It happens this time of year.

You need to have an aerator, and if your still having issues, I would add ice to help the water carry oxygen, BUT if you do add ice then you need to use some form of water treatment... Please Release me is a great product that will help keep the fish a live and will treat the water to remove the chlorine from the ice. You wont want to change water, since its treated, and the Please Release me will also help with removing the ammonia that will build up.

We have been doing this for years on the Bass fishing side, and the minnows are no different. (that's why you get blue water from the bait shop) Just have to be a little easy on the ice, so your not shocking the minnows.

My wife and daughter use the minnows the most. I will still use them though. I'll throw one line out with a minnow and work a road runner with another. I have an aerator and an old tin minnow bucket (my grandfathers, the kind you only see in antique shops or a Cracker Barrel wall). Batteries had died on me. I didn't even think about the shock. My wife has an aquarium and she does the something similar to what Jim Sr said when she buys new fish. We usually fish shallow, bank or dock fishing, so depth isn't our issue. I'm inclined to think it was the shock.

Since we usually bank or dock fish does anyone use jigs with a bobber? How would you work/present it? How often would you change jigs?

Thanks for all the help/advice.

Thermocline has set in on most lakes meaning oxygen is in the top 15 ft or less of water. If you're dropping those minnows down about 20+ ft, you may be going below the available oxygen. Minnows will die in about 10 minutes or less. There won't be any fish at that level either.
And what Mo said could be the problem also.

i'm 66 and just found out about slip corks on TFF...what a gr8 thang 2 use...corse, 2 dang hot 2 fish now...ben 2 LBJ the past 2 weeks and can't ketch a dang perch...pityful