Rudd or Shiner?

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Hi Everyone,

 

Hope most of you were out on the water today enjoying the amazing weather...I should be able to do the same a week from now, but till then I've got some looong nights planned with multiple text books....

I am hoping to do some catfishing this year and from the looks of things, the bite should have picked up by next weekend. The wealth of info on catfishing over here is awesome and much appreciated. Cut up suckers seems to be the bait of choice. I am going to try to see if I can catch a couple to salt up early next week, however I know that once the ice melts over here, tons of these shiny critters (pic attached) school up close to my place. I always called these fish golden or silver shiners (some in the school are nice and goldish, others are silver) but want to make sure that they are indeed shiners.

 

I was going through the mnr baitfish site but could not come to any strong conclusion. I have a funny feeling they might be rudd. Would any of you be able to identify the fish. Also, can they be used as catfish bait. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers, Nigel

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hmm...It doesn't let me upload the pic of the fish. keep getting the error "Error The server returned an error during upload"

 

Is this common?

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http://s1135.photobu...rrent=rudd1.jpg

 

There we go!

[hammercarp]

Your picture is too small. Here is a picture of a large rudd I caught. I hope this helps.Just click the link.

Rudd

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http://s1135.photobucket.com/albums/m631/nigelD19/?action=view&current=Picturesdec1010backup199.jpg

 

Here is a better picture...

On comparing it with yours i guess it is a shiner..

[OhioFisherman]

Looks like a shiner to me, and my live bait of choice for everything big enough to eat them. If I found a school of them up north on vacation? I would stop and fish for them, emergency bait for when lures weren`t getting the job done.

[ehg]

It is a plain old American Shad. They are quite common down lower stretches of St. Lawrence and Ottawa River.

The Rudd is invasive and very uncommon and shiners are smaller and skinnier.

Shad it is....

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A fish biologist on campus just confirmed that it is a golden shiner. She sent me this link http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/golden_shiner.htm. Don't know how I missed this site when I was searching for pics of golden shiners. Apparently american shads don't usually have the colored fins and have a line of spots along the body of the fish.

 

Anywho, thanks for the help.

Cheers,

Nigel