Cheaper than minnows

[10-Ring]

I learned today that feeder goldfish from Petsmart are cheaper than minnows.  More importantly I don't have to go nearly as far out of my way to get them.  I know a lot of people like to use them for catfish, not sure how they work with crappie.  If you go this route just don't turn your extras lose in the lake. 

[gregintenn]

Minnow trap and stale bread=free minnows.

[R_Bert]

Around here, I can't keep a trap.  Gets stolen every time, no matter where I put them.  Apparently I am not good at hiding them.

[gregintenn]

11 hours ago, R_Bert said:

Around here, I can't keep a trap.  Gets stolen every time, no matter where I put them.  Apparently I am not good at hiding them.

I used to find nothing but a really fat snake in my trap. Found a different hole that produces well.

[bersaguy]

13 hours ago, R_Bert said:

Around here, I can't keep a trap.  Gets stolen every time, no matter where I put them.  Apparently I am not good at hiding them.

The secret to keeping your traps is the put them out after dark and get them bfore daylight. I use to have that same problem and going while still dark helped me fix my problem. It's either that or put the trap out and baby sit it till you have enough to go fishing.

[bersaguy]

On ‎3‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 1:56 PM, 10-Ring said:

I learned today that feeder goldfish from Petsmart are cheaper than minnows.  More importantly I don't have to go nearly as far out of my way to get them.  I know a lot of people like to use them for catfish, not sure how they work with crappie.  If you go this route just don't turn your extras lose in the lake. 

I use to use minnows all the time for Crappie fish untilta buddy of mine took me one time. I asked him if we were going to stop and get minnows and he said, nope, don't need any. When were got to where we were going to fish he handed me a rod already rigged and it had a Crappie tube bait on it in Black body with chartreuese tails and I no more than got it down in the brush pile before I had a big fat Crappie on. We both caught our limits in keepers in about 1 1/2 hours. Caught a bunch of fish. If they quit biting one color you switched to another. The one I caught most on was the Red Body with Chartruese tails. If you have never tried them you might want to give the a try. You can catch about 8 or 10 fish on 1 tube..............

[KaNaPaPi]

21 minutes ago, bersaguy said:

I use to use minnows all the time for Crappie fish untilta buddy of mine took me one time. I asked him if we were going to stop and get minnows and he said, nope, don't need any. When were got to where we were going to fish he handed me a rod already rigged and it had a Crappie tube bait on it in Black body with chartreuese tails and I no more than got it down in the brush pile before I had a big fat Crappie on. We both caught our limits in keepers in about 1 1/2 hours. Caught a bunch of fish. If they quit biting one color you switched to another. The one I caught most on was the Red Body with Chartruese tails. If you have never tried them you might want to give the a try. You can catch about 8 or 10 fish on 1 tube..............

Picture of bait, and where did you buy them?

 

Edited May 22, 2017 by KaNaPaPi

[bersaguy]

28 minutes ago, KaNaPaPi said:

Picture of bait, and where did you buy them?

 

I buy mine at Flippers Bait and Tackle or Poindexters baits Shop both in Gallatin but they are sold all over on line. I just buy them here locally to keep local small businesses operating. Hope this helps

[JAB]

When I went to Reelfoot once the crappie were biting the heck out of those tube baits.  Purple body with pink legs seemed to work best out there.  I have never caught a single crappie on one around here, though.  Maybe I am just rigging them wrong?

I have caught a few crappie on minnows around here and even caught one on a wax worm, once.

Edited May 22, 2017 by JAB

[felinesNfreedom]

6 hours ago, KaNaPaPi said:

Picture of bait, and where did you buy them?

 

Try crappie magnets. I use them vertical jigging or casting and love them. I'm a big fan of purple body and chartreuse legs. Crappie do switch color preference pretty often, if the bite stops try a different color.

 

http://troutmagnet.com/crappie-magnet.html

Edited May 22, 2017 by XxthejuicexX

[R_Bert]

It occurs to me that catching a big mess of crappie would solve a lot of life problems for me. It's been a looong time since I got into a limit.

[bersaguy]

18 hours ago, XxthejuicexX said:

Try crappie magnets. I use them vertical jigging or casting and love them. I'm a big fan of purple body and chartreuse legs. Crappie do switch color preference pretty often, if the bite stops try a different color.

 

http://troutmagnet.com/crappie-magnet.html

There has ben times I have had to change colors of tubes on a single trip to keep catching fish. I think the angle of the sun changes the color of the tubes and can turn the fish off to one that is working. I have an assortment of about 12 different colors to work with when I go. Water color also has an effect on what color tubes to use................

[jpx2rk]

"Minners" are a PITA.  I avoid 'em at all costs and use plastics.  

[JAB]

 

15 hours ago, jpx2rk said:

"Minners" are a PITA.  I avoid 'em at all costs and use plastics.  

They are a pain, especially as there are fewer and fewer places to buy them and none of those places are open early enough for me to be on the bank or pier fishing as early as I want to be, meaning I have to buy them the evening before.  That used to not be a problem but now it seems they die off so quickly that by the time morning comes half the ones I bought the evening before are already dead or dying.  I have just never had much luck with artificial lures, in general, with exception of a few, rare occasions.  I wish I did - it would be a lot easier to do spur of the moment fishing with plastics, etc.

[MacGyver]

3 hours ago, JAB said:

 

They are a pain, especially as there are fewer and fewer places to buy them and none of those places are open early enough for me to be on the bank or pier fishing as early as I want to be, meaning I have to buy them the evening before.  That used to not be a problem but now it seems they die off so quickly that by the time morning comes half the ones I bought the evening before are already dead or dying.  I have just never had much luck with artificial lures, in general, with exception of a few, rare occasions.  I wish I did - it would be a lot easier to do spur of the moment fishing with plastics, etc.

I wish I was as comfortable with plastics as I was with live bait and other artificial lures.  Maybe I've just never put the time in - or gotten someone like Doug to really teach me what I need to know.

It's something I'd love to get more comfortable with.

[gregintenn]

12 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

I wish I was as comfortable with plastics as I was with live bait and other artificial lures.  Maybe I've just never put the time in - or gotten someone like Doug to really teach me what I need to know.

It's something I'd love to get more comfortable with.

Me too. I used to bass fish a lot, but after several years of not fishing much, I've got back into it, and I find myself using live bait almost exclusively.

[MacGyver]

Just now, gregintenn said:

Me too. I used to bass fish a lot, but after several years of not fishing much, I've got back into it, and I find myself using live bait almost exclusively.

I'd be happy to bring the boat up that way if Doug would do a clinic with us on using plastics.

Truth be told I'd love to get him to teach me to really run a baitcaster, too.  I can do it, but I'd be willing to bet he's forgotten more on the subject than I'll ever know.

[gregintenn]

Lol! I have trouble just keeping my boat off the ground on Old Hickory where Doug fishes.

[MacGyver]

1 minute ago, gregintenn said:

Lol! I have trouble just keeping my boat off the ground on Old Hickory where Doug fishes.

I'd take the mud any day of the week over the car I hit the last time I put in on Percy Priest.

Turns out nothing will tear a lower unit up quite like a submerged but not quite sunken Honda Civic.

[gregintenn]

I think my father has a boat somewhere at the bottom of Percy Preist.

[MacGyver]

To this day I don't know how it didn't tear a hole in my transom.  

I sure thought I was going to be swimming back.  And the crazy thing was I never saw any indication of the car other than the red paint on the skeg on my lower unit. 

[gregintenn]

Wow!

[bersaguy]

14 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

I'd be happy to bring the boat up that way if Doug would do a clinic with us on using plastics.

Truth be told I'd love to get him to teach me to really run a baitcaster, too.  I can do it, but I'd be willing to bet he's forgotten more on the subject than I'll ever know.

What kind of bait caster reels do you have? A lot of using a bait casting reel is the quality of the reel. There are some out there that even the best experienced anglers cannot make them work like they are suppose to.

[MacGyver]

6 minutes ago, bersaguy said:

What kind of bait caster reels do you have? A lot of using a bait casting reel is the quality of the reel. There are some out there that even the best experienced anglers cannot make them work like they are suppose to.

That's probably part of my problem. I need to go for whatever the Stradic equivalent baitcaster is.  I've just not invested in one for freshwater.  

In saltwater I run a Penn 525 Mag that is amazing!  I can't say enough good things about Penn saltwater reels.  

[bersaguy]

4 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

To this day I don't know how it didn't tear a hole in my transom.  

I sure thought I was going to be swimming back.  And the crazy thing was I never saw any indication of the car other than the red paint on the skeg on my lower unit. 

J. Percy Priest lake is one that can jump up and bite you very quick if you don't know where your running. There are many rock piles, humps and very long points of rock that when not at full Summer pool can put a hurting on you quick. I have been fishing that lake about 20 years and on and never hit anything but it is because during Winter pool I also use to visit the lake and I got to see all of the dangerous stuff when it was out of the water during draw down. Back before the GPS units to mark those dangers I made videos in the winter time and marked them on aTopo map for future references. Old hickory is far more forgiving becasue of far less rock but still a big stump can do some serious damage and there are a lot of stumps that are nice to know where they are at also.