Frozen shiners

[tacklejunkie]

The wife and i have an ice fishing trip coming up. I usually fish LOTW open water and use frozen shiners but I don't see anything regarding using them ice fishing. Anyone use them and will they work as well under the ice?

[the squirrel]

Last year we used them and seem to out perform live fat head!

 

[kfk]

I usually use frozen shiners and live fatheads on the same hook.  Works for me.

[curt quesnell]

Frozen shiners are go-to in the winter as well.  Put a live chub on your deadstick line and a frozen shiner head on your jigging spoon and make adjustments from there.

Good Luck

[live4chrome]

Personally, I think the frozen shiners are an up-north bait shop marketing scam so that the baitshops can sell the ones that die in the tanks. Come buy our dead minnows! For the same price you can buy fresh live emerald shiners that aren't mush, don't fall off your spoon when you jig and don't get stolen with every little nibble. They also have the added advantage of wiggling in the water, vs just sitting there motionless on a dead stick. If you really need frozen ones just throw a couple live ones on the ice. I think dead bait works great for pike but for walleye live and fresh is always better.

[curt quesnell]

The frozen shiners you buy aren't tank killed shiners (they are not the ones that die in the tank) These days these shiners, the local ones, come right out of the traps into baggies and into the freezer.  They are very fresh frozen.

You obviously can use anything you want and live chubs work fine but a bag of frozen shiners minnows in my pocket gives me a great bait option that is easy to keep close, and Lake of the Woods Walleyes, Saugers and Perch just love em.

I have chubs most of the time when I go ice fishing but I ALWAYS have LOW locally caught frozen shiners.

[jerkbait]

X2 what Curt said. I won't leave home without them. and the best part is a person does not have to try to keep them alive!

[fivebucks]

We were up last weekend and and I had both live and frozen Emeralds.  I fished with the live ones more so I did better on live ones but if I did not have live ones I for sure would have frozen.

[JohnnyO]

I think one more reason frozen shiner are used so much is live emeralds are only  available at certain times 

[lakowoods]

4 hours ago, curt quesnell said:

The frozen shiners you buy aren't tank killed shiners (they are not the ones that die in the tank) These days these shiners, the local ones, come right out of the traps into baggies and into the freezer.  They are very fresh frozen.

You obviously can use anything you want and live chubs work fine but a bag of frozen shiners minnows in my pocket gives me a great bait option that is easy to keep close, and Lake of the Woods Walleyes, Saugers and Perch just love em.

I have chubs most of the time when I go ice fishing but I ALWAYS have LOW locally caught frozen shiners.

Curt they just need to know where to buy the best frozen shiners in the area, there is a technique to it btw.    steve@logcabinbait

[stuntedcrappie]

The only thing the frozen shiners have done reliably for me is fall off the hook.

[Boar]

open water i i take a long shanck jig and feed the hook thru the mouth and out the gill and  into the torso of a frozen shiner, stays on a long time and better hook ups. winter time, with frozen shinners i like to take a nice chub, and add a frozen shinner to the hook withthe chub, the chub wiggles and shakes the shinner dispersing scent and scales which can  trigger strikes from nuetral.fish.

[curt quesnell]

Like Boar said long shank hooks are the key for making frozen shiners stay on the hook.  In the winter I just use the head on the treble hook of a jigging spoon.  To help with keeping them on the hook I use an inch or so of Gulp red worm after the minnow is on the hook, it holds the bait on and I think adds more scent to the rig. This weekend I tried some of the new Clam Maki soft plastic and it did the job also

 

Good Luck

[LindellProStaf]

I used to be live bait only guy and I was always changing water and taking good care of my minnows everywhere not just here.  I finally saw that frozen shiners worked pretty darn good up here.  I sometimes still grab a bag of live shiners or fat heads but it is so easy to put a bag of frozen shiners in my pocket and no maintenance.  I hook the frozen shiner through the gill plate then back through the back and scrunch it up to get the hook in again in front of the tail.  The shiner has a curve up near the head when doing this.  I have great hook set percentages and the curve in the minnow I think gives a visibility from more angles advantage.  Sometimes the frozen works better and sometimes live works better.  BUT they are not the ones that die and are put in a bag.....  The guys up at LOW have enough fresh frozen ones that they do not have to freeze dead ones.  They want you to catch fish and are not going to sell you junk.