Shinners question

[Tmaida17]

Anyone have good luck with shinners?? I've been out 5-6 times this year and mix up my tip ups with suckers and shinners and I've never had a bite on my shinners? The suckers they love!! Must be because they are fatter.

What do shinners attract? Should i add a piece of onion to the hook? Lol If anyone knows a secret I don't let me know.

[IceLife]

   We use shiners all the time, sometimes suckers. we set ours .5 to 1.5 ft from bottom. Adjusting thru the day depending on activity.  Depending on your fishing waters suckers maybe what the are naturally feeding on!

[rabbittrapper]

The fish could be scared of them. Only if the shiners aren't native to the lake.

[adkRoy]

Anyone have good luck with shinners?? I've been out 5-6 times this year and mix up my tip ups with suckers and shinners and I've never had a bite on my shinners? The suckers they love!! Must be because they are fatter.

What do shinners attract? Should i add a piece of onion to the hook? Lol If anyone knows a secret I don't let me know.

Ok, what are you fishing for.  Some species of fish prefer one type of bait over another.   Shinners are great of perch, pike, pikerel and I have even caught salmon and lakers with them.  Suckers are good for lakers and pike.

[thomasthepikehunter]

shiners are good if you like a mixed catch. If I put a shiner down, I seem to catch equal amounts of walleye, pike, and bass where I am. Suckers are great because you can get them in so many sizes, especially the 8"+ that pike love. I still catch bass and walleye on suckers, but they seem to prefer shiners most days.

[monkeyyboness]

I use suckers mix with shinners on my tip ups. I  usually get my bigger walleyes on big suckers.

[Steelheadsnot]

I have zero confidence in suckers(for pike)
I will throw the biggest dead bait I have down the hole before I send a sucker down. It also doesn't ever hurt to clip tails when the fish aren't too active. Good luck!! If you are pike fishing,better to hang your baits higher than lower:)

[kpd145]

I use emerald shiners 90% of the time and have caught many species of fish on them.

I also use rosie reds, white/yellow perch from the same body of water, and salted emerald shiners.

[sodussut]

since I only target perch I fish fathead minnows but always carrry and use mousies, spikes or wax worms which can outfish minnows. In the last 3 years minnows have been inferior as bait for perch whereas the bugs have been the ticket. Variety is the spice of fishing!

[optimus140]

The fish could be scared of them. Only if the shiners aren't native to the lake.

I'm a newbie, but in my limited experience I agree with the comment above, and I had to ask around a bit to see which kind of minnow is native to the waters I was fishing, to get the right kind. I have been able to catch perch on jigs with live minnows with limited success. I've also read on these boards some people have good luck jigging just a minnow head sometimes, if they're not biting on the live minnow. i.e. using a swedish pimple with a minnow head, that sort of thing.

[conesuscrab]

Flatheads, emeralds, Rosie reds, spikes and mousies.  Variety is the spice of life!

[Baberuth]

XL golden shiners. Simply the best. The bigger, the better.

[Tmaida17]

I normally mix it up and use both suckers and shiners on my tip ups and have been trying fatheads on rods. I've tried shiners on 4-5 different lakes and not a nibble with shiners. I'm willing to catch whatever is attracted to them . This is my first year ice fishing so I'd like to catch everyone at least once . I'm thinking the shiners are smarter then we think and every time a fish comes by they say " don't eat me its a trap" lol . Last time I went to band shop they were all out of suckers so I had no choice but to get shiners unfortunately.

[thomasthepikehunter]

The only real trick is to just not get stuck in a certain mindset. Shiners are very popular where I fish. There are guys who put every single line, every single time, 2' off the bottom with a shiner. They never change, sometimes they get some, sometimes they don't. I've had some great days when fisherman were reporting a slow bite. I can't say I've ever met someone who was afraid of live suckers, but would readily put down a dead bait, however.

[dabluz]

My favourite minnow is the Northern Red Belly Dace.  It's a beautiful minnow, it's about the hardiest species you can get and fish (especially the trout species) adore them.

I no longer fish with minnows because in my region, it's illegal to fish with bait other than worms or leaches.  Yes....I could use insectes but there is no need to do so up here.

[blizzardfisher]

I have fished places that were so overpopulated with minnows they just weren't getting them! Minnows were coming up in the holes by the bucketful. switched to a smaller luer and a mousy and started getting fish. that's just an experience that I had.

[Tmaida17]

The only real trick is to just not get stuck in a certain mindset. Shiners are very popular where I fish. There are guys who put every single line, every single time, 2' off the bottom with a shiner. They never change, sometimes they get some, sometimes they don't. I've had some great days when fisherman were reporting a slow bite. I can't say I've ever met someone who was afraid of live suckers, but would readily put down a dead bait, however.

I caught a Laker with a dead sucker so they definitely work haha

[loneranger]

I usually fish for perch so fatheads or medium bass minnows don't know where to get suckers even the bait shops are getting scarce around me

[Tmaida17]

I usually fish for perch so fatheads or medium bass minnows don't know where to get suckers even the bait shops are getting scarce around me

Where are you located in NY?

[Trapper906]

The last few years i have been getting away from shinners and going with suckers main reason is they last longer on the hook. Plus most of the time if you unhook them easy you can keep them alive. Fat heads were working good for me this year also picked up a could nice eyes with them on tip ups or just slip bobber rigs in the shack.