Goldfish

[Seanstone]

Probably my favorite flathead bait, the goldfish. Does anyone raise goldfish for bait? If so how long do they take to grow to 4 inches, 8 inches, etc? I have a few livestock tanks that I would like to put to use, so I'm thinking about raising goldfish. One of the tanks is 6 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. Ideally I would like them to grow fast enough to use for the fall bite. Is there any tips or tricks to raising goldfish?

What about carp? Anyone know if you can raise carp for bait, if so where would I get them? They might jump out of the tank, and they would need aerators, its probably a bad idea.

[katfish]

Sean
You probably need ponds to raise goldfish. If you fed them in tanks it would cost more than buying them. Bait dealers all along the Muskingum river sell goldfish. A few other places get them trucked in all season long.

Doug Stange did report that bait dealers in Iowa start selling 4 inch carp for flathead bait in Spring and they are 8 inches by Fall when flathead fishing falls off.

I have looked for farmers with shallow chicken ponds that would be easy to seigne. I wanted to release mature carp in them in the Fall and seigne the bait size fish out in the years following that.

[Seanstone]

I figured that it would be costly. I don't think I'll put in a pond for them though. I might look around at some farm ponds and see if someone will let me populate their pond with some as an experiment. Will they spawn in ponds?

I can get them from a local paylake down home. I don't like to support the paylake industry so I wanted to raise my own. I think its $12 for a pound of them. (Usually around a dozen 4"-5" goldfish)Its the best deal I could find around. I know of one bait store that sells them for 20 bucks a dozen, which is outrageous because they are usually tiny.

[katfish]

They can survive and spawn in farm ponds but are very susceptable to predation.

Goldfish trucked in from Arkansas are a by product of rice production. The shallow rice ponds with all their cover supports the goldfish and gives them lots of places to hide and feed.

The shallow water won't support many other species of fish so predation is not so bad.

Ohio hatcheries used to raise goldfish to feed to the predatory hatchlings like muskie but controlling disease in dense populations of goldfish was to dangerous. Disease outbreaks at a hatchery usually results in destroying all fish present to prevent possible outbreaks from stocked fish.

[rockbass]

My dad's one buddy has a nice sized garder pond that he let's us take out of a few times a year. We usually take out 30-40 goldfish from 4-8 inches long each time. He doesn't feed them or anything. It would be a cheap investment if you had a good size tank. his is about 30 inches deep 3 ft wide and maybe 6-7 ft long. He said he started out with 4 goldfish and within 2 years had to start letting his grandkids fish them out. He keeps his big ones, but that's fine by us. There are tons of smaller ones we don't mess with that prob end up being the ones we keep the next trip.

[katfish]

I guess your dads buddy doesn't realize he could get more ponds and sell the goldfish to baitshops for $5 a pound.

You guys are setting on a goldmine because very few
realize how easy it is to raise goldfish.

This would solve the goldfish shortage in summers when
the heat makes it difficult to truck them from Arkansas.

[rockbass]

Apr 16, 2011 0:46:03 GMT -5 katfish said:

I guess your dads buddy doesn't realize he could get more ponds and sell the goldfish to baitshops for $5 a pound.

You guys are setting on a goldmine because very few
realize how easy it is to raise goldfish.

This would solve the goldfish shortage in summers when
the heat makes it difficult to truck them from Arkansas.

I've been wishin I could replicate his pond at my house believe me. ;D

[starcraft36]

So this weekend I was house hunting out east. One of the properties I looked at, had two 2 acre ponds. I walked the edges and the one had about 10-20 goldfish sitting in the shallow water by the cat tails. They had to be a good 8-12 inches. The owner said he put them in there to feed the bass, looks like they ate the bass! Could be good bait.

[Varmint_Sniper]

I got some the other day for 50 cents a pice and they were 4 to 6in long got them in a 55gal tank inside and gonna keep them till sept. and see how big i can get them and then use them for bait then in sept buy a few more and let them go all winter spring into summer kids like to see them and i sure would like so big 1s for bait lol this is the reason my Bullheads got evicted last sat night lol

[Seanstone]

So this weekend I was house hunting out east. One of the properties I looked at, had two 2 acre ponds. I walked the edges and the one had about 10-20 goldfish sitting in the shallow water by the cat tails. They had to be a good 8-12 inches. The owner said he put them in there to feed the bass, looks like they ate the bass! Could be good bait.

I set gypsy moth traps for the department of agriculture in the summer, and last year I found a 2-3 acre lake loaded with koi. They were massive, definitely some of the largest I have ever seen (ranging from 1 to 15 pounds). They were white, gold, spotted, black, etc. I told the landowner that I would take a few off of his hands for bait and he laughed. He didn't realize that I was serious.

[Varmint_Sniper]

May 27, 2011 11:31:48 GMT -5 Seanstone said:

So this weekend I was house hunting out east. One of the properties I looked at, had two 2 acre ponds. I walked the edges and the one had about 10-20 goldfish sitting in the shallow water by the cat tails. They had to be a good 8-12 inches. The owner said he put them in there to feed the bass, looks like they ate the bass! Could be good bait.

I set gypsy moth traps for the department of agriculture in the summer, and last year I found a 2-3 acre lake loaded with koi. They were massive, definitely some of the largest I have ever seen (ranging from 1 to 15 pounds). They were white, gold, spotted, black, etc. I told the landowner that I would take a few off of his hands for bait and he laughed. He didn't realize that I was serious.

That would be kool if ya were able to get some of them hope mine in my take make it to 6 to 8 in by sept omg i hope lol

[Varmint_Sniper]

When do you say this 1 gold fish it to little to use? Were talking for Channel's & Flat's ? I would say for

channels would have to be smallest is 6in

Flathead's would have to be 8in i would say

[Seanstone]

We use 4 inchers all of the time, they are hard to keep alive when you impale them with a 7/0 hook, unless you use a khale hook. Now with that said, we prefer 6 to 8 inchers for storage reasons. Its hard to carry enough 8+ inch goldfish for the entire crew. I wouldn't hesitate to use 4 inchers if its all you can get ahold of.

[Varmint_Sniper]

How do you hook your gold's ? and what size hook do you use on different sizes of gold's ?

[Seanstone]

Same as everything else, 3/4 the way down the back in between the tail and the dorsal fin. If your fishing for flatheads I wouldn't use anything smaller than a 5/0. We try to match our bait with hook size, small with small and large with large. I feel that tossing a 5 inch goldfish out on a 10/0 hook hampers the ability of the fish to swim naturally. Just my opinion though.