HI I'm new here and just started fishing fir LMB this year. Grew up a pike and cat guy.

I've been catching 3-4lbs LMB on bass minnows this year. Questions are:

I've had more success hooking thru the lips over hooking thru the back. Any reason?

Also, should golden roaches ( bigger bait ) catch me larger bass or is it just the location that really does it?

Thanks in advance

Mark O.

Welcome aboard!

Hooking minnows through the lips may make them more lively and keep them alive longer. Bigger baits USUALLY mean bigger fish, but the location is still the key.

I fished live bait today, and I do not reccommend fishing shiners and free lining(no bobber/float) Two dink bass swallow the hook before they even ran, I cut the line and let both go, I caught one with the hook in its throat after releasing it. SO hopefully it will survive. This really deters me from bait fishing, since your more likely to gut hook a fish.

Not true.

I fish live bait a lot. Use a circle hook (Gamakatsu #6 Octopus Circle Hook) and you will NEVER gut hook a fish. 95% of the time the hook is in the jaw joint, the other 5% in the roof of the mouth or lower jaw. I can't recall a gut hook in the last 7 years. Both of the smallmouth in my avatar were caught on live shiners and circle hooks.

Whats the best time of the year to start using minnows.

January 1 through December 31.

:

I've been fishing the minnows about 3 ft deep with a bobber and a piece of split.  Haven't had one swallow to the belly.

As usual, Road Runner is correct.

Use a circle hook. They come in various sizes and you should not have any problems with gut hookups.

We use them when using live bream for flathead catfish and have never had any problems with a gut hook.  In fact, all of the hookups are in the corner of the mouth.

I do not use live minnows but I would think that you can catch any size bass, bream, crappie or catfish with any size minnow.

It just depends where you throw the minnow and what fish are swimming by, minding their own business, when they see the minnow.

I have caught large bass on a two-inch Senko and a one-inch grub.

I have caught very small bass on a six-inch Senko and one time I caught a small bream on a crankbait and the crankbait was larger than the bream.

Go figure.

(You can order the two-inch Senkos from Gary's web site. They are being discontinued.  They were made for bass fishing in Japan. They are super!)