no minnows

[Wolffy]

I would love to get back on the ice to fish for some perch and maybe crappies but no one around has minnows that i can find. tried using waxys a few times and the perch dont much care for them. any ideas?

[Dozer]

Find a different bait shop. They all still have minnows around here.

[dairyman]

try the gas stations----some of the ones around here have them

[centralmnguy]

Try fleet farm...the gas mart where I live has bait...otherwise in the big store they have packaged minnows (emeralds etc.)

[MnCatGuy]

I've been having good luck using red or glow plastics for crappies lately. I haven't used them for perch but if you have any its worth a shot for sure. (Horizontal presentation has been best)

[Wolffy]

I've tried all the towns within about 30 miles and nothing. I guess nobody likes to fish around here. Everyone says they'll have them for opener. I don't have any plastics, no one sells them around here that I've seen. The best tackle shops around are runnings and borches in marshall. I think I'm going to try hot dogs or something.

Well finally lucked out a local gas station just got a batch in. To bad its a 25 mile round trip just to get bait now

[fishfinder72]

Its 20 miles one way for me to get to Walmart or Hyvee...but I seem to have bait available in town all year. Good luck fishing.

[Wolffy]

Yeah its about 24 miles on way to marshall for Walmart or hyvee for me. But I guess the price you pay for not living in or by bigger towns.

[Borch]

Have you tried gulp minnows, jigging raps, northland scud bugs, custom jigs and spins ratso..?

I rarely fish with live minnows unless I'm sitting in one spot and plan on using a second rod. Still catch lots of fish most days.

Another option for the future is freezing left over minnows for times where bait can be tough to find. They still work well on a jigging spoon.

[Great Outdoors]

Don't be too tough on the bait shops in your area. This winter has been one of sub zero temps, high winds, and massive amounts of slush which has stopped most people from fishing.

You cannot expect someone to buy a product that they cannot sell, and end up flushing down the toilet.

[20lbSloughShark]

That, and they predicted a bait shortage at the beginning of the season. I've been using those orange gulp baits. I don't remember the name, but its like a wax worm with a thin tail. I've seen no difference between that and wax worms if you jig it right. For perch, I would move shallower, and use bigger jigs like a spoon with wax worms. The lazy perch will be out in 20'. The big, hungry ones should be moving in to about 3'-8' soon if they are not already.

[Wolffy]

I live in SW Mn we have not had any problems with slush. This has been a great year for ice, very little snow. The fishing has been really slow. As for depths the lakes are mainly 10' around, minus 2 ones 16' and one has a 30' hole that's tiny. I've had best luck in fishing about 10' on the deeper 2 lakes and 6' to 8' on the others. I have a few jigging raps but the fish aren't agressive enough. Usually jig with a spoon and a minnow head to draw them in and wait. We have tried some gulp stuff with no luck at all. I may have to freeze some minnows to make it til opener tho.