To be successful at bass fishing during the cold winter months at Clear Lake means using live jumbo minnows. However, not everyone agrees with using live bait.
Most tournament fishermen have little time for the live bait fishermen. In fact, all the tournament organizations outlaw the use of all live bait during a tournament. On the other side of the coin are the fishing guides whose living depends on their clients catching fish. They have found that jumbo minnows can mean the difference between success and failure. That fact has really came out this year because the fishing has been so slow for both the tournament anglers and the recreational fishermen.
How popular are live minnows for bait? Local tackle shops tell me that during the winter months it”s not unusual to sell up to 1,000 minnows a week. With at least seven places in the county selling minnows, that adds up to approximately 7,000 minnows being sold to fishermen every week. Of course, most of the fishermen switch back to crankbaits and plastics by March and the use of minnows diminishes to a trickle.
Bass locate their prey by several methods, the primary one being sight. However, they also have excellent smelling abilities and they have a lateral line that runs down their side, one which senses movement. In an experiment done a few years ago, researchers released minnows into a tank that was holding several largemouth bass that had been “blindfolded” with eye patches. The bass were able to easily locate the minnows through the vibration alone and intercept them one by one. This could explain why a bass can feed so successfully at night or in extremely dirty water.
One reason live minnows are so effective is that a live minnow suspended beneath a bobber probably gives off some kind of distress signal or odor that the bass intercepts. Studies have shown a bass can instantly pick an injured or sick minnow out of a school of healthy minnows. This could be nature”s way of not only providing an easy meal for the bass, but also keeping the minnow species healthy by culling out the sick and weak.
Most fishermen rig a minnow one of two ways. One way is to run a size 2 hook through the lips of the minnow and attach a small split shot about 10 inches from the hook. The minnow is allowed to swim above the submerged rocks or beneath the docks. This is called “fly lining.”
The other technique is to use a slip bobber and drift with the live minnow suspended about 4-6 feet beneath the bobber. A bobber stopper is attached to the line, which allows fisherman to make an easy cast. The stopper controls the depth of the minnow. Commercial bobber stoppers are available at the local tackle shops.
When you see the bobber go under or move off to one side, feed some line out to give the bass enough time to get the minnow completely in his mouth and then set the hook with a sweeping motion.
Often a bass will just play with the minnow and won”t even take the bobber under. Other times it slams the bait.
One fisherman told me he tried an experiment and it proved bass will feed on live bait but ignore artificial lures. He located a school of bass and as soon as he dropped a live minnow down, a bass would grab it. However, when he used an artificial minnow or plastic worm he wouldn”t get a bite. The bass would swim up to the artificial lure, look at it or even nudge it and then just swim away. But it was just the opposite for a live minnow.
The only downside of using live minnows is the cost. A dozen jumbo minnows goes for about $12 and extra large minnows cost about $8. When the fish are biting, it”s not unusual for a fisherman to use up to two or even three dozen minnows per day.
