Thread: To minner or not to minner? That is the question.

MOST of the time I use jigs. I pretty much gave up taking minners ALL the time, about 30yrs ago. BUT .... the minner bucket is always in the boat. I may be stubborn, but I ain't stupid.

when I was a kid all we had was minnows mostly for crappie fishing, maybe a few odd looking doll flys. For close to fifty years I have fished with plastics or hair jigs and nothing else. I know minnows have a place and sometimes out fish the plastics but to me that is rare and only in certain circumstances. of course this is just my opinion.

If I can find fish, I catch them on plastics and light jigs. Last time out - 54 fish/ 5 different species.
Started using some curl tail grubs yesterday and did okay, but my own designs (4) do better any time of day.

tail of a plastic worm


bottom two were hand poured


1/32-1/8 oz jigs and I'm all set.

Back when I first started fishing for white perch I always carried shiners. One day I went to a good spot, baited one pole with shiner and placed in the water. Picked up a jig pole with small hair jig and caught 4 fishing beside shiner. Didn't get a bite on live bait. I do put grass shrimp on my jigs, fish luv them.

It really doesn't matter as long as you are catching and having fun! If you aren't catching get to the marina for a dozen minnows and fish them. Who really cares anyway? It is a fisherman's preference and i will never hold it against anyone that uses what ever catches fish.
I see people that belittle others that use minnows. Those are not true fisherman.
I for on know I have had more LIMITS in one year by using minnows than standard jigs and I get minnows by the pound which is cheap!

Stopped using minnows years ago.Don't know about other lakes throughout the country but the ones I fish the crappie nibble is a game changer. I absolutely would not head to the lake without them.I was made a believer from the best crappie fisherman I had ever known and have done the same with many people who have fished in my boat.

Have to say there's nothing like dropping a jig in a brush pile loaded with crappie. With that said, I have minnows in my boat 98 % of the time. I have seen to many days especially in the winter, where you can straight line minnows with a niblet and catch bigger crappie than on artificial bait. I do believe you can catch quantity with jigs but if you are fishing for big crappie, a minnow is hard to beat. Just my preference but I would rather go through the hassle of taking live bait and catching 10 big crappie versus using a jig and catching 30 short fish. I know there's a lot of big fish caught on jigs but if I had to make a choice there would be minnows in the boat.

I always git some minners. The type minners I git depends on what the store has in the tanks. Sometimes I git the JB Market type minners and sometimes I git the Contry Junction type minners. However, sometimes I have to drive to Big Sandy and git the big Sandy type minners cause Contry Junction is out of Contry Junction type minners or they is closed and/or changed ownership again.

When Billbob isa coming, I drive over and git some Milan minners as the Milan Minner farm @ $7 lb.

Unlike spoonie, I can always find fish cause Ima lucky.

This is a true story.