them off with a big bait they'll hit it out of anger.

So do they eat pikeminnows, I doubt it. The only reason I think it might matter is because if your focusing on pikeminnows to find fish, I think your gonna be disappointed. But pikeminnows look like a lot of other stuff so it is what it is. Hope this helps.

[FishDr]

As others have said, I think you'll find bass eat anything they can fit in their mouths.  Prickly?  No problem - they slurp down bluegill.  Nasty-smelling? Not an issue - they gobble gizzard shad.  Slimy?  Well heck, all the rainbow trout are slimy.  To a bass, I suspect the pikeminnow is just another minnow - bigger than some, but no bonier - not that they'd care about bones since they swallow them whole.  They might not hang out in the same areas as adult pikeminnow (which are a lot of fun to catch in their own right - they've got "pike" in their name for a reason), but I'd wager that if they come across a school of small or medium sized pikeminnow, it's party time.  For the bass, not the pikeminnow.

One other piece of evidence - in western CO we have limited numbers of the biggest pikeminnow of all, the Colorado pikeminnow, which historically grew to about 6' and close to 100 lbs.  Now a big one is 2 - 3 ft long and most are smaller.  One of the major threats to the remaining few pikeminnow, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is predation on the juveniles by smallmouth bass.