Eye, back, etc? What keeps them alive the longest for you?

Through the lips gets my vote.

Thru the chin and up thru the nose.

Through the nose has always worked for me for crappie. I'll hook'em through the tail for catfish though.

IMO, back when I minnow fished, if I was "huntin" with a slip float I would hook up thru the lips but if I was vertical fishing (tight line) timber or brush, I would hook thru the back behind the dorsal fin, careful not to hit the backbone. Now I just toss a jig and don't worry about how to hook the little fishy's.

Why be cruel? Just leave em at the store and leave the hooking for the big crappie at the lakes. Use jigs my friend.

Im not too worried abt him staying alive very long, im not trying to keep him as a pet on my hook, Im hoping a big crappie will nail him before he even gets good and situated on the hook. I like to hook them right thru the top of the head, in the hard part, right thru the brain, you can see the dark spot on top of ther head. This does 2 .things, 1 . it punctures thier blood sac and when you put them in the water, bright red blood will begin seeping out, and any crappie anywhere nearby will nail him. 2. It is the toughest part on the minnow, so the minnow will stay on the hook longer than any other method of hooking him on., so you can catch several fish off one minnow alot of times. A friend of mine saw me hook the minnow this way, and decided to try it, he told me abt a month later that since he started hooking the minnow this way, he has undoubtably caught, bigger, and more crappie. I think the reason for the bigger crappie, is that in most elements of nature there is always a pecking order, and when that bleeding minnow comes down near the school, the bigger crappie bulldog thier way over and eat it before the others can or will.

I recently also learned a new method for hooking minnows while fishing gnarly brushpiles. I was fishing a pile, and there was one spot on it, that kept eating my hooks, but thats where the fish were, if you could get it down thru the brush without getting hung, they nailed it. I took a true turn hook, and hooked the minnow on in the same way that you would hook a plastic worm on with a bass worm, thru, the hard part on the head, then turn the hook, and bury the point into the minnow right at the top of his back. You now have a live, weedless, squirming minnow on your hook that will not get snagged. Deadly on a tough brushpile. When you set the hook, you do have to give it a firm yank, to make the hook turn thru the minnow, and sink into the crappies jaw. Not like setting the hook on a bass, but just a little more than a regular jig set up.

lip

When me Cecil fished RC in the summer time in the timber, we would pull their head off and put it on the jig head like you would a worm and wore them out.

Headless minnow is deadly at JP. My grandpa likes to hook them right behind the dorsal fin.

Hook them right up under thier jaw and then come up stright between thier eyes. Right between thier eyes is a hard shot there (just the same for shad). In the lips - they pull off way, Way, WAY to easy.

But right between thier eyes - it's a hard spot there - and hard to pull off.

Fish them just like you would a jig (and as to keeping them alive - forget about that - more Crappie have been caught on a dead minnow than alive) - it looks better and is better than a jig - dead or alive - just make sure it's fresh dead - they love it,

PS: Forget about a minnow on the back of a jig body, You will do better without the jig body - just minnow/shad hooked like we are talking about,

-I'm in to the lips then up thru the head. +1
Onewolf

I vote lip