Thread: How to fish minnows

That is the way I do it. I use a #2 hook for fishing around here and its plenty big for our Missouri minnows. We use a 1/0 when we go to Sippi.

Does a gold hook make a difference?

I have used red. gold, blue, bronze and black and have not really seen a difference in any of them. I use a light wire Mustad hook now for rigging and really like them. They are a blueish black hook. just like them because they are so light and will straighten out if hung up.

I don't use minnows much anymore but when I do I hook them through the eyes. I have better luck with them staying alive longer that way as opposed to through the lips. But if you get a bite and don't hook up it will normally knock out one or both eyes. When that happens they seem very ineffective. I just get a new one then.

You and Chris will get on them before long, the water is still pretty cold right now.

An alternate technique (especially when vertical fishing brush) is to use a drop shot. It'd be a bigger weight on the very bottom and one (or two?) of your same hooks tied a foot above the weight. (Your second hook, if you so choose, would go a foot above the first.) A half ounce or better weight on the bottom will keep the line taut and you'll feel even the lightest bites. Also, you won't get hung up on the brush.

I hook dem minners in the tail, throw it as hard as you can out there and then stop it quick and with practice that minner will keep going, then you get out a jig and tie it on and man up for them crappie with a jig...........

Originally Posted by Marine4life

Wondering if I am doing this right. I have been tying a gold thin wire hook to the main line and attaching a 1/4 oz split shot about 12 inches above it. I forget what hook size but they seem a bit big for the 2 inch medium shiners. Hooking the little rascals up thru the bottom jaw and out the bridge of their nose. Using a single 10 or 12 foot rod and dropping it vertical near cover. If anyone has found better methods for minnows I would be happy to learn.
Mike

I use your "under the jaw & up between the nostrils" hooking technique for jigs, but not for plain hooks. On a hook/sinker rig I'll hook the minner BEHIND the eyeballs (not IN them) and I have my sinker only 6-8" above the hook. That hook is usually a #2 lite wire Aberdeen bronze hook (probably an Eagle Claw hook), but occasionally I'll use a gold hook. Never really bothered to test hook colors against one another, as I've caught fish on hooks of many colors.

Remember .... no matter what color the hook is, once they get beyond the depth of light penetration... they are ALL going to look BLACK to the fish. And don't forget, the fish aren't usually hitting the hook, but what's ON the hook .... otherwise we wouldn't need minners or plastics

Biggest hook I've ever used was a #1 gold Eagle Claw Aberdeen ... pulling 2lb Crappie out of the buck brush of Barkley Lake with no problems. 2"-2.5" Fathead Minnows are my normal "live bait" choice.

And don't think a #2 or even a #1/0 hook is too big for a Crappie, or that a #4 hook is too small .... even a 4" long Crappie has a mouth big enough to suck in any one of those hooks with a minner almost the same length as it is .... and usually have the attitude to try doing just that !!

... cp