# little bitty fishes of the LMR



## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Well It's been too crappy to fish and I'm bored, so here goes. Hope somebody finds it interesting...

Fishy Foods of the LMR:

Very abundant in the Little Miami are the various species of shiners. Shiners are more a fish of open water and less oriented to bottom structure and riffles than other common small fishes. Many like the emerald shiner, are found in open water and stay near the surface. They do not have any preference for a particular type of substrate. Along with gizzard shad, they are the main food of hybrid striped bass and their cousins the white bass in the lower reaches of the Little Miami. Shiners are taller than they are thick and are almost perfectly imitated by floating minnow plugs. Most shiner species are a pearl color tinted with light shades of pink or green. Another good imitation is a swim bait or shad body three or four inches long. Soft plastic jerkbaits are another great choice. 


Creek chubs are often the top predator in many of the smaller tributaries of the Little Miami. They can reach almost a foot in length and feed on small invertabrates such as aquatic and terrestrial insect larvae. The biggest chubs can even take small crayfish. Creek chubs are a bit fatter in cross section than shiners and might be better imitated with a four inch grub or a fatter shad bait. Many creek chubs have a dark stripe that runs down their side. I sometimes doctor up pearl shad with waterproof markers from the craft store adding a stripe or dash of color to them.


Bluntnose Minnows, Central Stonerollers, and similar minnows are the most common small fish in the Little Miami over its entire length. Bluntnose minnows spawn over and over starting in spring thru late summer. They spawn under logs, in brush or under rocks in shallow water. Females lay sticky adhesive eggs on the underside of whatever structure they spawn under. Stonerollers spawn just upstream or downstream of riffles in spring. Most minnow species of this size feed on algae growing on rocks, logs and brush in the river. All this adds up to more reasons to throw around good structure and cover besides the fact they are good staging and holding areas for bass. Sinking and suspending minnow plugs in deep runs above and below riffles as well as floating minnow plugs and topwaters fished around structure imitate these minnows well. I think most inline spinners are also imitating these minnows. These minnows are the reasoning behind my number one bait for the LMR, a three inch smoke metalflake grub on a roundball jighead. This, at least in my eyes, perfectly matches the general size, color, and overall impression of these ubiquitous baitfish. If you match the size of the jighead to the depth of the water and speed of the current so your jig is swimming just off the bottom around riffles, runs, and good structure in the river its hard not to catch fish on a smoke metalflake grub in the LMR. 


Darters, sculpins, and madtoms populate the riffles and runs of the Little Miami. Most of these guys run two to four inches in length and average around three. They are both darker and more colorful than the minnows that frequent the slower water of the river. Some like the rainbow darter are as colorful as any aquarium fish you will ever see. Most though are mottled and camouflaged to blend in with their surroundings. While minnows like the stoneroller might be more common over the entire river in certain riffles the majority of small fish will be darter species. These along with helgrammites and crayfish that frequent riffles too make the shallow rocky riffles and runs of the LMR the dinner table for the rivers bass. There are something like eleven or twelve darter species in the river with several being found togethor on most riffles. For this reason you can experiment a bit with color choices. I like to throw things with just a touch of red or orange as even some of the plainer darters show a bit of these colors when spawning. Ill usually throw a darker grub here than in the slower waters of the river too. Maybe something like a motor oil metalflake or pumpkinseed. I also have a few grubs that Ive strung a piece of orange living rubber thru with a large needle. I trim this so I have a short stubby piece sticking straight out of each side of the grub right behind the jighead to imitate the stiff pectoral fins of riffle minnows. Darters, sculpins and madtoms all use stiff side fins to help anchor themselves to bottom in the swift water of riffles. On many species these are red or orange in color. I also like to throw a small rebel minnow in a rainbow trout pattern just above or below riffles instead of the silvers and chromes I throw in the pools and eddies. Some of the brighter inline spinners with a bit of red are also good choices in fast water. 


In summary, in the bends, holes and eddies of the river I generally throw pearl, silvery, and chrome colored lures. Since shiners often feed and hold high in the water column these are also prime places to throw topwater plugs. I like lures with a flatter deeper profile here like lipless cranks, shad bodies and flatter minnow plugs. Since shiners run a tad bigger you can get away with a bigger lure here too. In swifter water such as riffles, runs, and chutes I like a fatter rounder lure like a grub or a rebel minnow. And a darker lure with a spash of color. I think a smaller lure like a three inch grub or a marabou jig is better here than a bigger one. That being said, there can be no absolutes in this like any other kind of fishing, but at least I feel like I have a place to start from.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

Excellent post (you must be bored)


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## Moore85 (Jan 6, 2013)

Great post; I appreciate your boredom, it is very informative.


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

Copied and Pasted to my Brain Housing Group; and my PC's hard drive. Thanks OSG.


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## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

I almost feel like I should be paying tuition to attend the college classes of Professor OSG. If there was a smiley for bowing down and paying respect I would post it.










There it is!


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## FishDoctor (Aug 9, 2012)

Thanks OSG, much better than the pediatrics lecture I have to attend today and time in clinic. Boy would I rather be fishing.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Good post! 

I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever seen a sculpin in the GMR and I haven&#8217;t fished the LMR enough to know what kind of population that it might have. I know that they don&#8217;t have a swim bladder so they don&#8217;t swim like other fish and they can&#8217;t tolerate a muddy bottom&#8230;that&#8217;s why they&#8217;re in the riffles. They are probably more easily found in the upper end of either Miami River. I think the only place I&#8217;ve seen them around here is in the Whitewater over in Indiana. They&#8217;re bizarre little fish and pretty much everything eats them.


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

Posts like this are gold, thanks for sharing. I'll be moving closer to the lower LMR in a couple of weeks and plan on hitting it hard. Hopefully I'll be sharing some reports this year if I can get into fish.


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## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

You might have been bored, but the post isn't boring at all. Interesting, and it has me just itching to get in the water again. I'm adding the smoke metalflake grub to my repertoire, along with the zulu, and let's see what the summer brings. Ready today for some warmth. I was traveling overseas last week, and while it was an awesome trip, it was snowy, and I was thinking that I wouldn't want to live there because I'd miss home too much, which is best symbolized for me by the sweet smell of the hot humid woods and the mud-and-algae smell of the LMR and that rare, livlier fragrance that wafts off of the water occasionally that originates in the river's life and that you only ever get one breath of at a time.


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## Fish Whisperer (Jul 11, 2006)

oldstinkyguy, I look forward to your OGF posts. Great stuff about baitfish. The Enquirer should give you an Outdoors column in the sports section. I bet all sorts of stores would place ads next your column. Here's hoping for more such boredom before the waters warm up. 

posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

Thanks for this great info.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Dandrews said:


> I dont think Ive ever seen a sculpin in the GMR and I havent fished the LMR enough to know what kind of population that it might have. I know that they dont have a swim bladder so they dont swim like other fish and they cant tolerate a muddy bottomthats why theyre in the riffles. They are probably more easily found in the upper end of either Miami River. I think the only place Ive seen them around here is in the Whitewater over in Indiana. Theyre bizarre little fish and pretty much everything eats them.


According to everything I've seen there are a ton of darters in the LMR, a fair amount of madtoms with their population climbing and very few sculpins. I think the water temps get too high for sculpins in midsummer. 

I forgot to add this link, a great site with pictures of Ohio's fishes and minnows. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/pdf/pub5127.pdf


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## FishDoctor (Aug 9, 2012)

Great link OSG. Another one I've found helpful on ohio fishes is here:

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/AZFish/tabid/17913/Default.aspx


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## FishDoctor (Aug 9, 2012)

Man that is such a good link OSG. I might go pay to get the printed off in high res and color and bound at staples or something.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

OSG, there are indeed many darters throughout the river, though they are everywhere they are small and normally use habitat that most predators cannot access so I don't think the fish often target them, but if they run accoss them why no. Although many species live in riffles there are a few that live in pools. Logperch can reach 5+inches and often live in slower portions of pools as do blackside darters, Johhny darters are normally on sand and small gravel in slower portions of pools. The sculpins only occur in the upper river in any numbers, I have seen them as far downstream as corwin and CC in low numbers. The Madtoms I think are the most important of these three. There are four (possibly 5) species in the river, only one has significance to smallmouth and sauger. The stonecat madtom can reach 10in and is very common, and predators seem to love them. Because there are two state threatend species that share the same habitat and look very similar they should never be collected as bait unless you are very good at madtom identification. The stonecats are normall tan, rust or olive and 3-5in and like large flat rocks in fast water, in the early spring when they are in deeper riffles big smallies feast on these guys.

as far as shiners and minnows, there are so many species and most of them have different microhabitats. This simply means that no matter where you are in the river there is some type of 1-4in skinny silvery baitfish. 

I loved the post, just thought I'd add a bit more detail. There are over 100 species of fish in the river system so it's a very healthy and complex fishery.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Something to remember is that while all those tiny fishes are present all throughout the system including the lower reaches, the vast majority of the darters and sculpins are "headwater" tollerant species which thrive in heavily oxygenated, clear, colder streams and we tend to forget that all those types of tribs trickle into the mainstem of the LMR from top to bottom so while you may have never seen a sculpin in the lower reaches, i gaurante you the predators who frequent the tribs mouth where it joins the river has so sometimes its a wise man who investigates whats upstream in non fishable water when he wondering just what types of fish the main river guys are eating, LOL

I tend to be an expert on sculpins from my Mad River and trout fishing days... the upper mad is chock full of em as is many of the tribs and since the LMR is a deep riverine valley type of stream, the vast majority of the tribs theat feed it are dropping down through bedrock into the valley and are again, highly oxygenated, clean, colder and fast moving, perfect places for the lowly slow moving bottom hugging sculpin. BTW I have caught dozens of them while fly fishing the upper Mad River. They are goby like in appearnce and at full grown, would take a rather large smallie or catfish to eat one since they are very wide with their pectorial fins agape. We learned the very biggest ones, ( ~6") were way too big for the carnivorous brown trout up there and often fished a popular fly pattern where the overall length of the fly was about 2.5" and for reference, you can look at this pattern by doing a google search for: Olive wool head sculpin

Cheers, Salmonid


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

One thing that surprised me was the amount of darters there were over the entire length of the river. In one electroshocking study the EPA did near Kings Mills darters were over twenty percent of the total fish caught. Where 48 crosses the river twenty seven percent were darters and that madtoms were three and four percent of the fish shocked up in places like newtown and wooster pike way downriver. I always thought that darters, madtoms etc. were headwater species but there are big populations up and down the whole river. Nowadays I lean more towards, "Oh there's an eddy, theres probably shiners and long eared sunfish and minnows like stonerollers there and up there on the riffle there's darters, madtoms and crayfish" no matter how far up or down the river I'm fishing. At least it gives me a starting point and some idea of things to try in that particular spot. Of course the rivers way more complicated than that. I might be thinking I'm throwing a green and brown muddler to imitate a darter and the fish hits it thinking it's a dragonfly nymph. But for me at least, it's an approach that works. If I throw things that suggest the baitfish I expect to be in each spot I come to I end up catching some fish.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

riverKing said:


> OSG, there are indeed many darters throughout the river, though they are everywhere they are small and normally use habitat that most predators cannot access so I don't think the fish often target them, but if they run accoss them why no.


I read in one study (Rahel, Frank J.; Stein, Roy A. "Complex predator-prey interactions and predator intimidation among crayfish, piscivorous fish, and small benthic fish," Oecologia, v. 75, no. 1, 1988,) where crayfish, which also feed on darters, force darters out of their hiding places under rocks in riffles and make them available to smallmouth. So the bass are not only up on the riffles hunting hellgrammites and crayfish but darters too. And in a wierd turn of events the bass scared the darters back down in the rocks making them more available to the crayfish. Long story short, it's no fun being a darter in the river.


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

Awesome post OSG. I really enjoy reading your posts. I just tied my first Emerald Shiner fly last night because of you 

Darters are sounding more and more like they should be called Sharters. Poor guys.


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## Dizzy (Oct 1, 2012)

FishDoctor said:


> Man that is such a good link OSG. I might go pay to get the printed off in high res and color and bound at staples or something.


You already payed for it to be printed if you bought a fishing license. The state gives them away free if you pick them up at the ODNR office. I think they charge shipping and handling if you get them sent to you. The bird ID booklets include a companion audio CD with all of the bird calls. I picked up a few at the boat registration office at East Fork and the rest at the ODNR District 1 office. 

ODNR Identification Guides

Good post OSG, thanks for taking the time to write that out.


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## ARReflections (Jan 7, 2011)

Great post. Always good to read knowledge gained from real life experience gather over time. Thank you.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Good post OSG!
I did not know there were any sculpins in the LMR. I always thought of them as trout stream baitfish. Maybe some muddlers are in order.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Dizzy said:


> You already payed for it to be printed if you bought a fishing license. The state gives them away free if you pick them up at the ODNR office. I think they charge shipping and handling if you get them sent to you. The bird ID booklets include a companion audio CD with all of the bird calls. I picked up a few at the boat registration office at East Fork and the rest at the ODNR District 1 office.
> 
> ODNR Identification Guides
> 
> Good post OSG, thanks for taking the time to write that out.


Yep, I have a couple of them floating around from years past. I think they are older versions but they probably contain the same information, unless the new one has silver/bighead carp added to it LOL


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## TRAILGATOR (Jul 3, 2011)

Great post OSG, I am sure I will benefit from this just as I have you past posts. Keep them coming I am becoming a better fisherman with every one of them. 
Just because we are on the informative theme and and you have nothing else to do. I remembered this one and thought I would share with all you Fishermen.


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## Bossman302 (Mar 20, 2012)

Awesome thread, always thankful for the education!


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