How do you bait your minnows on the hook?

[Deleted member 5866]

This is a question that gets asked a lot. How do you bait your minnow on the hook, what's the best way? I've tried several methods, with live bait, through the tail, through the snout, once through the back directly below the dorsal fin......but what I have found works best, especially if you're fishing with kids, is twice through the back, once by the back of the dorsal fin, and the other forward of it.

If I'm using salted or fresh dead ones, I go through the head. Anyone else have any other methods of baiting the minnow on the hook that work well that I haven't mentioned?

 

[GPS]

I only use home cured salties and insert into the back at the dorsal and come out the mouth. It's y belief that fish prefer head first so that all the fins lay back along the body.

 

[mcsteve]

When using either using salted or fresh dead, I insert hook beside the dorsal and out through the gill or mouth (depending on size). For me this gives the minnow a spin during movement and more of an injured signal. Like GPS, I believe fish prefer head first so position the hook accordingly.

 

[Deleted member 5866]

I believe they hit head first as well, although in shallow water I have seen pike hit side first, I assume to injure it, then swing back and take it by the head.

 

[Thirstystone]

I don't know about that...but I think when a perch is inhaling a minnow on a hook ...he doesn't care which way it comes into his mouth....LoL

 

[Fish Farmer]

Love big minnows for Perch, I cut them up in chunks, they stay on longer.

 

[Woodsman]

I usually have better luck tearing(not cutting) a live minnow in half. Both halves work equally as good.
Put solidly on hook anyway that works for the piece.

 

[Deleted member 5866]

That's interesting. I know they'll still work, but I'd only heard of people cutting or tearing live minnows when they were starting to run out to save on minnows and prolong how long they'd be out fishin. I know people have cut or torn salties, and freshly dead ones for the same reason. Of course, being tethered to shore, a lot of people I speak with in person are the same folks I see every year down on the pier, and the older ones swear by keeping the minnow intact and alive for as long as possible. They'll throw dead ones to the birds after catching or buying fresh ones. Some of them have told kids on the pier, and they truly believe it, that if the minnow is dead, or a gobie has sucked the eyes out, the fish won't hit it, (which is of course not true, I've caught many using dead or eyeless minnows) so they check their line quite often whether they've had a hit or not, and if a minnow is dead, they change it right away and put a live one in it's place and then bitch when others around them catch one while they're putting fresh bait on the line. Now that said, these same people do tend to catch more and bigger fish than others do but I believe that isn't because this is what they do, but rather because they get there earlier than anyone else or have been out there all night, and get to the generally considered "best spots" which are closer to the end of the pier.

 

[Extra Virgin]

Perch will eat damn near anything..... Doesn't matter which way you hook a shiner, they'll eat em. And when you run out of bait, you got perch eyes to fish with.

 

[Woodsman]

That's interesting. I know they'll still work, but I'd only heard of people cutting or tearing live minnows when they were starting to run out to save on minnows and prolong how long they'd be out fishin.

No not torn in half to extend the time to fish(but not a bad side effect) but to extend the scent trail.
Also the reason I stated torn not cut.

 

[Deleted member 5866]

No not torn in half to extend the time to fish(but not a bad side effect) but to extend the scent trail.
Also the reason I stated torn not cut.

see, it's true, if ya ask the right question, you can learn something new.

 

[Fishnuts]

Do pond minnows work as good as shiners

 

[Marshall Law]

I grew up running fishing charters out of port Rowan most of my life for small mouth & perch, I can tell you that live minnows catch more fish, day in and day out, than dead ones. I have seen so many fisherman sit on boats for way too long with dead minnows on their line, swearing that fish don't care dead or alive, they will eat it. While their buddies are catching fish all around them with live minnows. They just sit there and tell themselves and everyone that "must be my luck", meanwhile everyone sits around them rolling their eyes. Only use dead minnows if there are no live ones available.

 

[Deleted member 5866]

Do pond minnows work as good as shiners

By "pond minnows" I assume you mean perhaps fathead minnows or those that are darker in color. What I can tell you from experience is this, off the pier in Pt. Bruce although they do work, as do worms, neither work as well as the shiners do, and I can only assume that to be because the fish are in there primarily feeding on shiners. When others or myself use our minnow nets to catch our own, shiners is what we're catching. I haven't seen any other kind caught, although in the spring sometimes you might get a rainbow smelt mixed in there too, as they're in there feeding on the shiners too. If you do happen to catch a rainbow smelt, kill it....it is an invasive species.....it can be used as bait but only if you kill it.

• Never buy or use live rainbow smelt as bait; it’s against the law. Dead rainbow smelt may be used as bait in Ontario except in Fisheries Management Zones 2, 4 and 5 (see ontario.ca/fishing), where it is illegal to use them or possess them as bait.

 

[Woodsman]

Failure to immediately release a smelt caught in a dip net other than when the season is open for netting them (Mar 1 - May 31 for Zones 16 & 19) could lead to charges being laid.