Bait fish questions =

This is for you guys that are alot more familiar with Lake Erie fishing than I am ...

#1 = "Skip Jacks"... Sunday was my turn to buy the bait... I bought the bait at a local shop and when we started to fish the Captain was VERY disappointed in the bait fish I was given for Perch fishing.. 60% of the "bait" were what he called skip jacks.. and he sadi Perch did not like to eat them ???

Is this true and if so anyone had ideas why Perch "DON'T LIKE THEM "... they were long ad slender .. really silver and shiny and had pointed noses...

Of the three hooks I was fsihing several times I put one on just to test his theory and never got a fish on them..


Does any fish eat them ???


#2.. I had 5 trips last year and two this year.. ONLY on the last one (Sunday) we "marked" fish and had to leave because they were turned out to be "gobbies".... I must have caught 50 for the day

My friend went yesterday (Tuesday) and stopped at the hardware this morning to say I was lucky I had to work and could not go... It took ALL DAY ( til dark ) to get limits because of "gobbies" and having to move so often..

Is it that time of year or are they getting to be more plentiful ??

Thanks for any info ...

a skipjack is a bait fish mostly for catfish. they would be to hard to keep alive in a tank, and deffenetly wont live in a bucket. skipjack can only be caught in the rivers below the dams or warm water discharge. they are a warm water fish. i catch lots of them on the ohio river farther south. very seldom catch them under 5 or so inches. we catch them up to 2'. they do not have pointed noses. they have a mouth like a bass and big eyes. look just like mini tarpon. i have about 15 pounds of big ones in my freezer rite now. look them up online. skipjack herring.

that because they didnt sell you skipjack. trust me, i been catching them and using them for years. they wont live in a tank or bucket. they must keep moving in the water to get oxygen through their gills. they cant just sit in one spot like most fish. the same thing with shad. they must be kept in a round tank so they can keep swimming in circles. the skipjack is a fresh water herring.

i have been out perchen a couple times this year and have limited out every time on fatheads. last weekend trip the whole limit was 8" to 10" with have being 10" to 13.5". it was a good trip.

What I forgot to mention about my buddy on Tuesday was they rode around for two hours trying to find live bait ... never got to start fishing til almost 10am....and he was there at 7am and they went off searching for bait...

Sunday the key was fatheads too , we started catchin as soon as we started using them...... but we did not have any when we left the dock... ..

Another Captain (ON THE LAKE FISHING) gave us a bucket of fatheads when our captain called him on his cell phone...

and I hope he knows who he is because I am sure he reads this board...and I THANK HIM AGAIN !!!!

YOU MADE OUR TRIP GREAT !!!!