I’m heading up to Nitti’s Hunters Point today and was looking for some live shiners and suckers. I’m heading up from 35E North so not on Hwy 169 at all.
This is my route below.
Where could I find shiners and suckers on this route?
Thanks in advance.
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Tutts always has good bait, Garrison Sports too. Call them and see what they have.
Johnson’s portside
I’d stop at fish lake bait
Mike’s on 8. They always have good bait.
Fish lake bait had suckers this morning when I stopped in.
Fish Lake Bait in Harris right off 35.
Trailside in isle
Just a word of caution, Fish Lake will probably have them but the new ownership will make you pay through the teeth for them. This isn’t the Fish Lake Bait of old that most of us had grown accustomed to.
Not that this is relevant to the question at hand but I feel I should share my last experience with them…When I inquired about pre-purchasing some minnows last summer, the new owner laughed at me and told me that if he gets them in his traps he’s gonna charge me triple the price he normally would because “guys like me would still pay it”. Since then my business has gone elsewhere.
Fish Lake Bait of old that
Not that I’ve stopped there a lot, but the handful of times I have they aren’t open.
Just a word of caution, Fish Lake will probably have them but the new ownership will make you pay through the teeth for them. This isn’t the Fish Lake Bait of old that most of us had grown accustomed to.
Not that this is relevant to the question at hand but I feel I should share my last experience with them…When I inquired about pre-purchasing some minnows last summer, the new owner laughed at me and told me that if he gets them in his traps he’s gonna charge me triple the price he normally would because “guys like me would still pay it”. Since then my business has gone
Bait prices have gone up at every bait shop in the state.
Fish lake’s prices are better than a lot of places like Trailside in Isle, I can promise you that. Trailside was charging $6/ each for large suckers last fall, and not decoys either. Supply and demand I guess. We laughed at them and went elsewhere.
Im curious to know what kind of minnows you were trying to buy in bulk from fish lake. You shouldn’t blame them for not selling you bulk, bait has gotten harder and harder for them to get ever since the state of mn outlawed importing minnows from Wisconsin. The ponds and creeks in this area don’t produce enough anymore, “they’re too polluted” is what I was told. With a limited amount of bait (especially shiners and leeches) you shouldn’t expect to get bulk quantities, of course they’re going to ration them out and get them to as many different fishermen is possible. It’s called smart business. Realize you were probably the 20th person to ask for bulk bait that day, of course they’d love to have enough to sell everyone what they want. I’ve wanted a quart of spot tails in may the last couple years but I’ve had to live without, or with a dozen at a time.
Maybe he didn’t handle it the most professional way possible, but understand the stress involved in taking over a failing/ poorly ran business and turning it around to make it profitable again. Especially in this economic climate.
Trust me, I was friends with the previous managment, yes bait was cheaper sometimes, but he ran that place into the ground. If it weren’t for the new people we’d be driving to pine city for bait.
Fish lake bait is great to me and the new management has been nothing but great to me either. I buy all my bait there.
I go out of my way to go to fish lake then drive back to chisago just to avoid the scum at Frankie’s.
Grubson is right. The last guy at fish lake had great deals on bait but he also ran that place in to a deep hole and then disappeared. He was great to do with but that depended on the day. The new people have been great since the day they took over. I was in there 3 times this last week/ weekend. I can personally say I really like these guys. They are trying to bring the name out of the hole the last guy dug out. They dealt with all the inventory went missing right after they bought the place and now are re building. But if it wasn’t for fish lake, I’d have to deal with Frankie’s which I won’t do or go to pine.
And for trailside that would be my last last resort if going north
Trailside was charging $6/ each for large suckers last fall, and not decoys either.
What do you normally pay for decoy suckers (12+ inchers)? Rarely do I buy live bait anymore because of the cost, but the last time I bought muskie suckers in the fall they were 12 bucks each. My Father was with and we bought four of them. When the cashier said “that’ll be 48 bucks”, he almost had a stroke lol.
Cut over to Hwy 65 at North Branch and check out at 65 Bait south of Mora. Always been happy with their prices and bait there.
-J.
What do you normally pay for decoy suckers (12+ inchers)? Rarely do I buy live bait anymore because of the cost, but the last time I bought <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>muskie suckers in the fall they were 12 bucks each. My Father was with and we bought four of them. When the cashier said “that’ll be 48 bucks”, he almost had a stroke lol.
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These were for decoys when Dave and grubson went to pike fish mille lacs. If I remember correctly it was actually 9 bucks a piece for large and 17 for decoys. Then we went a got a dozen for 12 bucks.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>grubson wrote:</div>
Trailside was charging $6/ each for large suckers last fall, and not decoys either.What do you normally pay for decoy suckers (12+ inchers)? Rarely do I buy live bait anymore because of the cost, but the last time I bought <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>muskie suckers in the fall they were 12 bucks each. My Father was with and we bought four of them. When the cashier said “that’ll be 48 bucks”, he almost had a stroke lol.
These were NOT musky suckers. They were 6-7″ long, what I’d call mediums. Yet they were charging like they were musky or decoy suckers. That day we drove up to Malmo and bought the same minnows for $1/ each.
17 for decoys
17 bucks?! For one minnow? 
That day we drove up to Malmo and bought the same minnows for $1/ each.
Good thinking.
Is Petry’s Bait in Finlayson still open? I haven’t fished Mille Lacs for many years, but that’s where I always stopped if I was launching from the east side of the lake.
17 bucks?! For one minnow? 
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We looked at her with that same look. Thought she was joking. But she wasn’t. She didn’t realize the supply chain was strong just down the road
I paid 4 bucks for a decoy sucker Saturday at fish lake. It was probably 11″ long. The guy said the price goes up depending on size. Any walleye targeting bait has tripled in prices the last couple years. And they look at ya funny when you want a quart of Goldens or spots. I’ve adjusted my fishing techniques to use fatheads and bait that I catch myself instead of paying that kind of money.
Stopped by Joe’s Friday afternoon, no suckers, except decoys, no shiners, I was very surprised. Drove to Kathy’s, dozen “medium” suckers, $12.00, which I put in the small category. They had nothing larger.
I’ve caught exponentially more fish on fatheads than I have on shiners or suckers. Maybe I’m just terrible at fishing, but it seems more often than not the good ole’ fathead on a bare hook will get anything that swims and definitely out produces larger more expensive bait when the bite is finnicky during the dead of Winter.
My unpopular opinion: Bait and tackle catch substantially more fishermen than they do fish.
Johnson’s portside
Thanks.
Went to Johnson’s Portside and they had run out of shiners.
Talked to a fisherman near us and he said he’d been there for 3 days and only caught them on shiners. Said it was super slow but a few days earlier it had been hot and heavy.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Nodakk wrote:</div>
Johnson’s portsideThanks.
Went to Johnson’s Portside and they had run out of shiners.
Talked to a fisherman near us and he said he’d been there for 3 days and only caught them on shiners. Said it was super slow but a few days earlier it had been hot and heavy.
I dont think any one has shiners right now any where near us. Fish lake supplies all the other shops in the area. So when they are out so is everyone
Did you catch any fish is the real question
Did you catch any fish is the real question
Didn’t get a bite…..saw multiple fish on the Livescope come up, look at the minnow and swim away immediately.
Jigging scared them.
The guy we talked to did catch a 22″ when we were there on a rattle reel with a plain hook and shiner.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Did you catch any fish is the real questionDidn’t get a bite…..saw multiple fish on the Livescope come up, look at the minnow and swim away immediately.
Jigging scared them.
The guy we talked to did catch a 22″ when we were there on a rattle reel with a plain hook and shiner.
Both lakes I fished this weekend had a finicky bite. We caught fish but they were not aggressive. That’s when a fat head comes in handy on a very small plain red hook
My unpopular opinion: Bait and tackle catch substantially more fishermen than they do fish.
I wouldn’t say that’s an unpopular opinion. I think we all know that a lot of lures out there are designed to catch fisherman’s wallets, not fish.
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