<p>I think we need to get a few of these threads goign where we can contribute pics of the given species. The other day I was jigging for walleyes/sauger and had a hard time hooking up and marking a ton of fish. When this one came up I figured out why. Mooneyes were thick in that area.</p>
<p>THis one is one of the larger I have seen at just over 15 inches.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa78/aaronbye/Mooneye_zps160d63ee.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 375px;" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Earlier this year<br />
<img alt="" src="http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa78/aaronbye/Mooneye_zps2e350347.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 375px;" /></p>
Hell yeah man! I love mooneye. One of my favorite targets in the spring. Wish I was better at finding them in the fall.
Here's my biggest so far from spring...
Eli
I managed to get a number this year unfortunatly my pictures are not that great. I love their iridescent colours.
I don't have too many great mooneye photos for some reason - hell, I've caught thousands of them...here's one from 2013 that turned out okay -
Maybe it's hard to get good pics because they go totally crazy when you try to hold them up for a shot? I've only caught a few, but, good grief, they just flip out when taken out of the water!!
Here's my contribution haha
That's funny. I was going to try to find a similar picture, but all of mine are of hacked up goldeye.
Here's a mooneye from this summer. Notice the bite marks.
I released him after this photo, and as we were watching him swim away, I literally just finished making the comment "mooneye are such fragile fish, he's lucky to have survived...", when a big pike nailed him at the surface, thrashing around for a few moments, before disappearing back into the depths with his meal.
Here's my smallest so far from Assiniboine River in Manitoba. It was so silvery and thin like a shad.
FWP
I almost put on of those up too. I caught more mooneye this year than every other year combined I think.
SKJ they are so fragile and I was suprised to see the marks on that one.
FWP that is a tiny one.
It is all perspective!
Acer Home Inspections
Funny, when I tossed my top one down it pankacked and was stunned a couple of minutes I tunred back to see him and nice sized Musky engaged in a "Dance"; Lost site of them so I don;, know wheat happened but the Musky was not giving up.
FWP - Mine is from the Assiniboine River as well, but from right below Lake of the Prairies.
Mine is from Portage La Prairie. I was targeting silver chub though I couldn't catch any.
FWP
I've fished a spot a bit downstream from the spillway at Portage La Prairie that was supposed to hold silver chub, but I only caught flathead chubs.
I've had two Mooneyes in a row get chowed right after I released them. It was in the Croix and I suspect it was the same fish, probably a Muskie. And their good bait too. Much like using cut up Goldeye on the red.
On my list for the next 12 months to catch.
anyone know of any near Traverse City MI? How do you go about catching them?
All fish are sports fish.
Drifting a small bait in the current. That is what has put most of mine on the line. Mostly with a bobber. They eat small baits most of the time but I have caught them jigging spoons now too. Each watershed will be a little different but I am sure some guys will chime in on their ways. I mainly catch them on the St. Croix.
It is all perspective!
Acer Home Inspections
Seems like Traverse City is about as far from any Mooneyes as you can get in Michigan. Here's Michigan's abstract on the local populations: http://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/abstracts/zoology/Hiodon_tergisus.pdf. They are supposedly in Lake Michigan but so rare that you might as well not even bother.
Unfortunately the best place to find one is probably on the other side of Lake Michigan, or somewhere in Indiana or Ohio.
Here's my own map. I think they probably can be found more northward in Central Wisconsin if you were going to take a ferry across lake Michigan to look for them.
I always get them by bouncing a nightcrawler on the bottom right in the middle of a river. You can also locate them by seeing them hitting the surface if there's bugs on the water.