I’ve been watching IDO videos all morning and I see James and Calvin tipping Slender Spoons with minnow heads. What kind of minnows are they using and do you just cut the heads off and discard the body or cut a minnow up into 3rds and use everything?
“fatheads” are what most go with but this can differ between lakes. Hook the minnow up through the jaw coming out nose or skull. Then pinch minnow off just behind the gills.
I will sometimes drop the rest of the body down the hole to attract fish or if I am getting short on bait save it to finish the day.
I have had fish cough up headless minnows so they do work as chum…
I didn’t seethe show yet, but another option is plastics. 1″ gulp minnow or wedges work well
After I pinch off the head, I throw the carcass on the ice so my dogs can enjoy sushi!
I hook the fathead through the middle of the head, and cut body off king sure to let guts of the minnow stay attched.
Sorry, always have to throw my 2 cents in on this one. Very clear that most anglers when fishing minnows on a spoon…usually with a treble hook use the head of the minnow. I prefer to use the tail…based on same experience I have had for many years. I usually break the minnow in half with my thumbnail and put the head portion on one hook and tail portion on the other. When I get a fish to hit the spoon and I miss them….99% of the time it is the tail portion of the minnow that is missing….So if I decide to put on one half of the minnow on the spoon it is always the tail….for whatever that is worth…Good luck and be safe..
fatheads for eyes. typically use just about 3/8 of the minnow head/body.
Like mentioned earlier, I will use the minnow head pinching just behind the gill plate. If the fish are not eating the head as bait then I will use the tail portion of the left over minnow as a different action on the spoon. Sometimes it works. Trying different bait combos may turn a slow day into a great day.
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Sorry, always have to throw my 2 cents in on this one. Very clear that most anglers when fishing minnows on a spoon…usually with a treble hook use the head of the minnow. I prefer to use the tail…based on same experience I have had for many years. I usually break the minnow in half with my thumbnail and put the head portion on one hook and tail portion on the other. When I get a fish to hit the spoon and I miss them….99% of the time it is the tail portion of the minnow that is missing….So if I decide to put on one half of the minnow on the spoon it is always the tail….for whatever that is worth…Good luck and be safe..
That’s because the tail is easier to pull off of the hook
New to ice fishing. I noticed the Slender spoons come in 1/8, 1/4 and 5/16 oz. Do you tip on any of these, or is one better to use if tipping with a minnow? I ask because the profile of the 1/4oz appears to be much longer than the 1/8th and 5/16th on the Custom Jigs and Spin site, so it must be thinner/different than the other two (so there must be a reason for that).
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