Mud Suckers for bait?

Whatever happened to those great bass, catfish and Striped Bass baits, the "Mudsuckers"? This little 5-6 inch saltwater Long jawed Goby was really one of the best live baits for big bass, especially at our local SoCal Lakes. I caught many good bass at Lake Henshaw by fishing these baits in the deeper creek channels there. You could catch 2 to 3 bass on the same bait because they were so hardy. Fly-lined and nose-hooked and worked back in slowly like a plastic worm, these baits would just get slammed! Most bait shops in the past seemed to have them. They were trapped or netted from the Salton Sea's shallow south end mud flats and also at San Diego Harbor and San Fransisco's shallow mud flats. Was there a law passed a few years back to make using these fish in lakes illegal? Are they now illegal for bait shops to sell them? They cannot reproduce in freshwater and any parasites they might have would also die in freshwater.

Its my understanding you can only use live bait when it came from the exact same water you are fishing.

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Originally Posted by fishmounter

Whatever happened to those great bass, catfish and Striped Bass baits, the "Mudsuckers"? This little 5-6 inch saltwater Long jawed Goby was really one of the best live baits for big bass, especially at our local SoCal Lakes. I caught many good bass at Lake Henshaw by fishing these baits in the deeper creek channels there. You could catch 2 to 3 bass on the same bait because they were so hardy. Fly-lined and nose-hooked and worked back in slowly like a plastic worm, these baits would just get slammed! Most bait shops in the past seemed to have them. They were trapped or netted from the Salton Sea's shallow south end mud flats and also at San Diego Harbor and San Fransisco's shallow mud flats. Was there a law passed a few years back to make using these fish in lakes illegal? Are they now illegal for bait shops to sell them? They cannot reproduce in freshwater and any parasites they might have would also die in freshwater.

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Yes they got protected about 20 years ago i believe.

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Originally Posted by MonsterGuppy

Its my understanding you can only use live bait when it came from the exact same water you are fishing.

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Yes that the rules but only bait fish and I think crawfish you can bring in from another place. But I had a guy on Facebook tell it legal to use sunfish at Silverwood lake and any lake in California. I told him no you can only use that in Colorado District

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Originally Posted by TheLuckyAngler

The state regs don’t prohibit using them. I’ve used crawfish as live bait for lmb (hook from either the nose or the tail using a mosquito hook, cast, & leave the spool open). Used to find them at one of the local bait shops.

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You can’t use water dogs anymore for fishing Attachment 52682
Yeah I still use crawfish if I can get them legally my local creek I cannot take them from anymore

The Corvina at the south end of the Salton Sea loved the mudsucker's. I do not know about the law's now but the mudsucker's caught me hundreds of fish at the Salton Sea. Fun times for sure!

Sad the salton sea Corvina all gone now tons of talapia left but for how long. Wish the state would have taken care of the sea corvina and sargo all gone now.

I remember using them back at Perris in the days of the spotted bass. That and those monster bluegill.

The big Bluegill are still in there, but they are tough to locate now that the lake is larger with more structure. My buddy caught a dozen that were 12 inches or more last year.