Thread: Minnows or jigs

We fish deep clear water lakes and shallow clear river's."trout waters" Why fish for crappie when you can catch 100 trout"The only time we can get minnow's is during the spring they sell you "12 minnow's Expensive". Bass and Trout is the target fish. To get a crappie minnow is almost impossible.55 -85 degree water like plastic's with a jighead with a spinner "roadrunner type" "Reaction bite"Below 55 degrees is when our hand tied crappie jig's shine. Arkie's shinne hinee cannot be beat.Unless you tye your own in smaller weight's.2-4 lb test and need a stealthy approach."quite" if we spook the fish game over.

There are loads of "minnows vs. jigs" threads in the archives. Here's a summary:

1) Some people use jigs.

2) Some people use minnows.

3) Some people use both.

4) Everybody catches fish.

I use both during the spring and fall. I compare which one is doing better, then swap over accordingly. Most crappie in the lakes I fish usually want turn their nose up at minnow, but sometimes jigs do better. And ain't nothing better than using a long jig pole and feeling that thump and setting the hook on a big ole' slab crappie..

Someone once said "I'd rather fool them, than feed them" (might have even been ME )

I rarely use minnows, but I'm not above doing so. I "prefer" to use jigs, either casting or pushing them. Why ?? ... less equipment involved, less cost, and less time "baiting up" ... but, the "minner buckets" are always aboard the boat (just in case).

I mainly jig fish but there are times when nothing seems to beat a minnow.

I NEVER SEEN A TIME WHEN JIGS WOULD NOT CATCH CRAPPIES BUT HAVE SEEN MANY TIMES HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY I FISH THEM,ALSO HAD TO CHANGE STYLE OF PLASTIC AND COLOR.I HAVE NOTICE ALSO THAT NOT MANY MINNOW FISHERMEN REALLY KNOW HOW TO FISH A JIG DAY IN AND DAY OUT,NOT TRYING TO PUT ANYONE DOWN ,IT IS THEY KEEP LOOKING BACK TO THEIR MINNOWS AND WITH A CRUTCH IT IS HARD TO GET REAL GOOD WITH JIGS BECAUSE IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING A BITE THAN YOUR MIND GETS BACK ON MINNOWS,MOST PEOPLE FISH JIGS WAY TOO FAST.BUT THEY ARE GREAT MINNOW FISHERMEN,YEARS AGO I STARTED FISHING WITH A GOOD JIG FISHERMEN ,I THEN WAS A BASS FISHERMAN ,HE CAUGHT 10 TO 15 TO EACH ONE I CAUGHT,I TRIED TO COPY HIM AND WITH SAME BAIT BUT IT TOOK DAYS WITH HIM TO TO CATCH NEAR AS MANY AS HE DID,THOSE WERE SOME HUMBLING DAYS TO SAY THE LEASE

This is the most docile minner vs jigs thread I've ever read ...

Rickie

I'm relatively new to crappie fishing so I'm sure 100% of my results are based upon lack of technique. My 70 yr old boss took me fishing one day and made the rule that we could only use jigs. I was game and went along. Needless to say he spanked me very very bad. I'm not to proud to say we had 30+ keepers and only 4 were fish I caught. It was a miserable time that day to see him literally yanking them in, and I couldn't even feel a bite. We were using the same jigs, but as someone else mentioned line was a lot different between he and I. He was using a 4 lb seaguar, and I had 6 lb gamma copolymer. I could watch his jigs pull the line right very close to the surface when he swung them out to pendulum it back. Mine was like barely pulling down in the strike zone. It took me most of the day to watch and figure it out, but I then decided to put on a 1/4 oz head to pull it faster. This was nearing the end of the day and I started feeling the bites, and caught some. Since that time I've spooled up the same line as he had and still yet have had little success with jigs. To further complicate the story his "reports" have been similar in that his recent trips out have been little action, while I'm catching them on Minnows. We take a jig pole setup with us, and we like the thump, but when there ain't no thumpin, we give up!

I do think conditions change and one vs the other may be different under different circumstances. I would like to not to have to go out and buy minnows and keep them alive, because it's a giant pain in the butt! But I'm just not comfortable to not have them on the boat with me. I could bring some just in case, but that still means buying them and keeping them alive. So I guess what I'm saying is, I'd like to get comfortable enough with plastics to use them exclusively, but I guess I'm just not there yet. My minnow crutch is just too hard to not rely on.