I’m pretty green when it comes to fishing with live bait….store here has “bass minnows” and “crappie minnows”. Is there a difference in the two aside from size (and price).

Usually sorted by size. Bass minners are bigger

And where do Shiners and Shad fit in?

Ruffles”crappie minnows “ stay on the hook and live longer. I only buy shiners if that’s all they got when crappie fishing

Crappie and bass will both eat shiners. Shad are gonna be too big for crappie to eat and usually hard to find

I’ve heard of tuffies and fatheads but I never heard of ruffles. I’m down in central AL though so I’m sure there’s plenty of different bait fish I don’t know about up north.

In Florida bass minnows are gold in color and 6-12” long. And cost about a buck a piece 30 years ago when I bass fished

😂Tuffies

👍🏽👍🏽

Ruffles would be ideal if you were fishing for a big gal tho 🤣

Theys tuffys an shiners most places..theys some other kinds but they kinda far and few between..i aint ever heard anybody call somethin from a store bass or crappie..which is purty weird for me…now commonly..your typical bass minner..is your threadfin shad..2-6in..and them gets happened upon or chased down with a cast net..but they are crappie minners too..k in n my experience…bass and crappie either one..eat whatever aint nailed down and fits in their mouth..an even some stuff that aint..but more times than not..it is relative to size and how big the void in their belly is

Brad they are $25 a dozen now for wild shiners. Crazy

Tuffies and fathead is the same minnow.

There's a nostalgic place in Orange Springs Fl called " Howards Wild River Shiners " It's a series of pools behind a convenience store in "downtown" Orange Springs.
This is the go to place for large Wild Shiners in the Rodman area. You must call the afternoon before and casually reserve. Pick up between 6 - 8 am the next morning.
Even a dozen requires a pretty large well and good water condition. You will get a mix of sizes if he has them. He's been out there for 30+ years. Rodman is awesome.

When I was bass fishing I put a pretty substantial holding tank in my garage and could keep a pile of them alive. I had which of places we kept chummed up and castnetted them ourselves

About 5 years ago our tuffies starting coming half orange and half regular. I have seen times crappie wouldn’t touch a shiner but hit a tuffy every time. Another bad thing about shiner you can’t bounce them off bridge pile ons etc.

If I cant get tuffies I dont go. Shiners just not tough enough especially in warm water. I can keep them alive in my bucket just fine but they dont make it long once on the hook.

I actually prefer small shiners when the air and water isn't too hot and the water is fairly clear. I've seen Crappie prefer shiners at times and toughies other times. Toughies definitely live up to their name though. My son and I caught about 35 on shiners last night. We kept 22. If we thought they were close to needing measureing they went back. Guys fishing nearby with toughies only caught a few. I don't know if it was a location thing because they said there was fish on the graph and i know the whole area was thick with baitfish.

You YOUNG Grasshoppas'.....put out a couple minner traps in a Branch and catch Some "Horned Head" Minners from 2" to 6" and You've got th' entire Minner World in YO BUCKET!! And they are TUFFFF!!!!

I know a guy who went to buy bass shiner’s in the 90s around oakachobee and no one had any. He found out about a pond full but the guy wouldn’t let them catch any for bait. 30 minutes later he wrote a check for the entire property the pond was on. Talking about some expensive shiners.

Dang sure is. Branch minners will stay alive on a set pile all night in the river. But that don’t happen often cause they usually get bit. Which that being said, I’ve caught 40lb blue cats on jigs off of crappie minnows. Now it may have had a 7” crappie on it and that catfish ate the crappie. But it’s happens a couple times

Was y’all using green light? Hope to try couple nights next week down river in unfamiliar water. My usual bridge is only about 10 ft at its deepest.

Yes, green strip light around the gunnel.

I put these under pontoon 6 years ago and only used one time. Lord willing going to try them some next week. The edge of the lights are just outside of the pontoons so should be able to drop straight down into the zone.I’m afraid can’t get boat under bridge wanting to fish however.

We caught 22 last night down river using a green light and jigs. I caught one black crappie that was 16” long. We fished till about 4 am

That looks like it should work great. The edge of the light is where you want to drop a line anyway. When I submerge a light I fish mostly off of the opposite side of the boat.