Fishing with minnows

[acey]

I was fishing near Buhl, Idaho yesterday and had an enjoyable day. The rainbows in the pond inlet spillway were keyed on a silver spoon. We caught quite a few when a fisherman from Declo came and started fishing with Shiner minnows. He was knocking the heck out of them. My curiosity got the best of me so I asked him if I could see how he had it rigged. He had caught hundreds of minnows in a trap in an irrigation canal and brought them for bait. He put the bare hook through the mouth and out through the side of the tail causing it to curve like it was crippled. With two split shot sinkers a foot above the hook, he cast it out off the platform we stood on into the spillway waters. He moved it around like a minnow swimming and those trout really whacked it. He graciously shared his minnows with us and showed us how to rig it properly. He made it a great day for us.

Anyone in Utah fish with minnows? What experiences can you BFT members share with us. Where is the best place to get minnows? Do frozen minnows work as well as fresh ones? Thanks for your info. Acey
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[Kent]

I net my minnows at Strawberry using a casting net. On Free Fishing Day last year, I caught over 100 of them, in a single cast off of the docks at The Strawberry Marina. I have had other trips when I couldn't find any minnows to net. Red shiners work better than the regular gray chubs at Strawberry, but the cutts have done an excellent job of eating the red shiners and they are much harder to find than they used to be. Fresh red shiner minnows are the best if you can obtain them. Even fresh shiner minnows will go mushy quickly if one doesn't keep them on ice. I like to fish with them whole or with just a small filet for flavoring on a jig or spoon. They work vertical jigging, drift trolling, or trolling at regular speeds. I have caught trout at Strawberry on whole minnows that were at least 7 or 8 inches long. During the summer while fishing overnight at Strawberry from my boat, on some trips I have caught fish on the largest minnow I could find, and there are some large chubs in Strawberry. Perch stays on a hook extremely well, even after being frozen, for those lakes that allow one to fish with perch. I plan on getting me some of those baby carp this year and giving them a try.
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[Mc_Lennon]

I net minnows at scofield and Electric Lake and used to catch them out at timpie springs in a minnow trap.

The big old bass love them in all the western hot springs lakes. I've actually caught a 10#er out of Stansburry in the old days on just a little old dead minnow. I've also got litterally 50 5#bass over 10 years out on blue lakes, also.

Up at scofield last fall while I was hunting my parents were nailing 20-26" rainbows and cutts off half a dead shinner. They'd just cast it out 30 feet and whamo! Every five minutes they'd have one on(or there abouts). The fish would litterally be swarming on the schools of minnows in the shallows.

Same at electric lake. Earlier in the summer while I was still fishing I had my pontoon boat out there slow trolling a minnow on a single hook. I must have caught 30 trout like that. And just casting out and reeling in slowly. What a hoot! Them cutts would follow that minnow right up and smack it 5 feet from the shore line.

Down on the Sevier river, also. Split shoting down a nice jucy sucker minnow for hungry browns. My dad, mom and I each caught a couple 5#ers a couple years ago when the water was good. My dad also had one on that broke him at the shore that was 9 pounds. Easy.

So yeah, my family and I do heavily utilize minnows in our fishing ventures. I find that frozen minnows or the smelly formalehied(hope I spelled that right) minnows you can buy from walmart don't work near as well as fresh minnows. For cats it doesn't seem to matter as much. But for bass, browns, rainbows and cutts, fresh is the best.
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[fuzzyfisher]

i have found that the very best minnows to use are the ones in the lake your fishing.. after that the best you can do is try other minnows and see if they will take another kind in it's place.. match the size of the minnow to the time of year and to the size of minnows in the lake.. if you can see big minnows swimming around then big minnows would be best and viceversa..
i have found the esay way to get minnows is to find a pond or ditch close to your home and get 2 or 3 of the round minnow traps.. go down to the water and put the trap in in the morning then come back in the evening and get the minnows out re-bait and do it again at night then move the trap to a new hole if the trap is not getting very many minnows.. do that all summer and you will have minnows for the year..

or you can get a cast net and net the minnows on the spot..but that dose not work all the time some days the cast net works great but it's not as reliable as i would like it to be!!

dude on fish?
Ron
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[PDS]

Using minnows is one of my favorite ways to fish. I grew up on the Weber River, spending my summers fishing and swimming in it almost daily. The Weber contains a healthy population of dace minnows. Once I found out that the trout liked them too, I would spend hours with a screen between two sticks trying to net them. I had frozen bags of them all over in the freezer. The fresh ones were the best though. Just a smack on the head and threaded on a number 6 size hook was a potential ticket to a big brown. Any big hole that you never seemed to catch any fish out of usually held a big boy. Although it didn't always work, the size of the fish that I caught were, well lets say, impressive. I have taken these little fish about everywhere, from Utah Lake to Bear Lake to Flaming Gorge. They work everywhere.

Now with the big fish that Strawberry is producing, I love to take the kids up and put a size 16 hook dangling below a bobber, just like Tube Dude says, and let those chubs have it. The kids think it is great because the action is non-stop. But I am one who really benefits, I grab one of those chubs and put in on a size 2/0 to 4/0 circle hook and dead drift it under a big foam bobber. I just love to see that big old bobber start moving around then plunge for the depths. The circle hook keeps the fish from being hooked too deep and man is it fun. It is well known that the cutts are keying in on the chubs, but if you haven't tried fishing with them, you don't know what you are missing. I have had fish trying to steal the chub hanging out the side of the mouth of the fish I was reeling in, it's like they go into a frenzy.
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[Catatafish7]

Mc_Lennon...
How were you fishing them out at Blue Lake? Got any techniques you'd like to share? Were you in a tube, from shore, etc?
Were these minnows you caught out there, or did you bring some?
Appreciate any info. Most bass I've hauled out of there in a day has been around 10...but have had a few 100+ Bluegill days...
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[Mc_Lennon]

I've always fished it from shore. I used to net my minnows for there from timpie. But the last time I talked to my uncle out there he said something about the DWR putting up signs not to.

As far as the rigging goes, a number 8 trebble hook right through the mouth or back with a split shot for deeper water or just the minnows weight for shallower. Usually the bass nail it right off. If they don't swim it by them and they will.
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[Catatafish7]

Excellent...thank you. Do you just let them drift, or to you pull them in? If so, fast, slow, medium speed?
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[Mc_Lennon]

If I can see them I cast to them. If they won't bite, I reel it past them really slowly. Other wise I just drift them as far out as I can and wait for the bite.
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[Catatafish7]

Great info, thank you. Have you fished it in the winter before? If so, how did you do?
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[Mc_Lennon]

I usually always fish it in winter. Right now them big females are right up on their beds and prime for the taking. The males are also crusing all around. In fact, from january till march is when I get most of my bigger bass outta there. Plus its nice to go out there in 30* weather and soak in 75* water.
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[Catatafish7]

Seriously? Well, I've got to get myself out there then. I just bought a float tube and am dying to do some fishing.
What's the biggest bass you've pulled out of there?
Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.
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[Mc_Lennon]

A hair over 8 pounds. She put up one heckuva fight for sure! My dad and uncle have both had fish on over 10 by their estimates. I believe them. I've seen fish in there over 26" long and fatter than heck.
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[Catatafish7]

Big fish for sure. That would make the horrible dirt road out there worth it...
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[acey]

Kent- I have been looking at minnow casting nets and traps in the Cabelas catalog. Your preference is for the casting nets. Is that because it is faster? Have you used the traps? I am trying to decide which way to catch them will work best for me. After you cast the net how long before you start dragging it back to shore? Acey
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[Kent]

I own both a minnow trap and a casting net. I used the minnow trap once at Strawberry on an overnighter, and if I would have caught one more minnow I would have caught one. I used it at Electric Lake and over about three hours I caught four minnows. I like my casting net because if the minnows are near the docks, in less than 30 minutes I can catch over 100 of them and I am set for the day, and usually have some available to freeze for later trips. If I lived near a suitable small stream with minnows in it a minnow trap would be a great way to go. But because I don't, I don't want to spend any longer than necessary to catch them minnows and get fishing. If one fishes from the shore in an area where minnows frequent a minnow trap would be a great way to go. One pulls in a casting net, almost immediately after throwing it. If I am throwing it from a dock, especially if I am in deeper water, I will try to pull it back in before it even sinks to the bottom. By doing this I avoid getting it hung up on the bottom, and avoid getting a bunch of moss tangled in it. Casting nets are designed so that when one pulls on the rope the net closes on the bottom to keep the fish from getting away, so even if you retrieve it before it hits bottom fish have a hard time escaping. I have found that minnows can not be over about two feet deep (it doesn't matter if the water itself is much deeper) or most of them are able to escape to the side and avoid the net before it reaches them.
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[fishluvr]

I would have to agree with Kent on this one. I have had the same problem trying to get enough minnows in a trap when I could just catch a bunch of them at once in a net. I am not very good with a net yet but am getting better. If you cast the net to an area you can see the minnows you can usually see the bottom to know what kind of problems you may run in to. If you can't see the bottom I just pull my net in fast before it hits the ground.

One thing to be careful of is catching minnows that are not red sided shiners or other legal minnows. Make sure if you catch baby trout they go back in asap. I may be wrong but I think the baby trout I catch have spots on them, almost similar to a tiger trout, and the shiners don't have any. The nets can be fun and you never know what you will get. At Scofield or Strawberry I almost always pull in a crawfish or 10 every time. I even caught a 12 inch rainbow in my casting net at Scofield one time.
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[Kent]

After lots of practice, I have gotten so I can throw a casting net adequately most of the time; however, I have never felt good about putting the net in my mouth. Last year I picked up one of these Casting Net Thrower's from Cabela's, and I was pleasantly surprised how easily it was to use.


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