Live Bait Rig Suggestions

[hoglaw]

I almost never fish live bait, except for catfish. I've been struggling with night fishing (bass) on a usually productive lake recently. TrophyFishR helped me install electronics on the little boat I use for this particular electric motor only lake, and it was an eye opening experience.

This lake is absolutely loaded with fish. Massive bass (smallmouth, largemouth, and spots), big blue cats, hybrids, and white bass are the primary suspects. Last Friday we went out and only managed one dink. The last two Friday nights were also slow, but we managed to catch a trophy bass each time. I've tried dragging a football jig on deep points, working magnum worms, top water, swimbaits, and heavy black colorado blade spinnerbaits with pork. On the first trip with electronics, I saw massive schools of bait that would black out the screen from the surface to 20 feet down. I would see streaking fish underneath them indicating that they were hanging out at the bottom of the school and feeding actively. I was not marking many fish on the bottom.

I know I could flutter a spoon, use a drop shot, or swim a grub under these schools but that's never been a method of fishing I've enjoyed very much. My idea for tonight is to try suspending some minnows underneath these schools to see what's feeding on them. I'm pretty good with a casting net, so I'm going to try to catch some bait. I figure these are mostly shad, but they could be the fresh spawns and might not be big enough to use. As an insurance policy I'm thinking about trucking some minnows over there, but it's a long haul in the hot weather and the prospects of keeping bait alive on this trip don't seem very good to me.

Anyway, what's the best way to rig big minnows or shad for this type of fishing? I'm thinking a lighter guage octopus or circle hook through behind the dorsal fin is the best way to hook them, and fish them under a 1/4oz pegged sinker with a two or three foot leader to let them get frisky, and use a slip bobber with a stopper at the appropriate depth to get the just under the school. I know the striper guys use balloons and I'm not quite sure how that works, or how you get the line to slide through the knot while stopping at the stopper.

I would welcome any suggestions. I just want to figure out what's down there feeding on these fish, and possibly hook up with a blue cat or two for grins. As much as I love dragging plastics and jigs, and slow rolling spinnerbaits at night, I'm really struggling with those techniques this summer for some reason.

[gotmuddy]

your not going to catch a minnow with a cast net, they are too fast. try setting a light out. then maybe you can catch some.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I would hook them back toward the tail and let them drag the float around. I wouldn't think you would need a weight. You're probably fighting low O2 and warm water and live bait isn't going to change that. The fish, including the bait fish, are probably confined to certain areas and the larger fish are most likely well fed and not interesting chasing anything.