Shiners Rule the Summer

**Rojo** · 06-04-2025, 06:52 AM

It really eats up a lot of time when time management is so critical in Crappie fishing. Those who are trying to waste a day this doesn't apply but when I take time to go Crappie fishing lately it's time away from something else. That something else is always work that keeps us treading water to moving forward so it has to get done.

Now that my point of time management is behind us my next point is easy to understand, time spent at each spot thoroughly working out a brush pile with a jig first then fish it with a Shiner - eats Time. I did this yesterday to prove a point, the fish are there they just don't want a jig. To back up a minute - I'm river fishing not on a big 30K acre Lake. On the river many are returning with few Crappie fishing jigs due to the fact the fish want a live bait. Trolling covers a lot of water but fishing Trash Piles with fish on them you just got to fish with something they want to bite. Enter the Humble Shiner, been around forever, few bait shops are left selling Shiners because the Glamor in Shiner fishing is mostly gone.

I go Crappie fishing to catch Crappie, only Crappie, and not for the boat ride, the outdoors activity, etc I get all of that I want. I go to Catch Crappie. For 6 hours of fishing I got 2 pull downs of my BGBS offering but not a Crappie even on the hook. Now if I didn't have a Shiner with me the 2 pictures posted here would be totally different, a empty cooler & a Frowny Face would be the feature of the post.

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If you find yourself down on your luck the last few trips bring a shiner pole along when you head out again and if we buy a few Shiners once in a awhile from our local bait shops maybe they will be around when we need them longer.

Running out of time yesterday due to excessive wind cost me a cooler full of fish but I caught Crappie at Every Stop but only on a Shiner. It wasn't poor quality presentation, I firmly believe no amount of "Teasing" was going to get those Slabs to commit but my Shiners put the move on otherwise Lock Jawed fish.

**SuperDave336** · 06-04-2025, 07:07 AM

Good post and results to prove point. Thanks for sharing.

**BuckeyeCrappie** · 06-04-2025, 07:26 AM

Great post John. My bride and I have an upcoming trip and will have both plastics and shiners on board.

**Jamesdean** · 06-04-2025, 02:00 PM

I'm fishing Primarily lakes, or impounded river systems...I have had zero luck with the shiners, though I have tried. Small and medium sized minnows seem to work best for me when they won't hit the soft plastic jigs...Not saying shiners don't work, just I haven't had any luck with them...

**Rojo** · 06-04-2025, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by Jamesdean

I'm fishing Primarily lakes, or impounded river systems...I have had zero luck with the shiners, though I have tried. Small and medium sized minnows seem to work best for me when they won't hit the soft plastic jigs...Not saying shiners don't work, just I haven't had any luck with them...

I don't expect the Northern states yet to have as big of a Hot Water problem as we do. Another thing I have found low success rate shiner anglers don't do is "Tease" with the shiner. If you are just hooking your Shiner and dropping it in the water then waiting for a bite a good friend of mine put it this way, "They (Crappie) sit around and take a vote on who is going to bite the minnow" eats up a lot of time. I learned from another friend years ago how to Tease Crappie with a Shiner and it's absolutely Deadly. I will see if the outdoor writer will come shoot a video and edit it to show what I'm doing and the results. I catch as many Crappie on dead shiners as live ones doing the Tease.

**Jamesdean** · 06-04-2025, 02:43 PM

I'll Be watching for it...Thank you.

**Rojo** · 06-04-2025, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Jamesdean

I'll Be watching for it...Thank you.

Looks like it's On Bud. I will preview you the video before it breaks.

**Jamesdean** · 06-04-2025, 08:48 PM

Thank you John.

**Ketchn** · 06-06-2025, 06:37 AM

minners and shiners , NEVER RULE , just saying

but if you want to pitch them , I totally understand

KABOOM bro

**keeferfish** · 06-06-2025, 04:12 PM

If I cant catch them on artificial, I just don't want to catch em. They either bite the way I want to fish or I'm good.

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