I agree dead minnows can work fairly well in cold water. Fish are sluggish and just a very scuttle movement to help catch there eye is all that is needed. However as water temps. warm they become more active and a lively minnow seems to worm much better. I ice fish for them and you can dead stick a dead minnow and do very well. However by mid May I like to use medium fast swimming jigs. Friends fish for largemouths in summer and catch some really nice crappie on crank baits retrieved at a fairly high rate of speed. I do not believe that would work at all right after ice out do to the cold water. Also as above poster stated dead minnows deteriorate fairly rapidly especially in warmer weather and warmer water. We freeze dead minnows and give them to guys who may run out of minnows while fishing. Or if we run out of live minnows we can atleast give them a dozen of frozen ones and not loose a customer.