So let me ask this. I see everybody walking out of the local fishing store here with bags of live minnows. Now, What fish will go after a minnow? I know the obvious like a Pike and I'm sure browns would grab them, but would rainbows and splake go after them???
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[cool][#0000ff]In that neck of the woods they fish for crappies, big perch and walleyes with live minnows too. Just about any predator will eat them. The key is getting the right size minnow for the intended quarry. Obviously the perch and crappies like smaller minnows, about 2" or so. The big northerns will take 6" minnows, and even larger.[/#0000ff]
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Last winter I was fishing a state park pond in Idaho and had caught several fish below a spillway with spinners. A guy came along with a bag full of dead minnow he had trapped in an irrigation canal. He threaded a bare hook through a dead minnow and out the side of the tail and cast it into the water. He was catching a rainbow on almost every cast. I asked if I could try it and he said sure. He helped me rig my pole up and supplied the bait. It was a blast. I would like to try that again.
At Piute reservoir I met a guy who was catching big rainbows off the bottom by rigging a minnow on a hook, casting it out and letting it sit on the bottom until a big fish came along and ran with it. I was impressed both times. Acey
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I lived in Richfield about 25 yrs ago & used to fish Piute with minnows the same way. During years when there was a holdover pool left in the reservoir after irrigation season ended I caught some 4 -5 lb. browns & some pretty bows just around the point from the ramp.
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[cool][#0000ff]"Fly-lining" (no weight) dead minnows has long been the secret of many big trout specialists. When the fish are in and feeding a slowly sinking minnow will often never make it to the bottom.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are some "experts" on Strawberry that soak big dead chubs...up to 10"...for the meat eating cutts in there. Some of them caught MANY over 25" this past year. One "minnow expert" reported catching a 27" cutt on an 8" chub, and it barfed up another chub over 10".[/#0000ff]
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Hey Dude, would that work out at Utah Lake for catfish and other species or is it better to drift cutbait like you do?? I fish with the cut bait exclusively but there is a spot I can catch and kill bunches of minnows if thats productive....
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[cool][#0000ff]Minnows are often better than cutbait on either Utah Lake or Willard. I always take both. Very few fish in either of those lakes will turn down a minnow.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are lots of ways to present minnows, and some days the fish do seem to have a preference on how they want them served. Cats are known as bottom huggers, and that is where they usually look for their food. However, they will also rise up in the water column to follow a scent trail...of a juicy piece of bait. So, hanging minnows under a bobber works well too...especially in snaggy areas.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I almost never fish with weights when fishing for cats. I either drag weightless cut bait or minnows behind my tube, or else lob them out from shore on an unweighted line. I fish with my bail open (or free spool with baitcasters). When one picks up the minnow, I let it run a few feet and then after it stops...if it does...I engage the bail or spool and set the hook.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fishing with minnows in Utah Lake, you are as likely to catch walleye and white bass as catfish. Oh darn.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One last thing. I usually take a mix of sizes on the minnows I use. Sometimes the big fish want a whole big minnow. Other times you will do better with smaller minnows. On still other occasions, you will get more fish on minnows cut in half. I suspect that the extra flavor from a cut minnow helps draw in the cats. A funny thing is that sometimes you will do better with the head ends and other times the tail sections seem to work better. Maybe it is just chance, but there have been times while fishing with others, using cut minnows. that the person using one section or another outfishes those who aren't using that end.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the way, a chunk of minnow on a jig, suspended below a bobber, can often be a deadly setup too.[/#0000ff]
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Can't beat a minnow with Lil Corky setup
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TubeDude- Last year you wrote up a good post to answer a question I had on fishing with minnows. How do you set this post up to refer to the other post that was going on minnows? Acey
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[cool][#0000ff]You can use the "Search" function (One of the buttons at the top). When the search screen comes up, enter the topic you want to search (one or two words) and then the forum and the BFT member name. If you enter "Minnows" at the top, and "acey" in "posts by", you will get a list of posts to review. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Select the ones you want and copy and paste the links...preferably using the short version, like these below.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=184283;search_string=Minnows;#184283"]MINNOW QUESTIONS[/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=182905;search_string=Minnows;#182905"]TUBEDUDE RESPONSE[/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am also attaching (again) my Word Doc "epistle" I put together on minnows.[/#0000ff]
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We use minnows often to fish for trout on different waters. They can be deadly. But when you drift fish for them and let them take it for very long you end up with a very deep hook set. And if you try to set the hook too soon you miss them. We fish with a small egg hook so if we hook them too deep we just cut the line and hope the small hook won't do too much damage. I personally think where there is a slot limit they should outlaw any bait. I think there are a lot of fish killed by deep hooking and releasing. Just my opinion.
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