How Do You Know That There Are Minnows

Crappie Line-fishing With Minnows: A Guide To Rigging Minnows for Crappie

Written by: Pete D

Terminal Updated:

At that place'south no soft allurement, no jig, and no spinner more attractive to crappie than a live minnow. That's a simple fact that any experienced angler can tell y'all.

Indeed, it'due south oftentimes the case that they'll take a minnow even when they just won't hit anything you can pull from your tackle box.

That's why, for many fishermen, minnows are the go-to pick for crappie. And if you know what you're doing, they tin be used to tightline, troll, skid float, and cast, making them equally versatile as a good jig or soft allurement.

Just if you're a bit rusty on your minnow line-fishing or new to catching crappie, we'd like to requite you a head kickoff this jump. Below, you'll observe a detailed guide on how to use and rig minnows, besides as some of our favorite tips and tricks.

Table of Contents (clickable)

  • 1 Buying Bait Basics: What You Need to Know Well-nigh Crappie Angling With Minnows
    • one.i Which Minnow to Choose?
    • i.2 Signs of a Good for you Minnow
  • 2 Catching Bait Basics: What You Need to Know Well-nigh Minnows
  • 3 Proper Care of Your Minnows
  • 4 Hook Choice and How to Rig a Minnow for Crappie
    • four.1 Hook Size
    • 4.2 Hook Selection
    • four.3 Hooking Minnow for Crappie
  • v Crappie Rigs for Minnows
  • 6 Final Thoughts

  • How to predict where y'all'll find monster slabs in EVERY season, even summer. Never go dwelling with an empty water ice chest once more…
  • How to choose the right technique and lure for every situation.
  • Secrets from crappie legends that will change the way you fish for slabs.
  • How to brand the most of live bait, rig it similar a tournament champion, and turn the odds in your favor.
  • How to improve your spider rigging fix-up.
  • Tips to primary night line-fishing when the oestrus is really on.
  • Techniques and tips that work all the time, every time.
  • And Much More!

Looking for more? Nosotros got you! Check out our list of crappie fishing tips

Buying Bait Nuts: What Yous Need to Know About Crappie Fishing With Minnows

If you find a crappie honey-hole anywhere, you'll find a store selling minnows nearby. And you lot may remember information technology's every bit like shooting fish in a barrel as walking in, laying down a few bucks, and walking out--but don't be fooled!

To get the almost from your minnows, you need to follow some basic rules and know what you're looking for in a lively allurement.

Check out our ownership guide for the best minnow buckets

Which Minnow to Cull?

Most bait stores carry one of two kinds of minnow: the golden shiner or the fathead. And every bit you lot tin can see from the pictures beneath, it'due south pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to tell these little guys apart.

Golden Shiner Minnow

Fat Caput Minnow

This matters because, more often than not speaking, fatheads are a fleck more than robust than golden shiners, meaning that they'll take a bit more beating and nonetheless come out alive and kick.

When yous take the option, get for them.

Signs of a Salubrious Minnow

When you encounter farm-raised minnows in a bait tank, you need to appraise their health. Sick minnows are more than probable to die on y'all and far less active as bait--both bad things.

To get the most from them, you need your bait to be in good condition. We recommend that y'all look for tightly schooled minnows rather than loose clusters. They should sport bright scales and undamaged fins, besides.

If you see them swimming listlessly about the pinnacle of the tank, or you lot notice that they have damaged fins or nighttime scales, you lot probably desire to laissez passer.

Communicable Allurement Basics: What You lot Need to Know Well-nigh Minnows

Simply not every fisherman buys his or her bait, and it'southward estimated that most one-half of the baitfish used to grab crappie are caught rather than bought. Pretty much any minnow yous catch will attract crappie, and so don't worry virtually the species!

Note: It'south disquisitional that yous non release invasive species into new habitats. For that reason, you should catch your minnows where y'all program to fish, or buy them from a bait shop.

These immature anglers tin can show you how it'due south done:

Proper Care of Your Minnows

Whether yous've bought or caught your minnows, you need to treat them correct if you lot desire them to piece of work well for you. There are three basic rules to follow with these niggling guys, and if you lot exercise, you lot'll go a lot more than from them.

Temperature shock

If you want to kill minnows, there'south probably no improve fashion than to daze them with quick temperature changes. The best way to ensure they stay vigorous and healthy is to slowly adjust the temperature of their water.

For instance, if y'all buy them in a plastic bag, make full your bait bucket or container with lake water, and so drop that sealed handbag in. This allows the water temperature in the bag to slowly motion toward the lake temp.

Aeration

The longer y'all're holding minnows, the more disquisitional this becomes. More than than a few hours without new oxygen will atomic number 82 to death, and if you lot're planning on an all-day trip, it's worth investing in a allurement bucket aerator like the Marine Metal lid aerator. It's designed to fit a standard bucket, and will keep your minnows supplied with the oxygen they need.

No chlorine

Never utilise chlorinated water in your bait bucket! Also, you need to make certain that you don't transport lake h2o from one place to another, as this tin can release invasive species into new habitats.

Annotation: It'southward critical that yous not release invasive species into new habitats. For that reason, you should never mix water from one source with some other.

That leaves you two choices: either use a bucket of water from the lake yous plan to fish, or let that tap h2o sit down out for a few days to remove the chlorine.

Bring some ice

If your minnows become as well hot, they'll die. Information technology's usually best to hold them in cool, but not cold water. We suggest a water temperature of 50 to 65 degrees.

Hook Choice and How to Rig a Minnow for Crappie

We've written virtually choosing the correct hook for crappie before, and we've reviewed some excellent choices, besides. But it'south worth repeating in summary what nosotros said in that location.

Hook Size

Crappie are often called "papermouths," and that's no mistake. For their size, their mouths are large, but they're also incredibly fragile. While you lot might utilize a #8 on similar sized species like bluegill, y'all desire to upsize your hooks for crappie.

We recommend that yous run nothing smaller than a #6, and we often utilise a #iv, #2, and even a #1 for large minnows.

Hook Selection

Almost crappie anglers choose Aberdeen hooks. Designed for panfish, they feature a long shank, a broad gap, and a frail construction.

  • Long shank - Non only does this long shank give your minnow plenty of room to practice its thing, but information technology makes retrieving that claw from a crappie's oral cavity much easier.
  • Wide gap - The Aberdeen'south wide gap helps, likewise, when y'all're rigging minnows. It also works to preclude the claw from vehement free from frail mouth tissues.
  • Delicate construction - An Aberdeen hook is made from very thin wire for a reason. First, information technology helps to minimize injury to the minnow, keeping information technology alive longer. That's merely critical. But 2nd, it allows yous to free snags by deforming your hook. And since crappie love castor, that's something you'll apace come up to capeesh.

Our top choices for crappie hooks include the Hawkeye Hook and Mustad. Simply other first-class options are the Tru-Turn and Matzuo Sickle Aberdeen.

Hooking Minnow for Crappie

In that location are a number of dissimilar ways to claw a alive minnow for crappie. The main things to keep in heed are how quickly a given technique kills the minnow and the realization that crappie are going to strike the caput get-go.

  • Tail hooking - Past running your claw through the tail, about a ¼ inch off the fins, you permit the minnow to kicking and swim without doing information technology serious injury. They'll exist lively and long-lived that fashion, and it's one of our favorite options. Simply to make it work, you demand to think to suspension, as Ivo Coia explains in the video below.
  • Dorsal hooking - By running your hook through the dorsum, directly below the dorsal fin, y'all also miss the minnow'due south vital organs, assuasive it to twitch both caput and tail.
  • Lip hooking - With this technique, you run the hook from nether the minnow'south chin, through both lips. Patently, this leaves the tail kicking furiously, but information technology does kill the minnow more quickly than the alternatives.
  • Snout hooking - Essentially a modified lip hook, in this case, you run the claw downwardly through the front of the head and out through its mouth. Like lip hooking, this lets the minnow move freely, simply information technology doesn't kill it as apace.

demonstrating these 4 techniques

Crappie Rigs for Minnows

At that place are plenty of ways to rig your hooks for trolling, tightlining, and skid floating. Let's review some of the about common.

Most crappie rigs feature 2 hooks on carve up leaders, both of which will exist attached to a weighted primary line. Whether this rig is dropped to the bottom, suspended over cover from a slip float, or just tightlined or trolled, the basic setup doesn't vary too much.

If you lot want to buy a basic rig, you can do a lot worse than either the Bullet Weights Mr. Crappie Rig or the Eagle Claw Crappie Rig. They're both well designed and inexpensive, and in our feel, they work actually well. After tying them to your line, simply attach a small-scale weight, and they're gear up for minnows.

If you want to make your own, you can experiment with dissimilar rigging styles.

In the diagram beneath, the "crappie or pickerel rig" is very similar to the Eagle Claw you tin can buy, and those wire spreaders cutting down on tangles as the minnows swim effectually the principal line.

With the "Kentucky" and "Basic" rigs, you forgo the spreaders, and the most significant difference between them is simply whether the weight is lowered or attached directly beneath the lower minnow.

We'd recommend something like the Kentucky rig for fishing the lesser, though we'd switch that standard sinker out for a pencil sinker, because information technology's a touch on less probable to snag. The bones rig is a great pick when you're suspending your minnows in the h2o column, either while tightlining, trolling, or using a slip float.

Whether you apply a barrel swivel in a higher place your rig, three-way swivels for each dropper, both, or neither, y'all can experiment to encounter what works best for you and your atmospheric condition.

Concluding Thoughts

Live minnows have proven themselves to generations of crappie anglers, and if you're new to using them, or merely haven't done so in a while, we hope that our guide has helped you build the confidence to give them a try.

Let us know how these tips worked for you, and delight leave united states of america a comment below!

About The Author

Pete D

Built-in and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Pete grew up line-fishing on the Great Lakes. When he'southward not out on the h2o, y'all tin can notice him reading his favorite books, and spending time with his family.

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Source: https://usangler.com/crappie-fishing-with-minnows/

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