Rainbow and yellowfin shiners, how do I find them in the wild?

[Hybridfish7]

Self explanatory, I have reasonable access to areas where they occur naturally, geographically, though the real question is, how do I actually find and catch them? As fun as going and trying to catch them is, for the sake of wanting to keep them, would it be better to drop a few bucks and buy them from imperial tropicals or something?

 

[MatteoTheEnder22]

I say you should just buy them because you will at least know that they don't have any parasites or bacteria that can be harmful to the rest of your fish.

 

[jjohnwm]

Collecting them yourself and acclimating them to captive life will be far more challenging than simply buying them. That might make the idea more or less attractive to you, depending upon how you feel about such things. Collecting is huge fun...in my opinion...and provides a great deal of personal satisfaction...again, in my opinion. It's also a lot of work...and that is fact. Decide how you feel about that.

And please don't convince yourself that a fish you buy has no parasites or diseases. They might have fewer problems like that...or, due to overcrowding, possibly poor conditions and uncertain nutrition, they might be much worse off than wild fish. Any fish you bring home, from any source, are at risk and should be quarantined carefully.

 

[phreeflow]

Collect them yourself if it’s legal to do so in your state. That sounds like a lot of fun. Better than been cooped up inside. Here in Cali, we aren’t allowed to do anything of the sort. Even if they were native to our state, I’d have to get them from a store.

Hence, I ordered my rainbow shiners from Imperial Tropical. Can’t complain, they were nice and service was good. They went into quarantine like any other fish I get online or at the LFS. I’m sure you can setup a cheap 10 gallon qt for the ones you catch and they’d be fine. Just don’t ever release them back after they’ve been in captivity. I’ve seen people catch them on YouTube using baited minnow traps.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

Collecting can be half the fun. Depending on where you are collecting them you have a few options. I don't know the laws in your area (so check how it is legal to catch bait fish in your state) but you could set up a minnow trap, use a dip net, if you have a friend to collect with you could use a seine net or you could use a cast net. When I collet my minnows I use a dip net and walk up stream to catch them.

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Fishbase has the info which watersheds they are found and then narrow it down to see which places you can access to.

And make sure you have a valid fishing license as well.