bait shop scam? or just poor service/product

[explodingvarmints]

i went to lakeside bait shop on south river road the other afternoon to grab some minnows and was kinda suprised at the outcome. 2 dozen "shiners" that were sooooo small that 3/4 of them would die seconds after putting a hook through their lips! i mean we are talking so super small that a kens hook could not be used! most other minnows i have used this year could have eaten these little things:SHOCKED: . i guess there is a phenomenon happening to all aquatic species in lsc and the surrounding bait shops DINKS, DINKS, DINKS, i mean this is getting so bad that even the minnows are catching 'dinkitis';) . the other thing that bothered me about this situation is that when the guy scanned the sheet of paper with the bar code it came up as "walleye shiners":confused: . believe me when i say that i am no brain surgeon but it kinda seems that walleye shiners would be bigger....... right?:dizzy:
i was in a hurry so i didn't let $6 for maybe 10 fishable shiners bother me at the time, but now it kinda is (most likely because i didn't do very good fish wise.) has anyone else been having a problem with this place and or others.

[CMFish51]

Yeah we have that problem when the full moon is out, which it was this weekend. Hard to bring the minnows to the light when the full moon is out...Not sure on how that works during the hard water season....

WE got 10 bucks worth of minnows at 7:30 PM and by the next morning they were all dead....adn we had two aerators going to em....Thats the third time we have had this problem at this party store in monroe by the state park. All other minnows we get from other suppliers, we don't have this problem....

[Week End Redneck]

Stopped by the bait shop across the street from Beacons Cove for minnows at about 11:00am sunday. Bought 2 dozen shinners and these things where HUGE. Ended up fishing the venetian canal till 3:30pm and no keepers. The perch couldnt even swallow these things. Would have been great out on the lake. oh well

[Luckystrike]

I got minnows across the street from the crocker launch, and from the store down by Metro. I agree, they were great size wise, but they aren't shiners. If you throw and handful of shiners in with them you can tell an immediate difference. The shiners have a black or dark blue back, the minnows at those 2 shops have brown backs. Saturday I had a mini tournament against a buddy of mine. We fished 3 feet apart. He used beautiful shiners from Bluewater Bait and I used the good sized minnows from the 2 shops mentioned. After being down 20 keepers to 1 he finally showed me the difference and gave me some of his minnows. I did much better with the siners. And for the record I crushed him on Sunday.

[ted stehney]

How can I get in on your next tournement Lucky Strike?? Maybe Tuesday afternoon. What was the final count for Sunday??

[jeremy L]

tip for all those "pinhead" minnows you got. get the smallest size jigging spoon, pimples, northland's, etc. and thread the minnow onto one of the shanks on the treble, putting the shank though the mouth and out the back. Works great with a subtle jigging action on perch, makes the minnow apper larger then it is and the minnows don't go to waste.

[Banditto]

Hooked a 50" fat tiger musky on a minnow like the ones you are describing.

I like those tiny minnows for jigging perch.

[Luckystrike]

Ted- I might be up for another challanger come tuesday, the Saginaw Sasquatch isn't all that much competition on perch. We ended up catching a few decent fish, not quite as good as Saturday, but we only fished until noon. There seems to be a ton of walleye around, we saw six of them in four hours.

[neil duffey]

walleye ey? what body of watr...

[ted stehney]

I will bring my stuff to work. If you are available hows 12:30 or so? Standard wager?? Largest walleye pays double.

[steveJ]

Although I do not like fishing with small minnows, I dont think it is the bait shops fault. They can not controll the size of minnows that come in. Usualy when they are smaller they try to give you more because they pay for them in gallons (or mass) instead of quanity. The minnows in the last 2 weeks at all the baitshops around lsc besides, lakeside and geno's (beacause they get them from different bait dealers) have been emerald shiners.
When the minnows are smaller
I personally like to put 2 on the same hook.

[Huntnut]

Went to blue water bait today, asked for "I dunno 3 dozen...enough for the afternoon"....

Got 12 dozen perfect sized crazy alive minnows....so many Im trying to keep them alive till next trip....

[fish eater]

It doesn't matter what size the minnow is as far as it dying. As soon as you hook a minnow through the lips, it's always gonna die within a minute from suffucation. Your closing its airway. I learned a trick from watching Crappies feed on minnows years ago. All fish inhale a minnow or a baitfish headfirst. So I started hooking my minnows through the eyes. Slide the hook into one eyeball, and out through the other side. Everybody has their own little favorite technique, but this has worked great for me. The minnow's mouth is unobstructed, so it can flutter around like Rick James on a hot dose. Plus it's blind, I've sat and watched minnows literally swim right into a Perch or Crappies opening mouth. You gotta use a hook with a barb though. With a barbless hook, I found that the minnows can sometimes slide their way off. I have no problem with the barb keeping the minnow on the hook though. Later.

[Jumbo]

A week back, was at the 10 mi. store, droped $22.00 hard earned bucks for bait and tackle, walked out to my truck to put bucket in back and looked at the minnows, hummmm, I know my eyes are not what they use to be, but they looked rather slim to none, and slim left town, went back in and told ol'buddy boy, there that if he didn't sweeten up the bait, I want my $$$ money back :tdo12: , three more scoops were promtly put in , the CUSTOMER is allways right, we need to get Brenda from the gas dock a winter job, she's got my vote for bait wonce the water gets soft again, he's just as bad as up the road, will drive for bait, just banging on the drum~~><>....Jumbo.! :help:

[salmonslammer]

Lakeside and Pro Fishing, across from the Crocker launch, has about the worst count on minnows.....and some of the highest prices!!!!! I stopped by the new store on SRR at 1pm and they weren't even open!!!

Guess I didn't miss much!!!


I like Beach Way best....They let me get my own minnows :evil: I think its $2 a metric dozen (double it and add 30) :lol:

[fish eater]

Where and what is Beachway?:confused:

[salmonslammer]

Beachway is a party store on the NW corner of shook and jefferson.....next to Carlos pizza....carry minis and most of the hot tackle for LSC..

Only draw back is they don't open till 8am, (I believe) but they were talking about opening earlier on the weekends....I'll check the hours tommorow when I'm down that way tommorow.

Not sure if they let everyone get thier own minnows or not.....I've been doing it for a couple of years.....Gotta BS with them a little...they're good peeps.

[fish eater]

Right on Slammer. Never been in there, but know where it is now. Driven by it million times. I think I'll try and get my minnies outta there next time out. How's the quality of their bait? Thanks.:)