Ever Shiner / slip-bobber fish for Bass?

[Sphynx]

This thread has me thinking about trying it once or twice this year just to see if I enjoy it at all, I don't see it being the sort of thing that I am apt to enjoy, but then, I didn't think I would enjoy listening to classical music or basketball games on the radio either and here we are.

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I have used shiners for bait and always enjoy it. I have three DD's one was caught on a live shiner & the other two on rattle traps. So I don't think shiner fishing is easier or cheating or taking the easy way out. When I first started fishing for largemouth in earnest my buddies & I traveled to some farm ponds in southern Georgia where we had access. We would buy live shiners from a commercial bait facility & keep them alive in several five gallon buckets with aerators while staying in motel rooms overnight. Our trips consisted of two or three days. It was expensive & a pain in the arse. We did well though catching quality bass. One trip the bait supplier didn't have any shiners so we were stuck fishing with artificials. I had some senkos with me which we rigged wacky style & proceeded to slay the bass. We never went back to live shiners down there again. We evolved as fisherman learning new techniques & caught a few PB's in the process. We determined based on that experience artificial baits were as good as live bait without the hassle.  

 

Smallmouth fishing I learned that live bait provided the numbers but not necessarily the trophy's I was looking for. My first smallmouth fishing on the great lakes was done with a guide out of New York state waters. I had 3 or four trips with great numbers but could not get the 5lb smallmouth trophy I coveted. When I finally broke 5lbs & caught my first 6lber in the same weekend it was on a jerk bait. With that early success I stayed with the artificial approach & mostly jerk baits. The only time I tried live bait again for smallies was fishing a hair jig tipped with a lake shiner. It was successful scoring a new PB at 6-14. Within a few weeks later I scored my first over seven at 7-6 on a rapala tail dancer bouncing bottom in 20-22 fow.  I never tried live bait for smallies again. Didn't  need to in my mind as it didn't provide an advantage.

 

When it comes to fishing public waters with lots of fishing pressure like Florida shiner fishing does offer an advantage for trophies based on my experience. So I guess you can say the advantage depends on the species and the body of water you are fishing. I personally don't care if your PB gets caught on live bait or an artificial bait. Both methods are still fishing & provide the fun of catching as well as the fun of planning & chasing a new PB. 

You’re always bringing real experience and knowledge to the conversation. It’s like you’ve already tried all this stuff or something.......

[roadwarrior]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

You’re always bringing real experience and knowledge to the conversation. It’s like you’ve already tried all this stuff or something.......

 

Not Dwight's first rodeo.

[TnRiver46]

Just now, roadwarrior said:

 

Not Dwight's first rodeo.

No sir, he’s addicted worse than any of us 

[DaubsNU1]

Not bass fishing, but walleye...I've been to the Silver Water Wheel Lodge in Canada four times in the past 20 years. 

 

Our preferred method of catching "eyes" is a simple lead-head with a live minnow on the back. They have minnows flown in every other day.

 

I'd rather fish for Pike or Smallies, but the buddies who go on this trip are hardcore walleye fishermen.

 

 

[Biglittle8]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

I used a big 12 inch sucker a few times under a giant bobber for muskie fishing in the fall and I will tell you personally that it is in fact some of the most boring type of fishing known to man.  First you fork over about 11 bucks for each sucker.  Then you hook that slippery thing up to a quick strike rig, cast it out, and wait.  And then you wait some more.  Then you crack open a beer.  Or two.  Then you wait some more.  And after hours of this, if you're lucky, a pike or muskie will attack that sucker.  If you miss, the sucker is dead and therefore useless.  11 bucks down the drain without a fish caught.

 

I went with my parents once and my Father said "I'll pay for the bait" without knowing how much they were.  We each needed two of them for a total of 6.  The bill came to almost 70 bucks.  The look on his face was priceless.

At least you had beer. We used to catch our own bait most of the time. Went to Thunder Bay, Ontario for a weekend and fished with bobbers and chubs...lots of action.

[Dwight Hottle]

1 hour ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Not bass fishing, but walleye...I've been to the Silver Water Wheel Lodge in Canada four times in the past 20 years. 

 

Our preferred method of catching "eyes" is a simple lead-head with a live minnow on the back. They have minnows flown in every other day.

 

I'd rather fish for Pike or Smallies, but the buddies who go on this trip are hardcore walleye fishermen.

 

 

That's the way I learned to fish for walleye a jig & minnow or jig & night crawler. It is very effective. I caught my first 10lb & 11lb walleye that way. But once I learned how to troll effectively I caught even bigger walleye in greater numbers. Trophy walleye are suckers for artificials if you know how to get the baits down deep enough to target their levels.   

[gim]

9 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

That's the way I learned to fish for walleye a jig & minnow or jig & night crawler. It is very effective. I caught my first 10lb & 11lb walleye that way. But once I learned how to troll effectively I caught even bigger walleye in greater numbers. Trophy walleye are suckers for artificials if you know how to get the baits down deep enough to target their levels.   

 

My parents fish on an amateur state walleye circuit and this is how they fish.  They use a jig/minnow combination in the spring and then transition to leeches or night crawlers.  During the middle of summer, they troll with plugs using lead core.  Quite often, the biggest fish of the season they catch are on Lake of the Woods in mid summer trolling the main basin with lead core and crank baits.  Here are a couple of 30 inchers from last July.

[Bankc]

As a kid, we used live bait all of the time.  It's a great way to increase your percentages.  

 

That being said, it's a lot of standing around, doing nothing.  It's okay if you're doing it with a buddy you want to talk with, relaxing peacefully by yourself, reading a book, taking someone out who has very little fishing experience and want them to experience the thrill of landing a fish, or if you're just looking to catch a meal.  But it's a passive means of fishing.  You're not actively seeking fish.  You're waiting for them to pass by.  So it doesn't have the sense of accomplishment of using an artificial lure, if that's important to you.  

 

Most serious anglers see it akin to bowling with the bumpers out.  When you remove the threat of the gutter ball, bowling a strike doesn't bring the same level of excitement.  

[roadwarrior]

17 minutes ago, Bankc said:

But it's a passive means of fishing.  You're not actively seeking fish.  You're waiting for them to pass by.  So it doesn't have the sense of accomplishment of using an artificial lure, if that's important to you.  

That is NOT the case on the Tennessee River, not even close.  Boat management 

is key and it's a full time job in current. Our ideal dam release is 40,000-60,000 cfs,

so we are generally scooting down the river, trying to fish at the same time.

 

[J Francho]

18 minutes ago, Bankc said:

But it's a passive means of fishing.  You're not actively seeking fish.  You're waiting for them to pass by.  So it doesn't have the sense of accomplishment of using an artificial lure, if that's important to you.

I think you're linking a social event with a fishing style, but that isn't the same as many live bait strategies used by trophy hunters.  Imagine using the same thought process about location, feeding mode of the fish, seasonal patterns, boat position, casting technique, presentation, etc. of fishing an artificial.  Now put a live bait on the hook.  Same deal.

[MGF]

6 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

I used a big 12 inch sucker a few times under a giant bobber for muskie fishing in the fall and I will tell you personally that it is in fact some of the most boring type of fishing known to man.  First you fork over about 11 bucks for each sucker.  Then you hook that slippery thing up to a quick strike rig, cast it out, and wait.  And then you wait some more.  Then you crack open a beer.  Or two.  Then you wait some more.  And after hours of this, if you're lucky, a pike or muskie will attack that sucker.  If you miss, the sucker is dead and therefore useless.  11 bucks down the drain without a fish caught.

 

I went with my parents once and my Father said "I'll pay for the bait" without knowing how much they were.  We each needed two of them for a total of 6.  The bill came to almost 70 bucks.  The look on his face was priceless.

I used suckers once while fishing with a guide. The suckers were closer to 18". The guide kept the boat moving at varying distances from the weed edge. We had two rods trailing suckers behind the boat at different depths while we all kept casting.

 

It just happens that every musky we caught that day was on the suckers. I guess it doesn't always work that way.

[gim]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

I think you're linking a social event with a fishing style

 

Ice fishing is the style that's associated with a social event.  People park their permanent shacks in one spot for weeks at a time to drink beer, play cards, watch satellite TV, and socialize.  They literally sit over dead water for hours and hours and hours without a bite.  Ask me how I know...

[J Francho]

I was thinking of ice fishing as another similar deal. Drifting egg sacs for salmon during peak run is similar, where you stake your 6' of shoreline and run the same drift for 6 hours hoping for a bite from a fish that has passed by 1000 other egg sacs.

[TnRiver46]

18 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Ice fishing is the style that's associated with a social event.  People park their permanent shacks in one spot for weeks at a time to drink beer, play cards, watch satellite TV, and socialize.  They literally sit over dead water for hours and hours and hours without a bite.  Ask me how I know...

Other than the drowning factor, that sounds a lot better than doing all those same things at home 

[gim]

8 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

that sounds a lot better than doing all those same things at home 

 

Its not.  I can assure of that.

[MGF]

5 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Not bass fishing, but walleye...I've been to the Silver Water Wheel Lodge in Canada four times in the past 20 years. 

 

Our preferred method of catching "eyes" is a simple lead-head with a live minnow on the back. They have minnows flown in every other day.

 

I'd rather fish for Pike or Smallies, but the buddies who go on this trip are hardcore walleye fishermen.

 

 

We used to fish the run on the Illinois river and we used a floating jig head with a minnow. The rig was like a Carolina rig but with the floating jig head.

 

The last time I fished for walleyes here locally I pulled out some old fuz e grub type jigs and tipped them with a minnow.

[DitchPanda]

20 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Other than the drowning factor, that sounds a lot better than doing all those same things at home 

Agree that it is not more fun. Drinking beer and playing cards is something you do at a buddies house while your smoking meat. Ice fishing can be that way yes but not for me and my buddies...we are there to catch fish. I'm not dropping 25k on an ice castle just to sit around on the couch...I already have a place to do that..its called my house.

[MGF]

I used to ice fish but I didn't have $25K in anything. I pulled my gear on a little plastic sled and sat on a bucket in the wind. LOL. We drilled LOTS of holes looking for fish. 

[gim]

18 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Ice fishing can be that way yes but not for me and my buddies...we are there to catch fish. I'm not dropping 25k on an ice castle just to sit around on the couch

They guys with a portable that drill a lot of holes and try to stay on active fish do better.  Its a crap load of work though.  The ice castles that park in one spot for weeks, not so much.

 

A lot of the newer model ice castles double as an RV/trailer in the off season now.  They're equipped with AC.  And quite honestly they are probably used way more now in the off season than they are during the ice season because of the lack of safe, thick ice.  But ya I'd never spend that kind of money to ice fish either.

[DitchPanda]

56 minutes ago, gimruis said:

They guys with a portable that drill a lot of holes and try to stay on active fish do better.  Its a crap load of work though.  The ice castles that park in one spot for weeks, not so much.

 

A lot of the newer model ice castles double as an RV/trailer in the off season now.  They're equipped with AC.  And quite honestly they are probably used way more now in the off season than they are during the ice season because of the lack of safe, thick ice.  But ya I'd never spend that kind of money to ice fish either.

I know several guys who own the nice ice castle camper AC equipped things...and a toy hauler...and a regular camper. They seem to enjoy spending money much more then using there stuff. Don't really seem to enjoy life in general to be honest.

[Bankbeater]

When I fish with shiners I usually end up catching catfish.