Return of the zombie minnows! These 6 tricks will give your dead baitfish a second life

#3  HOPPING & CASTING

Dead minnows rock on Texas and Carolina rigs, as well as on drop-shot rigs, even when you’re throwing them. They also excel when you’re hopping, swimming or skipping a jig horizontally. There’s a good case for using soft-plastics in those scenarios, but if you have a few floaters in the bucket, why crack into a pack of the expensive stuff ? Unlike live minnows that need to be hooked where it won’t kill them, you can push a hook right through a floater’s skull so it holds on better. You’ll still lose more dead minnows than you would lose tougher plastics, though, so check your bait often.