“Chuck Byrd Investigates the Mister Mino for Catching Freshwater and Saltwater Fish”

Part 1: The Mister Mino Outfishes Live Minnows

Editor’s Note: Chuck Byrd, president of Mister Twister (a division of Sheldon’s, Inc.) in Minden, Louisiana, is an avid fisherman and recently conducted field tests on the Mister Mino, a new Mister Twister lure. Byrd and other fishermen have had phenomenal results using the Mister Mino. This week, Byrd will tell us how to fish the Mister Mino, and why it was created.

Question: Chuck, you just returned from crappie fishing the first of August. Tell us what happened.

Byrd: I called a friend of mine, Maurice Jackson, down at Toledo Bend on the Louisiana/Texas border. I asked Maurice if he knew anyone who had located a number of crappie. He said that Tinker Hewitt had found a good population of crappie. So, I set up a trip and met with Hewitt the next morning around 6:00 am to go crappie fishing. Hewitt had live minnows, and I brought my tackle box with several 2-inch Mister Minos.

Question: What’s a Mister Mino?

Byrd: The Mister Mino, a new bait Mister Twister introduced this year, is a hollow-bodied shad minnow designed and hand-painted with 3D eyes. These baits look 100% real.

Question: What happened when you started fishing for crappie?

Byrd: Hewitt fished with his live minnows, and I fished with my Mister Minos.

Question: Initially, how did you rig the Mister Mino?

Byrd: I rigged the Mister Mino the same way Hewitt rigged his minnows because he was the guide. He had a weight 6-inches up the line and a hook on the bottom and fished his live minnows in 25 or 30 feet of water, which was deep for crappie fishing. We fished on brush piles by letting our baits down into them to catch crappie holding really tight to the brush. Fishermen prefer to fish tight lines for the most success on Toledo Bend. We discovered that the crappie weren’t holding on the sides of brush like we’d hoped. Instead, the crappie were holding in the heart of the brush – the thickest part of the brush and the hardest place to get minnows in and out without getting hung-up.

We had to work our minnows through that brush. Because we got hung-up quite a bit and missed a lot of fish, I decided to try something different. I took a snap-on 1/4-ounce weight, like the ones most bass fishermen use when they’re fishing a drop-shot rig. I put the weight on the bottom end of the line and tied a crappie hook on up the line 1-1/2-feet from the sinker on the end of the line, which created a tight-line, drop-shot rig just like bass fishermen use.

Question: Where did you hook the Mister Mino?

Byrd: I hooked my Mister Mino through the back in the same place you’d hook a live minnow. I noticed that my guide was looking at me out of the corner of his eye trying to figure out what in the heck I was doing. He watched me create the whole rig and then watched as I let the Mister Mino down into that brush pile. With the weight on the bottom of my line instead of the hook, I could let my weight down until I felt the brush pile. Then I could work that weight through the brush and get my Mister Mino down in the brush where the crappie were feeding. I started catching tons of crappie.

Finally, my guide said, “Chuck, let me see what you’re doing.” I showed him the drop-shot rig I’d created to fish for crappie. Then he asked what kind of rubber minnow I was using. I told him it was the new Mister Mino, and I gave him a few samples. When he saw that bait, he told me, “I’ve never seen an artificial crappie bait that looks like this.” I explained to him that no one else had either. The entire time we talked I steadily put crappie into the boat just about every time I let my bait down by working it through that brush pile.

We both learned that when I got hung-up in the brush pile, I quickly and easily could un-hang without any problem because my weight was below my hook. The lead at the bottom of the line helped get the hook loose from the wood when it got stuck. So, I didn’t have to re-tie my hook and line nearly as often as my guide did. I caught tons of crappie. I’d never previously fished with a weight on the bottom like this. I discovered that with the weight on the bottom of my line instead of above the hook, I really could catch more fish and get hung-up less and un-hung quicker.

Rigged like this, I could get through the brush to find and catch crappie deep down in the cover that I wasn’t able to catch with the bait rigged the other way. Too, I hooked the minnow in the tail and then rigged it like you’d rig a jig – running the hook through the body of the Mister Mino and bringing it out the top of the bait. I learned that it didn’t really matter how I rigged the Mister Mino, the crappie would take it.

Question: Chuck, if someone can’t find the Mister Mino in his local tackle store, can he visit your website to purchase the Mister Mino?

Byrd: Yes, go to www.mistertwister.com. We’re having a special on the Mister Mino online right now.