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Reply With QuoteFatheads. We get emerald shiners in our bait stores, too, and crappies love them but fatheads are MUCH easier to keep alive on a day of fishing.
Slabmaster
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
Other than the Shiners .... if the bait stores sell the other minnows at different prices, they're playing you
Fatheads, Blackheads, & Tuffies are all the same Fathead Minnow ... and Rosie Reds are a orange colored variation of a Fathead Minnow. Blackheads may also be male Fatheads in breeding coloration.
As for the "Arkansas" Shiners ... if they buy their minnows from Andersons Fish Farm, they're probably just Golden Shiners.
If/when I buy minnows, I usually go by size ... picking the 2-3" range if available. Mostly they're Fatheads, but occasionally there may be some Bluntnose Minnows in the mix. I've even had the occasional Stickleback show up in the bunch, and even less often a Tadpole or Channel Cat fry. I have no idea where our local baitshops get their "minnows"
... cp
Around here most folks call fatheads "crappie minnows." I usually buy the smallest ones I can find. They usually charge more for rosies and I haven't noticed any advantage to using them, so I only buy them when they're the only thing small enough. I've had the same experience with the odd stickleback or channel cat winding up in the bucket. Like Locator 79, no luck with stickleback minnows for bait.
I really don't use minnows much any more. I'm usually shore fishing and they're a pain to carry if you have to do much hiking to reach a spot. I have a lot of confidence in Gulp Alive minnows so that's what I usually use when I would otherwise use a minnow. I used to use minnows whenever a plain curlytail or tube wasn't getting it done. More recently I mostly dead-sticked them under a bobber while I was casting with another rod, because the minnow provided its own action. But I've had a lot of bites on Gulp products that were just hanging under a bobber, so the convenience of packaged baits wins out for me.
Slabmaster II
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Fatheads. We get emerald shiners in our bait stores, too, and crappies love them but fatheads are MUCH easier to keep alive on a day of fishing.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
I dont know the differance in minnows besides size in which I normally ask for smaller ones, but I remember last Spring after the bad winter, the bait shop told Me they are having a hard time getting minnows because the lakes in Michigan where froze solid, and thats where they get them. So is this because they only sell one species of minnows or?
