As I outlined in a recent column, wild creek bait often out-produces store-bought minnows at this time of year, at which time I offered suggestions on collecting and storing such. Now let’s look at how to fish creek minnows.
In my experience, much of what you catch in minnow traps from local creeks tends to be chubs, suckers, and dace in the 3.5- to 5-inch range, significantly larger than the typical “large” store-bought fathead minnows that run a couple inches in length.
When rigged on a leadhead jig — which is a common way of fishing minnows this time of year — larger gamefish such as walleyes have little trouble taking the jig-minnow combo deep enough to be hooked.
However, when fishing a larger minnow on a jig it’s common for a walleye to clamp down on the back half of the bait, missing the hook. This calls for the use of a secondary “stinger” hook to catch these short biters.
Last month during a guide trip, during which we had both fatheads and larger creek bait, my client lost a nice walleye at the boat. Afterwards, I noticed that he’d rigged a large chub on a jig, one without a stinger hook. The walleye was never hooked. It was just holding on to the back half of the minnow and simply opened its mouth when it reached the surface.
In this context, a stinger hook is just a small treble hook (I prefer size 10) tied to a short piece of nylon monofilament or fluorocarbon line. The free end of the line is affixed to the jig; one tine of the treble is then inserted into the back half of the minnow.
There are a couple ways of rigging a stinger hook to a jig. In the case of Northland Tackle’s Fireball jig, a second eyelet (in addition to the standard line tie) is provided to accept the company’s “Sting’R Hook.” It features a small clip for attaching it to the second eyelet. Both 2- and 3-inch Sting’R hooks are available.
I’ve used Fireball jigs and pre-rigged stingers for years with success. But I also employ hand-tied stingers which can be used on any jighead. My hand-tied stingers feature a loop that affixes to the bend of the jighead hook and is easily removed when it comes time to switch jigs, or fish a smaller minnow.
Start off with around eight to 10 inches of 10- or 12-pound text fluorocarbon line. Tie a number 10 treble hook to one end of the line. Thread the tag end of the line through a No. 11 American Fishing Wire leader sleeve, pulling some line through. Then thread the tag end back through the leader sleeve. Now tie (but do not set) an overhand knot in the tag end of the line and work it back, using a fly-tying bodkin, to where it’s against the leader sleeve with about 2.5 to 3 inches of line between the hook and the leader sleeve.
You can now set the overhand knot, which acts as a jam knot, maintaining the loop to which the stinger is attached to the jighead. The loop is opened and closed by sliding the line through the leader sleeve. An excellent video showing all of this can be found on the YouTube channel “Matt—Hot Bite Charters—Sell.”
Stinger hooks can also be used to fish a tandem set of fathead minnows, which gives the profile of a larger minnow. Just hook the first minnow to the jighead in the standard way. Lip-hook the second minnow on one tine of the stinger’s treble hook.
This is a trick I learned many years ago from a Spence Petros article in Fishing Facts magazine.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle
