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Whats your best bet on live bait?


Senko

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Alright im going to be heading out to stillwater/bayport area later this afternoon just wandering what live bait to use. or any opinons/suggestions as in minnows, shiners, fatheads, etc. im going to be chasing walleyes.

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Senko, how did your minnows work out?

I generally get a scoop of both fatheads and crappie minnows, at first grab whatever feels friskiest, base later decisions on how the bite pans out. I had shiners with the last two times out, seemed to get bigger white bass, not big eyes. Fatheads have been best. LB

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got out today around 3ish i'll say, grabbed a large scoop of fatheads and half dozen of golden shiners and rainbows.. tried jiggin with a jighead for an hour or so didn't hit anything. then switched over to sinker and a plain hook around 4:30ish then ohh boy... the bite was on alot of saugers but manage to catch a 18" eye and a 20" the saugers were fair sizes but only kept the eyes. all caught on fattys i wasn't doin so good with the rainbow and shiners but all in all it was a great day on the river.

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Good report!!!!I got out for a little bit on Sunday,Had a slow morning.Jigging fatheads wasnt doing me any good,the fish were down there but uncooperative.Once I started dragging jigs I began to see results,Plenty o saugs and silver bass but the eyes werent showing up where I was.I did catch a couple of fish trolling but had to keep my speed down from 1.5 to 1.7mph.Even then they were just barely hooked on the back hook.Water temps in the bayport area were 46 to 47 degrees.I think rigging the minnows would have been much more successful but I didnt get around to trying it.....Good luck out there..........

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Fatty's and crappie minnows did the job for me on Saturday evening. That is all I bought so I don't know if they would have bit anything else. Slow was the key for me and I used more of a hovering vertical jig about a couple inches off bottom, just touching down here and there to make sure I was in the zone.

Tunrevir~

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Tunrevir, sounds like a 3 way might have worked well for ya too. I ended out Sunday getting into some crappie, fatheads and crappie minnows were both working great. I had a few shiners left over and decided to give them a try too. I nailed 4 12" plus crappies quickly in a row.

I got a few decent bass with fatheads. A few pics are below. The bigger dark bass fought like a sheepshead, basically rolled over and came belly up? It had a missing pelvic fin, hard to see from the picture. The others were all a blast. I was kinda shocked by it's size once in the boat considering its lack of fight.

Anyone have bigger luck for eyes with shiners on the river? LB

smalliewf8.jpgsmallie1cf7.jpg

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Walli, nice bass. Where have you been picking up your redtails? The only place I have heard is Vados in Spring Lake Park. thanks, LB

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Blueroof, the 3 way probably would have worked like you said but I was fishing with my 7 y.o. I thought about trolling cranks too but that gets her bored pretty quick. I opted to jig, the first couple I caught and then let her reel them up, the rest she caught for herself and truly felt the jig bite, set the hook and reeled the fish in! I was a bit shocked but she managed to feel the bite and hook up on a fairly regular basis. I would like to say it was my expert advice but she did it all on her own! Gotta love the redtails but I have to travel to get them and do okay with the run of the mill stuff, plastics, spoons and bladebaits. Good luck out there!

Tunrevir!~

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