Jigging with whole vs cut minnow

[whateverisbiting]

I have always heard that you should cut the minnow and fish with the head when jigging for eyes through the ice but I consistently have better luck using a whole minnow while jigging. Just wondering what everyone else is doing and why?

[PFUNK]

Just another one of the endless variables you must test on every outing. One day it could be the head that works better, the next it may be a whole body. I sometimes find myself using the tail portion as well, usually on horizontal jigs. If fish are aggressive, this may be a non issue completely. If you are marking fish and can't get them to bite, this is something you can try messing with to entice a bite... along with about a million other variables. Having said all of this, the majority of the time I would say I am using the head only if using a jigging spoon. I don't know exactly why it works better for me, but maybe it has something to do with scent dispersion. I think sometimes the entrails hanging off a minnow head add some action when giving your jig the slightest twitch as well.

[FishinFools]

This kind of fits in with the other current post about the never ending supply of minnows...but does anyone snip the heads off dead minnows in your bait pail and freeze them in a small baggie to use another day? (read this previously on another post) Do you feel that the fish would accept or reject them verses a freshly severed fish head?

[amateurfishing]

last year i had great results using live whole minnows...nice big fat fish and i did not know what i was even doing (my first year)

this year have fish finder, better sled, new rods, more lures, etc. & so far nothing has touched a whole live minnow for me, all been on pinched off heads and all catches have been 8 inch & under perch while last year i got northern, bass, perch, crappie, etc.

i was wondering the last couple of days if all this warm weather was just making them not as hungry & more lethargic to eating cause their body temps maybe are just not as cold

last year had lots of minnow die so i saved and froze the dead ones, to me it was not worth the hassle, fish did not go after a frozen minnow 7 when they thawed just turned to mush and harder to work with, if i tried to pinch off a head the whole thing would almost dissinagrate.

[marshmallow]

Northland " Whistler Jig " .. Ussually Half Of Dead One In Bucket .. Or Smaller Whole Minnow .. Whamm !! They Thump These Jigs .. Same For Crappie .. But Of Course Downsize ..

[thatoneguy]

Just like choosing a lure, experiment and let the fish tell you what they want. It varies from day to day, and sometimes even from hour to hour.

[Stick in Mud]

I've had success this year using frozen minnows for catfish, but I can't say that I've tried them much for walleyes. I have caught a few eyes on the frozen ones, but not enough to have a reliable sample size.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have always heard that you should cut the minnow and fish with the head when jigging for eyes through the ice but I consistently have better luck using a whole minnow while jigging. Just wondering what everyone else is doing and why?

My own personal opinion is that the jig has much better action if using the smallest piece of bait you can get away with. IF thats just a head of a minnow or a tail, thats usually what I will use. If using a bobber or the like.. Then a full minnow will give you more action.

When I am jigging.. I am jigging.. very little on a pause aspect until I have brought a fish under me.. then I will slow the action down to get them to bite.

[reinhard1]

i also just use the head for jigging. for some reason the head works better than the tail for me. good luck.

[monstermoose78]

using the just the heads help prevent short strikes where they just grab the back half of the minnow.

[otterman91105]

I've tried it both ways have had better luck on the half minnow. For me seems like i get a better strike on the bait.

[simple1]

I have better luck with part of minnow, but I always start with a whole one. I also save my dead minnows for the next outing and they seem to work fine.

[mwalleye]

My first trip 3 weeks ago I used minnow heads did not do to bad last week I started with minnow head and switched to full minnow (shinner) some fat heads and that seemed to do much better headin back sunday and we will see good luck

[PFUNK]

I should add something that I forgot to mention earlier... If I do use a whole minnow, I rarely use a dead one or stone a live one by hooking it right through the skull. If using a whole minnow, 99 times out of 100 I will hook it through the lips so that when I let my jig sit the minnow is still alive and struggling on the hook. With a jigging spoon, the weight is enough to limit nearly all their motion. But that struggling, injured baitfish look works well on fish that aren't active and feeding aggressively. You can always give that minnow more action by jigging aggressively, but one it's dead you can't get that subtle action back.