Red Tails vs Leeches

Well the water in Grand Rapids has receeded enough that the local trappers were able to replenish my supply of red tails again; so last night was my first night out with my preferred bait of choice.

My original plan was to troll the weeds with my newly acquired slow death technique, but the two guys that wanted to go out last night said they would rather go for BIG fish rather than numbers. So I made a quick phone call to the River Rat and low and behold the red tails were in so I replanned for my favorite tactic.

We started on out on one of my new favorite deepwater reefs geared with red tails. This reef had been hot for 3 weeks now using leeches so we rigged two lines with red tails and one with a leech. Red Tails 3 – Leeches 0 (however I missed a number of fish on leeches for whatever reason is yet to be determined).

On to the next reef and within 5 minutes another hit on a red tail, this walleye however spit it out right at the boat. On the next pass however redemption as we picked up a nice 26″. After a few more passes we picked up a hungry 16″ walleye on a 6″ red tail.

All in all Red Tails 5 – Leeches 0, 2 to 4 foot snells with a bead and a #2 Gamagatzu Octopus hook were the ticket last night. Although only one fish was over the 26″ mark I am still going to have to say if you are looking to catch BIG walleyes red tails are definately my preferred bait of choice for fishing deep water reefs or humps. Not a bad outing for a few hours of fishing after the work day considering my daughter left the main on the night before while we were cleaing the boat and had to jump the motor with the Truck at the landing.

We did learn a few valuable lessons last night #1 When using redtails when you think you have give them enough time give an extra 15 seconds. #2 When kids are in the boat parked in the yard be sure to double and triple check your main before going to bed. #3 I need to refine my hook setting technique as I missed entirely too many fish last night.

Yes those redtails are like walleye candy. Great job!!

for me its always a big red tail and a jig!

they are my favorite bait for p2 eyes.

jp

That beard is just as cool as that walleye

OK – I have a simple question. I see a lot of references to retails – and to be honest I have never bought them, as I trap 100% of my own minnows. In all of the pictures I see, they seem really similar to what I call a creek chub(a fantastic minnow in its own right, IMHO). What is the difference between a redtail and a creek chub?

I’ve never fished with red tails or minnows that much for what it’s worth. When rigging them do you just hook them through the lips so they are still kicking?

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OK – I have a simple question. I see a lot of references to retails – and to be honest I have never bought them, as I trap 100% of my own minnows. In all of the pictures I see, they seem really similar to what I call a creek chub(a fantastic minnow in its own right, IMHO). What is the difference between a redtail and a creek chub?

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I fish with both creek chubs and red tails. IMO they are equal in fish catching ability. I’ll use whichever one is more available or cheaper at the time. Some people try to cut corners and use sucker minnows instead and in my experience sucker minnow are much more lethargic and don’t work as well for walleye. I’m sure there are scenarios where they work but in general not as well as a chub.

To answer the hooking question. I hook them up through the bottom jaw and through the nose. If you just go through the nose or just through the jaw the mouth will stay open and they won’t live as long.

The creek chub and red tail are very similar, the difference is the red tail had a more distinct red tail and is lighter in color in the creek chub. Both seem to work equally effective; least I have never noted a major difference.

Sucker minnows will work if they are wild sucker minnows, a lot of bait stores carry the farm raised suckers and those are very lethargic. The bait store I get most of my minnows from traps his own bait and I have noticed a huge differnce in the wild suckers in his bait store vs other stores that carry the farm raised suckers.

When using red tails or the creek chub use a larger #2 or #4 hook and hook them from the bottom of the jaw through the nose. The idea is to let the minnow swim freely around on the bottom and do the work for you. I like to use a 5/8 to 1 oz slip sinker, when the fish strikes depending on the size of the minnow (I like to use 4 to 6 if fishing for numbers of fish and 7 to 10 for large walleyes only) feed them line for about a minute. when I am ready to set the hook I like to manuever the boat back to the fish so there isn’t a lot of line out to get a better hook set.

The more you use the red tails or creek chubs you will notice you will know you are about to get a strike before the fish hits by how the the minnow begins to frantically swim away on the leader. I have several leader lengths ready before I go and watch my graph to see how far the fish are off the bottom. I will use anywhere from 1 to 4 ft 12lb florocarbon foot snells, anything longer and an active minnow has a better chance of out swimming the strike.

If you have never used them before I strongly suggest giving them a try and if you have used them you know why I say this because nothing is better than a walleye striking a red tail or creek chub. The fish seem to put the hate on the bait and literally destroy it.

GOOD LUCK FISHING!!!

I agree with you guys they both catch fish like crazy…creekers tend to be a little cheaper than redtails for whatever reason, but if given the choice I will go with reds because when hooked like Joe mentioned, they will stay on the hook longer than a creeker. Also, like Joe mentioned, you can’t substitute suckers for either bait…just not the same.

jp