Thread: Live bait vs. Artificial experiment - Need some input

Originally Posted by ET Fish

Good video! I think you proved your point well. It would be absolutely impossible to have a completely comparable situation, IMO.

Yes, I think I made the mistake of thinking this challenge/ experiment could be replicated. To many variables (time of day, weather, season, water clarity) to try and eliminate in order to test scent. It was still fun to make and I plan on doing more like this. thanks for watching!

The minnow being alive it swims and wiggles is what I think gets the fishes attention. Where the tails on most artificial baits have movements that look somewhat similar causing the fish to strike at the movement. I also think that smell and taste has a lot to do with this also. If this was not true and they would just hit anything in the water. They would be full of sticks and leaves.

I would think a dead minnow would look like a dead minnow to a predator that only eats live prey no matter what it smelled like

Originally Posted by catchNgrease

I would think a dead minnow would look like a dead minnow to a predator that only eats live prey no matter what it smelled like

That may be true, but since it was under a float and the lake wasn't dead calm ... the minnow would have been "moving", even if only barely. That being said, I've caught Crappie (& other fish) on dead minnows, Shad, and Silversides. Many fish, including Crappie, will scarf up dead/dying/struggling Shad ... especially when a Winter die-off is in progress. I have personally dropped a dead minnow back down & had a Crappie grab it ... used cut in half Silversides to catch Crappie during the Spring spawn ... and witnessed my Grandparents & their fishing buddy couple cut dead Shad in half and use them to catch Crappie (though they did apply a little movement by pulling the lines up every now & then). The only equal factors involved in all three of these incidents, was the bait was "dead" & the death occurred during no more than a 2hr time frame.

It is my opinion borne out by intense crappie fishing this last year that crappie eat dead minnows as readily as live.


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Davis,

Got an idea for you to make it as close to the same as possible.

Setup two drop shot rigs (or perch rigs). On one rod, put your minnow on the bottom hook and your plastics on the top hook. On the other rig, reverse it. Put the minnow on the top and the plastic on the bottom.

This will have each rod having the same offering and will let you know if it is depth that they are after or the bait they are after. You could do this first with dead minnows on each rig then do it with live minnows on each rig.

Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Davis,

Got an idea for you to make it as close to the same as possible.

Setup two drop shot rigs (or perch rigs). On one rod, put your minnow on the bottom hook and your plastics on the top hook. On the other rig, reverse it. Put the minnow on the top and the plastic on the bottom.

This will have each rod having the same offering and will let you know if it is depth that they are after or the bait they are after. You could do this first with dead minnows on each rig then do it with live minnows on each rig.

This would be the best way to test the live vs artificial challenge, but in the state of Wisconsin I am only allowed 3 Lures (hooks) in the water at a time. Technically this would be 4 lures (hooks). Otherwise I would film this video.

Dang rules.

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