Thread: Help with Lure Selection

I’m fishing gulp minnows this weekend here in Michigan in the hopes of landing a citation Crappie. I like them and slabanator Jigs.

Originally Posted by Ketchn

Try using a pencil float and a sunfish colored small jig with a crappie nibble on it ….
Pitch it far and drag it back stupidly slowly…..
Thank me later

I would like to try the float but there's like 100 turtles and a thousand bluegills at this dock so it's difficult to keep them from messing with it, very frustrating. Another reason I'm not using live bait. What pencil float would you recommend? And how does the spring work?

Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

I’m fishing gulp minnows this weekend here in Michigan in the hopes of landing a citation Crappie. I like them and slabanator Jigs.

I like the Gulp minnows, they are pricey, actually Berkley has raised prices on a lot of stuff, and they're not durable, but neither are live minnows. I try to get em on sale on Amazon. I got a pack of 18 black shad for around $7 on amazon, whereas a dozen live minnows is going to cost me over $5, and I have to drive to get them and keem them cool. Gulp minnows are so much more convenient. And I have found that using a loop knot, the bait is riding head up at a 45 degree angle, so I'm going to try direct tying to see if I get better reactions on the retrieve. I'll add that the only difference between Gulp! and Gulp Alive! is gulp alive comes in a larger container with extra juice to put the baits back in. I just buy the smaller packs

Originally Posted by Happyfisherman

And how does the spring work?

There's a notch in the lower shank of the float that's covered by the spring. Push the spring past the opening of that notch & insert your line. When you release the spring it will cover the notch and pin your line to the shank of the float. Adjust depth by pushing the spring back and moving the line ... DO NOT simply pull line thru the spring's grip, as you can damage your line by doing so.

As far as brand .... .... Ketchn may have a favorite, I do not. ALL of the spring floats I have belonged to someone else, as I've found them floating on the lake or washed ashore or hanging from a tree limb.

Originally Posted by Happyfisherman

I would like to try the float but there's like 100 turtles and a thousand bluegills at this dock so it's difficult to keep them from messing with it, very frustrating. Another reason I'm not using live bait. What pencil float would you recommend? And how does the spring work?

The thill wood ones are superb but pricey , we typically use the comal version in styrofoam from Walmart, dirt cheap …..the thinner the better and size your weight to the float , float should be about half underwater sitting dead still ….use a fat body long bait to slow up the bluegills a bit and don’t let turtles get close to the float

Amazon.com

5 floats for $8 on amazon, I'll try them

Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

I’m fishing gulp minnows this weekend here in Michigan in the hopes of landing a citation Crappie. I like them and slabanator Jigs.

I was just messing around with the Gulp minnows on a bare hook and found something you may want to try. Rigged it belly side so the hook falls downward so don't know how that might affect hooksets. Also the one's where the tail split is up and down instead of sideways, I rigged one sideways and it has a killer tail shimmy on the fall like a wacky rig kind of. Maybe something different they haven't seen. I'll play around with it at the pond and post results. Using a #1 aberdeen eagle claw hook, weighs 1/16 oz

Edit: Switched to a #2 hook and got a slower fall without sacrificing much weight. And if you nose hook it it falls more at an angle instead of falling straight down threaded on the hook

After further testing with just a bare hook, I may have found a better way to rig the minnow, this way it falls hook point up and has a nice wobble to it on the fall. If you rig it a little crooked it will have more erratic action when you give it little twitches. So I would twitch, let it fall for however long, falls about 3 to 4 inches per second, then twitch, twitch, repeat. Should work well in 10' of water or less

Here's a 3 inch minnow rigged this way