I have lived in Florida all my life. I have been living in the Boca Raton in south Palm Beach county on the border. I have 0 friends that fish which I do not mind but the cost of live bait is expensive when not splitting it or just traveling in that fact. I’ve pretty much learned everything from fishing on my own from trial and error. I’ve stared with fresh water fishing for years but now I salt water fish also and learned to catch live bait on my own instead of paying for example 4$ for one pilchard I can catch almost as much as I need for myself or pretty much everyday of the year. However fresh water fishing is NOT the same. Using live bait is much easier to catch fish in fresh water. So far I have been using bluegill and small myans however it might take me 30 min to hour and. a half to catch a some that are the right super small candy size. Is there anyone who can steer me to the right location to catch wild shiners. I have set up minnow traps around boca raton with bread and dog food but so far I have only caught nothing or apple snails. Do they not exist in the inter cities or whatever. I usually fresh water fish when the tide is not in my favor in saltwater. It’s kind of hard being a collage student managing cost and balence for me when fishing. 

With live bait fishing, “you gotta go fishing before you can go fishing” Which can sometimes take a long time. Scouting around, trying different techniques, shiners are around. Might just need to go the distance to get them, same as many do. As far as I’m concerned, never had a need for them, so I can’t give you specific Boca advice. Some of the local areas out west at the Lox preserve are loaded with them. They used to sell them out there along with $50 a day boat rentals…those were the days! Local inner city canals are hit & miss. They’ll probably call the cops and run you out lol 

Graduate to using soft plastics stating with a wacky rigged Senko.

Tom

Roland Martin has some good videos on YouTube catching wild shiners. How to bait holes and cast net ect. I always wanted to shiner fish in Florida. Looks like a blast 

Ive caught shiners for most of my life. It takes time until you’ve put in the work. I would start with small ponds nearby , because the fish will not be spread out . Buy some cheap bread. Chum with the bread in the same area at the same time for a few days, or longer. You will have other fish pop the bread too, especially bream. Once you see the swirling of fish eating the bread , just throw a cast net in there and see what you get. Make sure to throw back any sport fish you may catch, like bass or bream. You can legally cast net shiners .

Another tip is to watch ponds where people feed ducks. You will see fish popping the bread before the ducks can get to it.

Try several different ponds . Shiners are fairly common, so you should be able to find some..

I’ve never went after shiners myself, but I can tell ya what the ole boys around here do, that sell them to the bait shacks.

   They pick a spot, chum it for a few days, at about the same time, with hog finisher. Then after chumming it for a while, they’ll have a route so to speak. After throwing chum out at various spots, they come back and cast net on them.

I know this method might be hard from shore.
               The shiners are hard to find now that we’ve lost the eel grass.

I used to keep a rod rigged with a wild-eyed storm, boot tailed minnow on deck. I would fish each side of the shiner marker with it and I’ve caught some pretty good bass off them.

 

 

Don’t know what State you’re in but it could be illegal to transfer the shiners to any lake, pond or river UNLESS, your using them where you caught them. 
Check your regulations.

 

Example: You caught your baitfish on Kentucky lake, those are legal to use on Kentucky lake. 
 

You caught your baitfish on Kentucky lake but you want to fish no name lake an hour north of Kentucky lake, that would be illegal. 
 

Know the regulations for your State. 

Golden Shiner fishing bass fishing in Florida is a big business with guides taking out tourist daily. The guides do this because it’s a sure thing or as close to it as it gets. Why a skilled bass angler believes they need Golden Shiners to catch bass is beyond me.

Tom