Where I fish, the minnows don't have to be alive to catch good fish. In fact, our biggest crappie come on minnows that are all torn up after having caught 2 or 3 crappie. They work well if they are dead but only dead for a short time. If the minnows are starting to turn white, then they don't work as well. This afternoon from 5:00 to 7:30, we used 3 dozen to catch 70 total crappie with 30 of those being big keepers. We use a small minnow bucket dipnet attached to an old broken rod to reach out and retrieve the minnows when a crappie throws it. At Granger Lake you are only wasting minnows if you put a fresh one on every time you catch a crappie. I constantly hear clients comment that they thought that minnows have to be lively to catch crappie. I asked them if the person that they heard that from makes a living catching crappie. I know that it may be true at other lakes but not here.
Crappie Guide (since 1986)
Granger Lake, Texas
(512) 365-7761