Shiners Rule the Summer

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.

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

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

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...

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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...

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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.

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

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

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

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

Thank you John.

minners and shiners , NEVER RULE , just saying :yikes
but if you want to pitch them , I totally understand :Rofl
KABOOM bro :highfive

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.

Can't say my post was to help the guys who don't really care if they catch a Crappie or not. Or for guys fishing impoundments as my original post is directed to river fishing guys who actually want to catch Crappie while they are Crappie fishing. Long line trolling, spider rigging, casting, tightlining, jig & float, pullin' cranks, and dippin' shiners are all ways to catch Crappie created by Crappie anglers who want to target and catch Crappie while they are in the boat. Few don't care if they get skunked or not. If you don't care about getting skunked I don't know what would change that. Again not the point of my post, it is to help the ones who do, don't know why their jigs stopped catching, are new to Crappie fishing, and to bring the attention to the humble shiner which can save a trip.

The round trip to fish the experiment supporting my post is 2.25 hours driving plus a 22 mile round trip in the boat, and again if I'm taking time off of work to Crappie fish it is to Catch Crappie. I've seen the look in the eyes of some of the Crappie anglers who have been around maybe too long that live on Ross Barnett and there is no Magic left in their expressions, it looks like they are just going thru the motions but really don't care one way or the other, Lifeless. If my heart stops pounding with excitement as I pull up to the boat ramp there will be a big boat & equipment sale when I get home. Fortunately after 20 years of Crappie fishing it still makes me very excited to stick steel to big Crappie.

Shiners are $10+ a dozen up here, Northern Pike AKA snott rockets like shining flickering things in the water and will beat a crappie to the shiner 8 out of ten times up here. $5.00 a scoop Crappie Minnows or fatheads are mostly used around here or cut up a crawler…

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Originally Posted by Central Minn

Shiners are $10+ a dozen up here, Northern Pike AKA snott rockets like shining flickering things in the water and will beat a crappie to the shiner 8 out of ten times up here. $5.00 a scoop Crappie Minnows or fatheads are mostly used around here or cut up a crawler…

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I use Fatheads as much as Golden Shiners during the summer when Crappie don't want to bite a jig. We are working on a Outdoor article now about buying live minnows (shiners or fatheads), which is easier to keep, what equipment works best as well as alternatives, water additives and conditioners, amount of time you can reasonably expect your minnows to last, etc. Pike are toothy critters that like a flash, they don't bite your other Crappie presentations?

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Originally Posted by Rojo

I use Fatheads as much as Golden Shiners during the summer when Crappie don't want to bite a jig. We are working on a Outdoor article now about buying live minnows (shiners or fatheads), which is easier to keep, what equipment works best as well as alternatives, water additives and conditioners, amount of time you can reasonably expect your minnows to last, etc. Pike are toothy critters that like a flash, they don't bite your other Crappie presentations?

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Yep, they do I pick my own crawlers about 50 dozen this year after the first steady rain in the spring ( That’s the only time they surface around here) so basically free… a 100 crappie/50 fatheads a scoop not to bad, but the $10 shiners they count out;) gets spendy.

The lakes i fish don’t have man made brush piles/stake beds/ect they are illegal to build in Minn waters, so you fish crappie along weeds/in the weeds/over the weeds ect, pike,bass territory. Casting or trolling a spinner type bait with plastic seems to be the most effective, lately a mister twister with a 1/8 oz jig and a 3” Pumpkin pepper meany has been best…for everything.lol.