Where to hook minnow ??

I'm sure this has been asked a gillion times. Where is the best place to hook your minnow? Nose, Back or Tail.
Thanks in advance

JB in WTexas

Nose.

Depends on how you are fishing and what presentation you want. for example, if you are slow trolling, you would hook through the nose to keep the minnow Alive and running through the water correctly. In the winter, when the water is cold and shad are cold or dying, hook dead minnows upside down and let them lay on bottom, so the crappie can pick them up off bottom, just like they do the shad. Behind the dorsal, is primarily cork fishing or anchors down sitting in one spot fishing and relatively shallow, say 10foot or less. Anything deeper than that and I will Nose hook them. I never really tail hooked them, never found a reason I liked to do so, that the other methods didn’t do just as well. But hey, ask Troy king or bush hog...they still use menners...I gave that up 4/5 years ago...I will use them occasionally at nigh, just in case the fish don’t like my Jigs, or to start a feeding frenzy on some tight lipped crappie...but I don’t have minnows on the boat anymore...

Through the bottom lip imo.

I asked Charlie Pak that exact question when I was a teenager. He said “have you ever seen a minnow swim sideways? Hook em’ through the lips “ That advice has stuck with me ever sense.

I used some for the first time a couple days ago. They wouldn't eat them unless they were hooked behind the dorsal fin. I literally reeled in my minnow and took the hook out of his lips and put it through its back and caught a fish 10 seconds later. I was fishing under a cork in 2' of water. The only time I had previously used them was for drifting and I hooked them through the lips then.

I find when I nose them I caught whites but if I dorsal fin them I caught crappie. In many of my spots the two hang together. Grandpa always nosed them.

I go through the nose in brushy areas because they don’t swim as good and less likely to get u hung up and through the tail anywhere else, as far as catching percentage i haven’t found that one is better than the other just my experience

I hook em in the snout. Bottom lip first.

When they are dorsal fin hooked, they struggle as if injured...this will incite strikes when nothing else will, at times.

Interestingly, a real minnow fisherman knows that dead minnows should be removed from the minnow bucket, put in a ziplock and placed on ice as soon as dead. Dead minnows have multiple uses and at times can out catch live ones...just saying, there are many insights that need to be learned to become a successful minnow fisherman.

I like jig fishing these days, although I do honestly believe that three out of every ten trips I make, I could catch more on minnows than on Jigs...also, I could catch more fish another time or two out of ten trips, with fresh dead minnows, aboard the boat for my use....but I just got tired of trying to find a menner store that was open or had some in stock,...plus, I got ahold of better Jigs....plus, I had Laner and Tbox teach me how to effectively fish their jigs...I tried to get carptird to teach me how to fish the Boneheads, but he was always too busy...

What's a minnow ???

Dip the tails in garlic!

Threw me off to Bush hog...I think it's thoes little baby fishies the city folks bring to the lake.... there will probably be a lot of em at the get together...

I like to alternate where we hook them. All spots will catch them. Primarily we hook them from the bottom up thru the top lip or nose, not too deep you will kill them. Sometime that's not working and we will hook shallow in back behind the dorsal. It seems like they like this presentation on the drop and it gets a lot of attention, more than nose hooked because it goes straight down, they do steal more this way though. When we free line minnows we will hook in the vent, or the pooper. This will cause the minnow to swim down and into hungry mouths. Hope this helps you catch more fish.

tail hook

I generally hook through the nose, but if you'll hook the minnow in the white gut pouch right above the anal fin, the minnow will swim upwards. This motion is very, very deadly.

I hook through the nose and my wife hooks the back ..... I usually catch more fish, but sometimes they want the back hooked!
I usually hang a minnow over the side of the boat and hold my jig rod.

yes, if the minnow is big enough with enough meat behind the dorsal fin, the minnow will swim vigorously under water, and any fish around that is even slightly in a feeding mode will nail it.
if that doesnt work, hook them upside down in the belly, they will swim like crazy to try and upright themselves, and swim in a large circle.

if you want to concentrate on larger fish, hook the minnow right thru the center of its head, the thick reddish blood will oooze out slowly and the big fish will bulldog thier way to it, and grab it. if theres big fish there, who cares if he dies, I will srely trade one minnow for one slab crappie!

When I was a kid (50 years ago) we only hooked them behind the dorsal fin. We never heard of hooking them anywhere else.

At this time of year, with the water being as cool as it is and fish are aggressive, I hook them right through the eyes. They don't live as long, but if you're on fish, they don't have to. I'm constantly checking my minnows, and replacing them as needed. A good fresh minnow is candy to a crappie.

Under a bobber with a bare jig, I hook thur the nose. Fishing under the boat two cranks up, I hook them above the eye ball, not thur the eye. thur the eye sockets.

I go through the eyes too but as long as I miss the actual eyes and go through the socket, they tend to live and be lively for a long time.

LOL...well that was what I meant, just my description was lacking accuracy.