I have never used live minnows for Largemouth bass

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

How do you do it and where?

[StockOption]

I'll use the real big, jumbo minnows at Clear Lake Dec-Mar when I take the kids crappie fishing near Shag rock. I'll suspend one of the giant minnows (typically 3-6" long) under a fairly large pencil type bobber with a slip stop so the bait gets down about 6-8ft. I hook the minnow through the lips and add a small split shot 6" or so above the hook.

I've seen a number of fisherman at Clear Lake during the winter months casting the big minnows just like you would fish a wacky senko. I've never fished them that way, but I believe that is the normal way folks fish jumbo minnows at Clear Lake. I've always wondered how many casts the minnow stays alive for, I would think not too many.

[Guest]

use live bait for largemouth bass......one exception, might be if you are teaching kids to fish....Jim, If you go over to the dark side, we will never let you forget it..

korny

PS...in case anyone out there hasnt figured it out,,,,,,

I AM A PUREST and Proud of it.

There is nothing wrong with keeping old traditions alive.


KORNY

[troutnut]

1/0 circle hook thru the upper lip, 12" leader, barrel swivel, the a sliding cork float. I gently pitch the bait in a fishy area, and let the baitfish awim around. I steeer it away from deep cover, and you can tell when a big fish is after him... they start swimming MUCH FASTER!!! HAR!

sometimes I put a small piece of rubber worm on the hook after I slide the bait on to keep him from getting off.

[492slayer]

Clear Lake in December.... a single split shot about 1' above the hook... hang on. If you're too much of a purist to fish like this, you're really missing out on a lot of action. We went through 6 dozen in one afternoon last year, and it was like fishing the docks at Konocti for Crappie... Nothing but Action. I'll fish anyway it takes to catch fish. My time and money are better spent that way. I'd rather catch 60 or 70 fish in the 2-8lb range in an afternoon with friends on minnows than freezing my *** off dragging a jig or swimbait for just a handful of bites.

[Andy Giannini]

Grab a float and let the wind drift your bait into a bassy looking spot. Or just flip/dip them into likely spots. Lots of casts ruin the baits.

I bought some minnows to teach the kids, and just get a lot of action. (Kids get bored easy.) They fished a bit, got bored anyway, and got a ride with mom. I was left with all these minnows, so I fished them out. It reminded me of fishing when I was a little kid. I had forgotten how much fun live bait could be.

And it was weird, after swearing off live bait years ago it was something new again.

I love using live baits for Bluegills.

A.G.

[CORAL 96]

Have used techniques described above at many lakes. Best one was Lake Tulloch above the bridge. Caught my biggest smallie to date at 4.5 lbs!!! Used a #6 hook with split-shot 6" or so above the hook. Dropped down to between 15-20 ft range. Was about this time a year back in 1993. What fun!! Would like to try the Clear Lake largemouth fishing in the winter. Might be able to break my LM bass record of 5 lbs!!

[Riplip]

Last year I took a couple guys from work who don't fish much up to Clear lake in Nov...I decided it would be eaiser for me (and them) if I set them up with jumbo minnows...

Being a purist of sorts, I fished artificials all day, or at least in between netting nice fish after nice fish for them.

It is very disheartening to take apart a piece of structure with all my best technique and the best selection of baits without a bite, then have a backseat fulla minnow dunkers catch 5-8lbers like they were crappie fishin!

[Hardshell]

I'm with Korny on this one.

Hardshell-Jailer

[sTony]

I'm with Korny and Jailer on this one also.

I don't hold anything against the folks that do but I'd ask them to try to set their hooks early so as not to deep hook the fish they're catching.

For me it 's simple, I need as much time on the water honing my skills as I can get and this just takes time away from throwing the baits I need to be using to be ready come tournament time. If I can't use it in a tournament I don't fish it at all when it comes to black bass fishing. Maybe I'm missing out on something but I don't use live bait when fishing for black bass ever.

sTony

[StockOption]

Early hook sets with live bait are fine and a good practice for C+R fishing but I think certain artificials can be just as damaging, at least in my personal experience. Noting I hate more than a rip bait with all three treble hooks embedded in the fish. Most of the time it's how you treat the fish whilst carefully removing the hooks that counts.

And at Clear Lake the bass I have caught using jumbo minnows have (unfortunately) been far too small to even swallow the bait the vast majority of the fish we've caught using minnows have been catfish and crappie (with the kids).

I personally get a lot more satisfaction using artificials and technique to fool the fish (and I do not fish tournaments or haven't yet) but I will float a jumbo minnow from time to time when anchored at Shag Rock crappie fishing.

[912nitro]

get you the longest cane pole you can find. tie on 20 to 30 lb mono of your choice the length of the pole.
get a 1 1/2 or 2 inch red & white bobber.
get a hook suitable for the size minnow your using.
Hook the bait on top of the back between the backbone & top fin.
flip / swing the minnnow into bassy looking places. aropund stumps, pilings etc. & hang on... when the minnow sees a bass coming it will head for cover.
the biggest gold fish with the 4 fins on its tail are awesome.......
As far as i`m concerned, this technique is the original flipping that Dee Thomas made famous.
The boys in Texas & the rest of the south have been doing this for lots of years.
My grand father actually tied eyes & a reel seat on his pole, but he would still swing the bait out, & gently set it in the water with out a ripple...........
Ive personally used cane poles 17 feet long for this style of fishing.
_________________
Wise men STILL seek Him....

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

912nitro, I have heard that technique called dipsy doodling among others..You are correct in that is was and probably still is popular with some fishermen/women from the southern part of the country..I never used minnows, but have used the same technique utilizing grasshoppers and small frogs..

mac

[NaCl]

If I recall correctly, tournaments in the "good ol days" were followed by a big fish fry! Maybe some old traditions are better off dead. HaHa!

.....NaCl

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

I would only fish for trout with dry flies that I had personally tied. I thought of them as the nobelist fish that swam. Everything else was in the same category as bullheads and mud suckers. Then I found out that you could catch them on cheese balls and I never have felt the same about them again. Scrap fish.
I want to take my grand kids out. there are 9 of them. I want to get them hooked on fishing first then start using the artificials.

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

Perhaps a tournament of spots only on Oroville with a fish fry afterward would be fun and good for the lake as well.
Fish till noon and eat till you could eat no more.

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

I have never used live bait either Tony and only will with my grand kids as a way to get them hooked. It will be strictly catch and release and will deninately try not to gut hook them

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

Help like this from fellow fishermen is what makes this forum a great place for all fishermen to visit and participate in. One of the great things about it is that you can disagree with sTony and he wont hold it against you. At least I dont think he will HA

[Andy Giannini]

Its easier to get them started on Bluegills. Get a small gammie and tie direct, (The Eagle Claw snells aren't quite sharp enough, too many robbed baits, and kid frustration.) Pick up a ZAK hook remover at Wally World, its red, and looks like a little gun. That way there will be no hooks down too far, it rotates them right out should one swallow it. And that way all the fish will swim away, and you won't have to answer the question,

"That fish is bleeding, is it gonna die?"

Grab up some thill pencil floats at WW, the one with the little pen spring to retain the line. Don't mess up and get the ones without that require bobber stops, to much of a hassle with kids. These are high tech floats that kick butt over round plastic bobbers. They go under easy, and indicate the bite direction rather well. They also have flourescent tips to aid visability. Now that you have super sharp hooks, the trickest floats out there we are really cheating!

You need a bag of splitshots, and mini nightcrawlers.

Thumbnail of about an inch of mini crawler and wacky rig it. Cast around a dock or suitable weedbed. Adjust depth as needed. Catch lots of fish.

"Grandad is the greatest fisherman in the world."

P.S. you won't have any time to fish yourself. You will be too busy landing gills, rebaiting, etc.

A.G.

[Dom]

Ditto, Ya gotta give the bass a chance .

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

up until about 4 or 5 years ago our paths used to cross fairly often but I think it has been at leaft 4 years since I have seen you in person.
Whats up with that?

[Andy Giannini]

I am just not fishing the tournaments like I was trying to do then.

I am training high in the frozen mountains, with the monks, refining my Bassido techniques. Linked only by WIFI and my physic connection to Master Clunn. Thousands of hooksets with my line tied to the Tree Of Woe. Learning the ancient martial arts of fighting the fish. (And incomplete sentances.)

A whole bunch of things have changed for me since then, I still enjoy the fishing though!

A.G.

[jack morris]

Good grief , don't get caught using gold fish for bait. The size of the fine is not worth it. It illegal to use them anywhere in ca. Jack

[Phil]

I'M WITH KORNEY ON THIS ISSUE 100%.

JIGS

[BassTraveler]

I'm with Jigs and Korny.
DON"T do it JIM.

[Cooch]

until Ben Williams invited me to ClearLake about 6 Decembers ago. I AM a real fishermen to my bones, and so IS Benny, so I was open to trying this tactic. Ta say using "live bait" doesn't make ya a real fishemen, well let's just say, that's just a personal opinion and leave it at that! More men through out the age of time have fished with "live bait" than any other resource known to man. Yeah, there's yer oldest tradition! LOL

So, you may believe it is not a challenge to catch fish on live bait, that's yer personal choice. I've seen the look on the face of kids, women and men, who have caught their first fish on a jumbo minner at ClearLake, and it is just as exciting as that last fish they catch before we go home. For me, it is far better than the bored, I'll never do this again look, I've seen while going fishless with artificials and at certain times.

As for the throat hooking thing, bass fishermen fishing with splitshots and Senkos, throat hook far more bass than those of us who know how to properly fish live Jumbos or caws. We're not all tournament fishermen, so I can certainly understand the mentality of the tournament guys and how they look at fishing for their beloved bass with live bait. There are far more of us who just love to catch fish, the best way we can on any given day.

So take those kids out and go have a ball up there Jim. You owe it to yourself, and them kids, to go have as much fun as possible! If it's C&R and fer fun, who cares whether it's live or artificial really.

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

except for getting kids started

[Phil]

JIM; I AGREEE

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

I was going to do it anyway, but its great to know that everyone is not against it.
Everything will definately be catch and release thats one of the major concepts that I want to teach the kids.
I may not be welcome in certain circles anymore but so be it

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

707-333-6241

[Andy Giannini]

This whole thread took an ugly spin.

There isn't anything wrong with livebait!

It is nature's POWERBAIT!

It has scent, flavor, and after you hook a bait and it is tugging a float around, IT PUTS OUT NATURAL DISTRESS SIGNALS!

IT WORKS WELL!

Jim isn't talking about abusing a fishery, cheating in a tournament, giving up artificials for life, etc. He wants to introduce young people to the sport, and make sure they have a good outing.

I think predispositions against livebait fisherman have reared their ulgy heads.

There isn't anything wrong with fishing minnows, or artificials.

What's next? Trout lures that look TOO realistic? Are the artificials too realistic? Is that cheating? Abusing the fishery? Or do the big trout lures just have too good of a success rate?

I guess all these high tech rods, reels, lines, and lures need to be chucked in the dumpster and go back to old fashioned braid. Same with 200 hp bass boats, living color graphs, and sharp hooks.

Need to make it fair for the fish you know. No GPS either.

I think everybody should to take the kids fishing and have a good time, however you define your sport.

A.G.

[R.Mac]

Right on Cooch. I'm just wondering if it's just bass that the "purist" won't fish with bait, or does it hold true for all species, cuz if it's all fish, then ya better not troll for salmon, chunk for stripers and cats, or go to Baja and fish for tuna with sardinias. An angler's opinion.

[sTony]

No one said there was anything wrong with using live bait to catch fish. No one said it doesn't make you a 'real fisherman'. No one accused anyone of cheating at anything.

Some just said it isn't what they do. See, it's ALL good!

If I want to take a kid fishing and introduce them to the sport or recreation of fishing I can just as easily accomplish that with some clams going for catfish or some meal worms going for bluegill or good ol' salmon eggs and marshmallows OR powerbait for trout. And those are exactly the ways I introduced fishing to my kids and how I was introduced myself many, many, many years ago. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this goal. My fascination for bass came from a need to be more proactive while fishing. I started off fly fishing and turned towards fishing for black bass with artificial baits because it beat sitting there waiting for some fish to come grab my bait a thousand ways come Sunday. I don't resent or take anything away from the bait dunkers of the world, it's just not my cup o' tea.

Me thinkust the Andy's of the site need to get over themselves, even if just a bit.

And Cooch, dynamite and a net works well too, but would YOU use it, hahaha.

sTony

[jack morris]

Ok here's where I say my.02 . I have fished for bass with all kinds of live bait this includes minnows, crayfish,live frogs,waterdogs,mice,etc. I do not believe I have killed any more fish with live bait then I have with lures. Keeping fish alive has more to do how you handle them then what you fish with... Don't get me wrong I love to fish with lures , but I will continue to fish with live bait at times as I do not believe I do any harm to the fish I catch. Jack

[Fish Chris]

as much as I enjoy using live bait (crawdads and night crawlers) my experiences with shiners have not been very positive.

They were expensive. A pain to transport (might be okay in a circulating live well I guess).
I tried hooking them both through the lips, and in the back, but no matter what, it seemed like I either deep hooked the bass, or missed them altogether.... Neither of which is acceptable to me.

In any case, about the whole "live bait" issue, I hardly ever fish it anymore nowadays. Why ? Because "big bass are typically so much 'easier' to catch on swimbaits

And on a parting word, consider this;
I have spent litterally thousands of hours with a dad, or crawler on the end of my line (because I enjoy it, and it sometimes produces a big bass), yet my biggest 5 bass have all been caught on artificial lures. Hence my reasoning for fishing more and more artificials, and less and less live bait, each year. I'm probably down to 5% or less with my live bait fishing..... Which is kind of a bummer. I wish it were more effective.

Purist, smurists.

Fish

[Andy Giannini]

*NM*