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.
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.
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.
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?