“Catching Bass, Walleye, Northern Pike, Crappie and Muskie with Greg Haut”

Part 5: Mister Mino is Mister Crappie

Editor’s Note: Greg Haut of Waukesha, Wisconsin, tournament bass fisherman, also guides in central Wisconsin for bass, walleye, northern pike, crappie and the occasional muskie. “I guide for any species my clients want to catch,” Haut says.

Question: Greg, I know you get tired of catching bass, walleye and northern pike. What do you use when you fish for crappie?

Haut: I use the Mister Twister Mister Mino because it has a hollow body that falls really slowly. I like to fish it on 6-pound-test line with a split shot and a bobber. I prefer the bobber-stopper-type float. With this rig, the line runs through the hollow center of the bobber, and a little piece of line ties onto your main line. When your bait reaches the depth you want to fish, the line stops falling through the hole in the bobber and stops at the precise depth you want to fish.

This way, you can cast out away from the boat and fish deeper than the length of your rod. Eight inches above my hook, I put a very-small split shot to get the Mister Mino down to the fish. If the crappie don’t take the Mister Mino on the fall, I slowly twitch the rod, which causes the bait to jump up and fall back in the water. This also moves the Mister Mino forward. You have to be careful fishing the Mister Mino because it will catch any kind of fish. The first time I fished the Mister Mino, I caught a 20-inch catfish as well as a limit of crappie. On another day when I went crappie fishing, we must have gotten into a school of catfish because we caught cats on every cast.

Question: What kind of crappie hook do you use with the Mister Mino?

Haut: I like the No. 6 Tru-Turn hook because it has just enough gap for me to twist the Mister Mino head the way I want it.

Question: Around what type of structure do you fish?

Haut: I usually fish around submerged trees. During spawning season, I’ll fish the gravel flats where the crappie tend to spawn. I’ve caught quite a few 13- to 13-1/2-inch-long crappie in the middle of April in 3 feet of water.

Question: What color Mister Mino do you like best?

Haut: I prefer the natural color. I got some of the first samples of the Mister Mino, and at that time, they hadn’t yet named the color. Since I started using the Mister Mino, I’ve caught more than 100-keeper crappie with it.

Question: What do your customers say when you pull out the artificial minnows to catch crappie?

Haut: The first customer I took out when I tested the Mister Mino got upset with me. I’d bought a bucket of live minnows for him to fish and decided I would exclusively fish with the Mister Mino. I started catching crappie with the Mister Mino. The client didn’t see the bait I used, but he noticed I wasn’t dipping a new minnow every time I caught a fish. Finally, I told him I was fishing with the new Mister Mino. He was really impressed and wanted some of my Mister Minos. Well, I’d only received a few to test, so I only shared two with him. As soon as they were on the dealer shelf, I’m sure he purchased plenty of those baits. Most of my customers are shocked with the number of crappie we catch fishing the Mister Mino.

On another trip, after a customer and I had caught our limit of crappie, the customer said, “Let’s go try this Mister Mino on smallmouth.” I said, “Okay.” So, I rigged the Mister Mino on a drop-shot rig, and it worked really well. We caught 2- to 3-pound smallmouth with the Mister Mino. Within one week of fishing with the first batch of Mister Minos I received, I called my contact at Mister Twister and said, “You have to make a bigger version of this bait.” They recently marketed bigger-sized Mister Minos, and I look forward to using them as swim baits for bass.

I’ve used the little Mister Minos as trailers on my chatter baits. I didn’t really mean to tell you that because this is one of the most-deadly baits for bass. I take the skirt off my chatter bait and replace it with the Mister Mino. This bait is really productive and has helped me win tournaments. The chatter bait gets the attention of the bass, and when they see the Mister Mino swimming along right behind it, they have gobble it up.

To fish with Greg Haut, call (262) 385-2245, email greg@thehautdoors.com, or visit www.thehautdoors.com.