Dead minnow rigging

[300win]

How do you guys rig frozen minnows. I use the ones you buy at the store but after they sit for a while they soften up and are hard to keep on the hook. Any tips
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[fishwhisperer14]

I put the hook through the eyes and then lay the hook (with the end with the line through it) towards the tail, along side the body of the minnow. Then I double half hitch around the tail. (that is what I do when I bait at least)
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[Springbuck]

If you hook em while frozen, they break up worse, it seems. I salt water they tie bait to hooks. Take some sewing thread and run a length through the hook eye, or tie to the eye. Hook your minnow through the bend once wherever and wrap a few times around the minnow, then back up. You can just wrap the tail of the thread around the hook a few times, rather than tying off. Untangles surprisingly easily.

Addendum: TD takes better care of his minnows than most. Getting them frozen asap is important. I have had success freezing them with actual meat cure, my favorite being Morton Tender Quick. This sodium nitrate/nitrite mix toughens them up the same way it makes beef jerky chewy rather than just hard. But I DON'T fish minnows as much as I'd like, and have only used them for catfish. It might change the taste or who knows what.

Frozen anchovies or smelt from the Chinese Market smell great, but disintigrate instantly.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I use a lot of minnows...mostly chubs or small carp. The redsides work best when still fresh. After freezing they get too mushy for my preference. Some variables in the sizes and styles of hooks too.

Hooking a minnow through the head makes for a solid attachment, and drags the minnow in a "normal" direction. But with more of the hook exposed you get more snags too.

Hooking them through the gill collar works only on good firm minnows. Otherwise you cast most of them off the hook. But there are times it works best. The downside is that sometimes the hook turns and buries inside the minnow...ruining a hookset.

If the minnows are a bit soft...or if the fish are robbing your bait often without getting the hook, you can run the hook around inside the bait...toward the tail...with the hook wrapping around the spine. That holds the bait on fairly well and will still allow a good hookset...since the hook pulls through the bait when you whack them.

See the pics.
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[300win]

Thanks guys for all the help. I like fishing with minnows at times but I hate it when they fall off.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

There's minner rigs I've seen that clamp onto the head to hold 'em. Never tried one - but I've rigger a stinger (small treble) hanging down to catch the tail while the main single hook if through the head/gill/eyes. Can help with tail nippers.

Depends on if you're still fishing, or dragging them around I'd think too. With little fatheads - I'll stack a few on a jig head and bounce them under a bobber. Like a swim-bait, the jig head can look like "another" fish-head.
So are they looking to play dead, or act like they are trying to swim? Thread can work if you're sewing them, but magic thread (elastic) can work even better, easier.

[Outfishing13]

I have started thinking about fishing more with minnows myself, both for cats and trout. When I commercially and sport fished for halibut in Alaska, we always salted our frozen hearing. The salt dried it out quite a bit, but it made it tougher and the oils that came out were actually more potent. Salted bait stayed on the hook for a short time (couple hours for a long line and 15-20 minutes on a pole), but was never as good as cut bloody fresh bait. Our favorite bait was octopus. The halibut loved it and you could fish it over and over and it was still productive.

The biggest fish were always caught on fresh pacific cod. Can you imagine a 15 pound cod for a bait? Well that was what caught the biggest fish... We never baited like that, bu it was the cod that bite the hearing and then the halibut bit the cod.

Anyhow, I think I will start trying some salted minnows. Table salt works just fine, but coarser salt like pickling salt works best. Just put your minnows in a something that will drain and layer it in salt. Let it stay like that for several days. If you want, salt your bait well, let it drain and then put it in the fridge in a plastic container. It should last for many weeks that way.

Anyhow... Kind of new here and love the forum. Grew up in Utah until I was about 14 and then lived in Alaska till my 30s. Just learning how to fish here in Utah and have really enjoyed my new boat for the last 5 weekends on Deer Creek trolling for trout. Need to learn the ropes around Utah better though.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I used to do some long-line rockfish pulling myself, in southern Cal. Couldn't begin to count how many hooks I baited with salted 'chovies. And they did work. But if you get into some of those huge schools down there they will bite almost anything.

There are several minnow fans who DO salt their freshly caught minnows...both to kill them and to cure them. The salt does draw out moisture and firms the minnows up a bit. And most fish like the taste of salt.

Howsomever, In several decades of experimentation on Utah kitties it has been my observation that fresh dead bait is best...followed closely by bait that has been properly prepared and frozen. This includes freezing minnows or fish flesh in a little water, with the air bubbles squeezed out, to reduce freezer burn. When I open a package of thawed minnows, carp meat or white bass the contents are about as close to fresh as you can get. And the fish vote for it pretty good too.

I have made several side by side tests...of salted minnows vs "fresh frozen" and there is usually even a close second on the salted. However, I have heard from a couple of other guys that they have had exactly the opposite results. Hmmm?

Now if some of our Utah cats got as big as those north Pacific flatties I wouldn't dare go after them in a float tube.
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[Outfishing13]

While working on the halibut charter boats in Homer, Alaska in the early 90s, I got acquainted with a diver who did prop repairs and replacements. He had recently started spear fishing for halibut. He said shooting a 100+ pounder was NOT a good idea, since it would drag your all around and more than likely you'd have to let go of your spear.

I can imagine that tube fishing for a halibut would be quite and experience. Just carry a good sized Danforth anchor with you to throw out if it started heading out to sea. LOL!

There are plenty of places off the Homer Spit where a guy could have some fun fishing from a tube.

Where and how do you catch all your live minnows?
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[Therapist]

Not much of a dead minnow fisherman, but I have soaked a few. There is a trolling rig for herring called a mooching rig that I believe could be adapted for soaking a dead minnow. Best place I know where to learn about them is on Wayne's Words. It is called a JP rig and there are instructions on how to tie em. They use them to troll for stripers with frozen anchovies, but you can down size them for using frozen minnows.

There is also the 'Quick Strike Rig' they use for dead baiting Northern's. Again, down size em for cats and dead baiting minnows.

I have used a down size JP rig for walleye, but I don't have the patience TD does fishing minnows.

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Used to have a good friend that had a guide service in Soldotna. Went up and pulled the oars for him a few times. We also spent some time out of Homer so I have "experienced" those barndoors. There are guys pulled over the side on big boats if they don't have their gear set up right. It would be foolish to even try for almost any size halibut in a float tube. Just not enough "platform" to pull against. But I did get into some shallow water rock fishing...including some decent lings. Didn't like to bring them in too close to my inflated dinghy though.

I have had a tougher time finding good minnows myself the past two or three years. Low water ruins some of the shallow ponds and streams that hold minnows.

There are chubs and carp minnows to be had in the canals around Farmington Bay and Bear River bird refuges. But again, the changing water levels and dropping flows put a hurting on the supply.

A few shallow salty ponds out in the west desert can hold chubs but they get hit pretty hard by lotsa folks.

There are chubs and fathead minnows in the little lakes at Deer Valley...up by Park City. Two years ago all the chubs were 10 -12 inches. Last fall I checked it and they were full of 1 inchers. Maybe this year.

Lots of chubs in Scofield and in the outlet below. And still good numbers of redside shiners in Electric Lake...up on the skyline. Until this year that lake was on the list for quagga mussels and you were not allowed to catch shiners there for use elsewhere.

Just so's ya know, asking a serious minnow guy where he gets his minnows is like asking to use his sports car...to take his wife on a date. Not likely to get a favorable response.

The carp will be spawning soon in several waters. The young grow fast and if you time it right you can find large schools of them around the ramps in harbors. Ditto for white bass at Utah Lake. They spawn in May-June and the young are thick inside the harbors for two or three months beginning in July. You can't legally net them but you can fill a bucket with a couple of tiny jigs below a bobber early in the morning..And there is no limit so you can legally fill a freezer with them. I'm still using up some got two years ago. And the cats still love 'em.
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[Kent]

[quote TubeDude][#0000ff]

Ditto for white bass at Utah Lake. They spawn in May-June and the young are thick inside the harbors for two or three months beginning in July. You can't legally net them but you can fill a bucket with a couple of tiny jigs below a bobber early in the morning..And there is no limit so you can legally fill a freezer with them. I'm still using up some got two years ago. And the cats still love 'em.

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A friendly reminder to those who may not know or have forgotten, white bass (dead of course) can only be used as bait on Utah Lake and the Jordan River.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Good point Kent.

Mooching rigs, thems the ones. I've tried some "egg cure" on some fatheads, as they don't freeze/thaw as well as carp minners. Like TD preaches, and I followed his leader - a layering of water does as much or more than a vacuum seal.
Seen some fish preservation readings that talked about freezing fish like you were making wax candles. Bit of water, freeze, bit more water. Makes an airtight seal.

The cure is basically sugar, salt, and coloring. Worth wearing gloves, and staying away from carpet (or big winds). Unless you really want pink fingers.

I'd started saving some of the smaller dink-perch for baitlings, but alas - they are (for some cwazy reason) not permitted on Cutler/Bear. Even though I've heard tails of there being Perch in them water. It makes my brain hurt to try to understand all the regs, so I just try to abide. Safer bet.

A little seasoning - garlic, pepper, rosemary and thyme - who knows what scent will tickle their old-factories.
Hell - seen a guy soaking slices of lemon, so who knows. Carp and Koi enjoy their veggies too. (I know - lemons are a fruit, whatever - so are tomatoes)