Minnow Head ?

[TNFL]

OK, i feel really stupid, but.... I have never really used the minnow head as bait, and was wondering how you do it.

1. Where do you rip the body off? (behind gills, middle body?)

2. How do you hook it? (head towards lure or away from lure)

3. Do dead minnows work different than live minnows? (they'll be dead after you rip the body off anyway)

If any others have other questions to this style of bait feel free to ask away.

[walleyeking19]

okay, heres how i do it...

1. i rip it off a little after the gills so you don't have too much of the body.

2. i put the hook through the mouth and out the top of the head.

3. i have no idea.

hope it helps.

[paceman]

I do the same as walleyeking. I only use minnow heads while ice-fishing and on jigging spoons. I believe the purpose of the head is that it acts as a scent attractant. Many times I have had the fish slowly rise up to the spoon or whatever I am using, smell it and then hit it. I have even found it to work on a small jig/crappie minnow head for crappies.....

[fishersofmen]

I go through the meat in back and out the top of the head, that way the eyes are looking at the fish.

[PerchJerker]

I do as the others have described on jigging spoons.

You can also do a small minnow head (or tail) on a horizontal jig like a fat boy, it gives the bait a smaller profile than a whole minnow and you can give it whatever action you want.

[L_Cappo]

i do the same as the others.some times i'll cut the minnow in half but most times just the head.as for the dead minnows i use those alot on my dead stick when fishing lotw.it seems to work on most days.if it dont i'll put a live minnow on.

[bassbozo]

I do mostly the same as the others. Also I when I use the jigging rapalas I put a head on the front and a tail on the back. This has worked to get fish to bite when they wouldn't hit the jigging spoons. The Rap I use is silver and with the head and tail on it it looks like a whole live minnow but I can give it whatever action the walleyes want.

[slipperybob]

I usually try to keep the pectoral fins on with the head. I think it just seal the deal on jigging spoons.

[TNFL]

Thanks for the tips.

Now how do you jig. I know the old, let the fish tell you blah blah blah. But where do you start?

Quick or slow 1 inch pops

raise it a foot and let it fall.

bounce it, hold still, raise it, bounce it, hold still, repeat

[al jr]

if you want to learn how to jig check out the in fisherman ice fishing "jigging secrets" video it is one of the best that i have seen

[PerchJerker]

I start with aggressive jigging (bigger hops and drops) and shaking, and mix it up until I find what's working best, or I react to the fish I mark on my flasher. If the fish aren't hitting the aggressive jigging or the shaking then I'll try no jigging or shaking for several seconds to see if they'll hit a stationary bait.