small minnows

[1shooter]

What's up with the small minnows??? I've been going to the Canada side of LOTW for 10 years now and the resort's minnows are always small! I even noticed once at a local bait shop there was a sign stating something about small minnows.

What's the deal?

[Jazzy]

The Rainy River district has been hit hard by storms the last 3-4 years. There was the mini tornado in 2001, the big flood in 2002, extremely low water in 2003 and then this year there was a huge rain/snow storm in May. Many of the beaver ponds have been washed away more then once and some of the smaller minnow "lakes" were dry last year. Add that to the increase in activity and greater demand and you get minnow ponds that are over stressed (similar to over fishing a lake for walleyes.) That would be part of the reason you might be getting a lot of small minnows in that area.

If you're a bait harvester and you don't grade your minnows to leave some of the small minnows behind, you can kill your lakes very easily. Some harvesters bring in everything so they can try to keep up with the demand.

You can get some nice minnows, but they aren't easy to find and you can expect them to cost more because you get less in a bulk batch (buying and selling by the gallon) than you do when they are small.

I reccommend fishing with medium to small minnows anyway because there is less chance of the fish to bite off half your minnow before it gets to the hook. However, the majority of people are married to the idea of big minnows equaling big fish. A lot of guides hate big minnows so that should tell you something.

[1shooter]

If I wanted to pay more for larger minnows where could I buy them? We cross in Baudette and fish out of Morson.

[1shooter]

If I wanted to pay more for larger minnows where could I buy them? We cross in Baudette and fish out of Morson.

[Jazzy]

Leave me your email and I'll get in touch with you that way.

[1shooter]

curtmain@yahoo.com