I am curious to see how others will hook the minnow of choice when fishing with live bait? Either dead sticking, rattle reel, or tip ups.
Do you hook in the tail? Do you hook in the back by dorsal fin? Or do you hook some place else?
I have always hooked in the dorsal fin area.
I usually go though the back
Good luck this ice season
x2
Right beind the dorsal fin.
dorsal or caudal fin area depending, provides more erratic vibration then a nose hooked minnow imo.
Many years ago, a friend of mine showed me how effective it was by hooking the minnow right behind the head…Been doing it that way ever since….Seems to really increase hooking percentage
I usually hook them in the back at the balance point so they hang level.
Dorsal or more towards the tail on the rattle reels. I start with the dorsal and then move towards the tail if I am not getting bit.
method 1 – side of minnow, starting behind the dorsal and having the hook come out in front of the dorsal.
method 2 – two minnows both hooked at the tail.
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method 1 – side of minnow, starting behind the dorsal and having the hook come out in front of the dorsal.
I do this on my tip ups. My hookup rate has gone through the roof since doing this a few years ago. By having the hook parallel to the dorsal fin, you can guarantee that the fish is going to get hooks no matter where it strikes. When you go to set it the hook naturally sets itself in the corner of its mouth every time.
As far as minnows on my deadstick goes, I’m not really married to one way. I try each method until I find something that works and then stick with it.
I usually don’t use live minnows on my jigging rods. Only heads.
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I am curious to see how others will hook the minnow of choice when fishing with live bait? Either dead sticking, rattle reel, or tip ups.
Do you hook in the tail? Do you hook in the back by dorsal fin? Or do you hook some place else?
I have always hooked in the dorsal fin area.
Great question Cal, and it’s been great hearing how everyone else does it.
I love experimenting with multiple styles and ways to do this. Some times it doesn’t matter, but when it does matter, it can be a big difference not just in hooking percentage, but in actual bites.
Shiners I bounce back and forth between dorsal, and just in the lips with fine wire hooks. Fatheads and crappie minnows I’ll try that way, but something the late-great Shorty Hillman on Upper Red Lake showed me about a decade ago has really paid dividends, especially for large crappies. Insert the hook-point near the anal vent and drive straight upward on either side of the spine (don’t go through it) – exiting the top of the back. Wider gap, smaller hooks work great here. The minnow struggles downward at a 45 degree angle, which by no coincidence is mimicked by standard ice-jig designs these days. Crappies and bull gills love to take a bait like this, but you need to give them just a bit more time to eat it. Big crappies engulf the whole thing.
It’s all about trying it several ways for me to see if there’s a preference; when there is, it’s usually by a large margin and makes the difference in getting bit or not. More than anything however, fresh bait trumps all. Dead minnows that have been nicked in the spine, or just aren’t lively get fired in favor of fresh ones.
Joel
Like Joel I try to let the fish tell me what it is they want.
Last year on a two day adventure with perch the first day produced some beautiful orange fins with a fathead hooked close to the tail using a Frog Gill Pill. The minnow was constantly struggling and the aggressive fish would come 2 feet off bottom and engulf the bait.
The very next morning I couldn’t buy a bite with the same set up. The fish were there but not near as aggressive. A plain gold hook with the fathead head hooked through the head slowed down the bait. Placing the minnow 1 foot off bottom below a dead stick had me back in the game.
I believe if you are getting sniffers without a bite just the littlest changes can trigger bites. It pays to change things up in my opinion.
I’ll change it up depending on if the fish are biting it or not. Some days it doesn’t matter but I usually will start with it hooked right behind the dorsal and if nothing after a while will move it forward or back towards the tail. I try to let the fish tell me what they want more.
I like just under the skin along the dorsal. Not putting the hook “through the meat” or maybe hitting the spine. Seems to keep ’em lively for a longer period of time
I tend to hook them through the back. On thing I learned a few years ago that can help at times is taking a scissor and making a few cuts in the tail fin. The minnow will struggle and thrash but can’t get anywhere. When the fish are finicky this can be the ticket to getting more bites.
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