Im from newhampshire and fish the Connecticut river alot. There are not a ton of small baitfish in there and i was wondering if bass and pike feed on fallfish much. If so would black and silver crankbaits work good.

I don't know about fallfish but I know they will "feed" on a black and silver crankbait. ?

A bass will eat pretty much any fish (or other critter) that fits in its mouth. 

bass are opportunistic eaters and if they have the chance at a meal, they’ll take it

21 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

A bass will eat pretty much any fish (or other critter) that fits in its mouth. 

Yep..if its alive, in the water and a bass can get its mouth on it..its toast. I've seen them eat "normal" things..baitfish,panfish,craws...and other things like snakes, mice and rats, bats, birds.

Looked them up on the Virginia Fish & Game site.

 

Whoa   They rate it as a 24"    2 pound fresh water tarpon.  So it must have some  beep  beep juice in them.  I am going to see if they are in any of my waters.  

 

Great post Nate.   Thank you.  

10 minutes ago, cyclops2 said:

Looked them up on the Virginia Fish & Game site.

 

Whoa   They rate it as a 24"    2 pound fresh water tarpon.  So it must have some  beep  beep juice in them.  I am going to see if they are in any of my waters.  

 

 

 

They are common in SE PA so I would suspect you would find them in NJ or NY. 

Toss a weightless zoom trick worm. 3/0 extra wide gap hook. Game over 

On the web. There is a group called    Vermont Master Anglers    Great video explaining how to Fillet & make them into NO BONES fish cakes with a grinder.  ALL the fine false rib  bones disappear during cooking.  Talk & eating at the end was very good.

We have quite a few Fall fish swimming around here in VA, I've caught them as large as 3lb but only in rivers.

They are incredibly slimy and squeaky but if you can avoid bones, they eat good.

Oh, not much fight.

Cough      cough  

 

" Cyclops honey.   I ground up the whole fish so we would have plenty for leftovers. "

 

10 hours ago, Ogeecheesum said:

Toss a weightless zoom trick worm. 3/0 extra wide gap hook. Game over 

Why are we using a wide gap hook on a skinny worm?

10 hours ago, cyclops2 said:

Looked them up on the Virginia Fish & Game site.

 

Whoa   They rate it as a 24"    2 pound fresh water tarpon.  So it must have some  beep  beep juice in them.  I am going to see if they are in any of my waters.  

 

Great post Nate.   Thank you.  

We have them in the rivers and streams around here, most of the ones I've seen are under 12"

Yes

I can’t see why they would not. To me they are just an occasional nuisance fish while trout fishing. 
 
Back when I was a young guy my younger brother and I were trout fishing in the National Park and he landed one about 15” or 16”long. That fish had ten to twelve hooks in his face. Flies and bait holder hooks. Most old and rusted. From breaking guys lines. 
 

Trash fish moment that I’ll never forget. He didn’t keep it. No sense to. 
 

Anyway a silver/black back lure should work d**n near anywhere there’s fish. 

1 tough fish that one was.?

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

Trash fish moment that I’ll never forget. He didn’t keep it. No sense to. 
 

 

Trash fish? They are native to the areas they currently inhabit in the NE. Our beloved bass are an invasive species in those same areas. ?

 

 

But the bass lovers WANT bass everywhere. Their wants are the most important of all.

11 minutes ago, Dogface said:

 

Trash fish? They are native to the areas they currently inhabit in the NE. Our beloved bass are an invasive species in those same areas. ?

 

 

I’m not gonna get into a wizzing contest about native, invasive, wild or stocked fish. Especially the fall fish. Their existence to me is just fine but I don’t purposely fish for them. Out in my area they seem to roam from the river up to the first falls or spillway in creeks. 
 

“Trash fish” may be a bit harsh, more of an “undesirable” while I’m out. I’ve caught some eels while Smallie fishing over the years (grubs and tube). They are noted as being a delicacy, I’ll never know. They went right back into the drink alive. 

1 hour ago, Dogface said:

 

Trash fish? They are native to the areas they currently inhabit in the NE. Our beloved bass are an invasive species in those same areas. ?

 

 

Just so you don’t get flamed, look up the difference between “invasive” and “non native”.  Black bass may not be native but they are not invasive.  We’ve had to key on this with our snakehead invasion here in Virginia.  

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

 I don’t purposely fish for them. Out in my area they seem to roam from the river up to the first falls or spillway in creeks. 
 

“Trash fish” may be a bit harsh, more of an “undesirable” while I’m out. I’ve caught some eels while Smallie fishing over the years (grubs and tube). They are noted as being a delicacy, I’ll never know. They went right back into the drink alive. 

First that little winking emoji is meant to suggest humor not start a "wizzing contest". 

 

The Fall Fish is part of the chub family. I have caught them and used them for bait while fishing for Pike and Musky. Now that I'm thinking about it I wonder if I could get a bass to eat one. 

 

BTW I have never eaten Fall Fish but I have eaten eel. It was a commercial product and I forget if I enjoyed it or not.  

 

31 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Just so you don’t get flamed, look up the difference between “invasive” and “non native”.  Black bass may not be native but they are not invasive.  We’ve had to key on this with our snakehead invasion here in Virginia.  

 

There are many serious trout fisherman in PA who consider the bass an invasive species. ?

There are no trash fish, just trash fishermen...

35 minutes ago, Dogface said:

First that little winking emoji is meant to suggest humor not start a "wizzing contest". 

 

The Fall Fish is part of the chub family. I have caught them and used them for bait while fishing for Pike and Musky. Now that I'm thinking about it I wonder if I could get a bass to eat one. 

 

BTW I have never eaten Fall Fish but I have eaten eel. It was a commercial product and I forget if I enjoyed it or not.  

 

 

There are many serious trout fisherman in PA who consider the bass an invasive species. ?

I don’t see why it would not work. I’ve caught quite a few chubs on nymph flies. Often thought it would make a heck of a good live bait for a big bass. 
 

As far as live bait when I was younger I use to trap crawdads. Some minnows. 
 

But as an adult here in PA I never messed to much with the “native” forage fish and bait fish because there are most likely some type of restrictions to those, chubs and darters. Never wanted to put myself in question. 

6 hours ago, Deleted account said:

Why are we using a wide gap hook on a skinny worm?

It’s just preference I guess.

Never heard of Fallfish and had to look it up!

The Fallfish looks very similar to Pike Minnow / Squawfish.

Young of the year every fresh water fish is potential LMB prey.

Tom