Quote Originally Posted by deathb4disco View Post
This ^^^^

FWIW, I haven't used minnows in about forty years.

I fish 2 or 3 times a week and I may give minnows a shot about once a year. After an hour of minnows I put the jigs on and start putting fish in the boat, and the minnows go home to the cat.

My electronics do the hard work, finding the fish. Yesterday while I was launching my boat, a feller, waiting to launch his boat, asked me why I had 2 fish-finders. He claimed that his fish-finders never did much for him, and all he used it for was to see the depth of the water. Also, he said that jigs never worked good for him, so he fishes only minnows.

I left the ramp using my trolling motor and never run the outboard all day. By the time he got his boat underway I had boated 5 crappie that I had spotted with my electronics. I have a few standard "go-to" jigs and rarely does one do better than the others.

We had had a lot of big swings in the weather over the last week and the fish were few and far between, and no real pattern to where they showed up. When one spot got slow, I put the trolling motor on 10 and got a marker buoy in my hand and ran till I found fish. This was repeated when necessary.

Coincidentally. the other guy came back to the ramp just as I was getting my boat ready for the road. He checked my catch (limit catch) and told me that he had run over 16 miles and only caught 2 throwbacks. - - - - - - - - What can I say?

I never caught a fish while running 40 mph, and it will knock your minnow off the hook, every time.

Don't get me wrong, I know fishermen that swear by minnows, I did once too; but, now, they are just a nuisance, and a thing of the past. I've fished most of my 76 years, and I am still learning, but it's getting so damn hard to remember nowadays. I hope that I don't forget where I put my jigs, and I have already forgot where I can get minnows.