Which minnow?

[Neiko]

We have a group coming up next weekend and we are wondering what we should get for bait? We are targeting walleye but will take some crappies and northern if we catch them.

Fathead

Crappie

Emerald shiners

Regular Shiners

Suckers

[GrizzlyAdams]

Might as well get a bit of everything. Never know which one will work best for that given day. I hate going out and not having the right bait with. Me personally, I would rather have too much bait with than not enough or the right bait.

[magnum mike]

I agree with Griz and I used to do it all the time. After you calculate how much $ you drop on a day of fishing, how smart is it to scrimp on bait? Split the cost with the whole group & drop an extra $10-$20 and get some of everything if you have room for differnet minnow buckets. Don't mix chubs & shiners in the same container as the shiners will be dead in less than an hour.

[jjohnson5150]

Bring all with you to your fish house. Buy whatever you can locally. It's a long ways to go to doubt whether or not you brought the right bait.

[Northlander]

All but suckers unless your after pike and seals.

[wdgold]

Going to upper red this friday for the first time ever. What bait store will have the tackle I need that is working at the time? I don't want to buy a whole mess of tackle down in the Cities and find out I don't need half of it when I get up there.

Thanks

[cyclones]

Coming all the way from Iowa, we always spend the extra and get a lot of bait and a lot of different types. This past trip with four guys we got 2 dozen large golden shiners, 2 dozen larger rainbows, 2 dozen small shiners (would normally get emeralds if available), 2 dozen fatheads, half dozen 6" suckers, half dozen 10" suckers. We try any and everything and some trips it really matters, some not at all. Favorite for me is rainbow or small shiner head on a jigging spoon and about the biggest golden shiner on a plain hook. We usually get the bigger baits in Grand Rapids and try to get the smaller baits locally.

[battleriver1]

get a bit of everything but fatheads seem to do the trick most of the time

[terrible_fisherman]

The eyes love the suckers up there from what I have seen. Bigger bait the better at least until you get late in the year and have to downsize.

[wdgold]

I was looking more for what lures/artificial were working.

[battleriver1]

buckshots, varmints,flyers and froste jigging spoons are good options for all species

[gogophers]

Red rattling anything was best for us this weekend.

[usmtsrocks]

We just got back today. We had fatheads, shiners and one small sucker that must of snuck in the fathead bucket. That lone sucker caught a keeper. Not a bite on the shiners. Fatheads took the few fish we caught deadsticking. Jigging was best.