techniques for hooking live minnows

[rango]

n one eye and out the other with a #4 gold eagle claw

[hawkman]

I have used all of the methods mentioned above but my personal favorite is thru the minnow & into the crappie's lip!

[rango]

ditto hawkman

[big "E"]

I like to hook them through the tail towards the upper part of it and they swim away from the hook struggling and looking more life like in my opinion.They seem to swim funny when hooked through the lip.Have never heard the head first theory on feeding , would like to hear more about it.Might have to start experimenting....E.

[fatboy]

I have always hooked them about halfway up the tail because of the above post. My grandfather always said that was the best way. Don't know if it is or not, but have never had any trouble with it.

[Moose1am]

OK guys I have been wondering about this head first theory also. So as some of you know I started keeping several crappie in an aquarium in my home. It's been a year now and I have raised these crappie for over a year now. I started after the Fall 2003 Patoka Lake Crappie USA tournament when some fishermen gave me some of their culled black crappie. I added a few white crappie to the aquarium after I caught them in the local lakes.

Crappie wait in ambush position along the bottom and watch the minnows swimming around in the tank. White crappie seem to be sneaker than the black crappie in my aquarium. Your aquarium and out in the real world it may be different. Most of the time the crappie will just flair it's gills and suck in water by opening it's mouth a spit second after it flairs it's gills. The crappie expell water out thought the operculium openings creating a partial vaccume inside their mouth and when they jut their jaws out the water rushs into the mouth to fill the vaccum. So anything within a short distance flows in with the rushing water and that includes any minnows nearby. They have to be within a few inches to be captured by the inflow of water.

Most of the time the crappie will try to eat the minnows head first BUT NOT ALL THE TIME. Sometimes they try to inhale a minnow and it goes in tail first. When that happens the crappie try to rearrange the minnow inside their mouth to spin it around so that it goes down head first. So it appears to me. The crappie will shake their head and turn a bit several times and open and close their mouth as if they are trying to reposition the minnow inside their mouths. Sometimes they will even spit the minnow back out and then grab it again head first.

So from my experiments that have lasted over one year. Oct 2003 to Nov 2004 it appears that they like their food (minnows) head first.

Now the Warmouth or rock bass will often eat more minnows and attack the minnows faster then the crappie. He swims around the 20 gallon aquarium relentlessly chasing a minnow. He will not give up until he catches a minnow. He is only about 4" to 6" long and sometimes the minows (2" Long ones) can't fit all the way down his throat. So I see him swimming around in the aquarium with 1/3 of the minnows tail section sticking out of the rock bass's mouth. It's funny to watch. But it only takes him a few minutes to eventually swallow the rest of the minow and sometime the little devil goes after another minnow. The smaller chubs are eaten more easily than the larger or medium shinners.

I have also noticed that the smaller the crappie the more agressive they are. The largest White Crappie seems to stay near the bottom more while the smaller black crappie will often suspend. The smallest white crappie will usually be the first to eat a minnow when I put several minnows from my minnow bucket into the 20 gallon aquarium. This is the routine but there are exceptions where the biggest white crappie will eat first. But that is usually because a minnow swims by him first where he has a change to gulp it in. But for the most part the smaller fish will be moving around and come up to get the minnows.

Things in the aquarium changed a lot when I added the warmouth (rockbass).

It would be interesting to see how the crappie would behave in a much larger aquarium. I know what the rock bass do when a minnow is put in a 55 gallon aquarium because I saw this happen at the whole bait shop once. The owner's son has set up a 55 gallon aquarium and he had about 5 rockbass in there one day. He put a scoop of minnows in the aquarium and within 50 seconds every minnow had been tracked down and eaten. It was like watching a "FLASH" cartoon as the fish moved so fast and turned around on a dime to chase and catch the minnows. It's amazed me that they didn't run into each other in the process. There were a dozen or more shinners put in the aquarim and all five warmouths were zooming around and turning 180's and zooming again to catch those minnows. If you ever have the chance to perform this experiment get the digital camcorder out and make a movie of this event. It will amaze you.

I like to hook them through the tail towards the upper part of it and they swim away from the hook struggling and looking more life like in my opinion.They seem to swim funny when hooked through the lip.Have never heard the head first theory on feeding , would like to hear more about it.Might have to start experimenting....E.

[crappieseeker]

I have caught many crappie and bass that have still had minnows in their mouth and half way down their throat while fishing a jig. 99% of them were with the tail hanging out and the head first. Thats why when I heard that, I didnt dispute it because I've seen evidence.

[Pooch]

I hook them through the eyes, usually and sometimes through the upper back, under the dorsal fin. To me, it seems that sometimes they prefer the minnows hooked one way over the other, depending on what I don't know.---Pooch

[CrappiePappy]

all finned fish, that are eaten by predator fish, are "usually" swallowed head first .... to allow the baitfish to slide down the throat more easily. If taken tail first, the dorsal and other fins can hang in the fish's throat. This generally runs true for most of the time ... the exception possibly being when a very large fish swallows a very small baitfish. Even a minnow or shad or other "soft rayed" fish, has the potential to flair its fins and stick in the throat of a predator fish. It's the Sticklebacks main defense against the predator fish that seeks it out for food - the Pike. Toothless fish, like Crappie & Bass & other panfish, will usually try and position the baitfish in it's mouth - head first down the throat - before attempting to swallow. It's probably an instinctual thing, or perhaps a "learned" thing (giving the fish the benefit of the doubt ) ... but, it is a survival thing overall. If food got stuck in the throat, and couldn't be disloged, the fish would eventually starve to death.
Regardless of how you hook a minnow ... the fish will suck it in and try and position it to go down head first. That "positioning" gives us time to set the hook before the minnow is swallowed. :D ..............cp ......

[Cane Pole]

I read an article in a sports magazine some years ago about the heads first theory. The main point of the article stated that the fish swallows its catch heads first because the bait fish, if swallowed tail first, could flair it's gills and stick in the preditors throat. Thereby allowing the minnow to swim out or choking the preditor and getting spit out. Most of the fish that I have cleaned (that still had minnows in them) over the years were heads first. There were some exceptions. Also noted that some of the water snakes that I captured (and skinned) had also swallowed the bait fish heads first. Makes sense to me.

Cane Pole