How many times have you gone fishing for crappies, trout, walleye, sauger, bass or other fish, maybe with a friend, child, grandson or wife, set your big, heavy bait bucket down and found the fish weren’t biting at that spot? You look around and see several places in the vicinity you would like to try. Maybe your friend wants to try one spot, you another. So your friend takes a minnow and goes off a hundred feet to one spot, you pick up the bucket and try another spot. Pretty soon your friend loses his bait and has to walk all the way back and get another minnow. You see two places you want to try, a 30-foot pier and a little cove with a brush pile to your right. To avoid carrying the bucket, you walk out on the pier, cast in, lose your minnow and have to walk back to your main bucket.
If you think about it, you realize that situations occur almost every fishing trip where it would be nice to be free to walk away from, or not have to return too often to your main bait bucket. This is why we invented Quick Minnow. It is a wonderful, fun, easy to use complement to your main bait bucket. It gives you freedom to wander, to explore, to wade a stream or the edge of a lake, to share bait with a friend, child, wife or grandson and, in a boat, to reduce trips to the bait well or bucket. And, if you are in cold weather, you can dispense a minnow with minimal wetting of your hands.
With Quick Minnow you have minnows right at your side. You just tip and bait. No more groping in the bucket for minnows. You don’t have to take the lid off, you don’t lose any water, and you don’t get your hands but minimally wet. It is spill-proof when the nozzle cap is on. No more smelly water in the car trunk or on the boat floor. When you want to submerge it, you just insert the attached nozzle strainer, unhook one side of the detachable nylon strap and let it float in the water where it can keep the bait cool and alive longer.
How to Dispense Minnows Easily and Quickly
It only takes a few tries to get the hang of dispensing minnows from Quick Minnow. Here’s the secret: Fill Quick Minnow only half full or less with water. Tip it down and away from your body in the opposite direction of the nozzle opening (as opposed to toward the nozzle opening). When one or more minnows enter the nozzle, with a wrist action, roll Quick Minnow to the left so the nozzle is pointing down. Raise Quick Minnow up, jiggle back all but one minnow, allow any water in the nozzle to drain back into Quick Minnow’s blue bottle, open the nozzle lid and tap a minnow into your hands. It’s fun and easy. See instruction card inside Quick Minnow.
Quick Minnow is suitable for use in the fall, winter and spring in the south, and practically all year long in cooler climates. (Basically, anytime the weather is 75-80 degrees or less) If you think about it, much of the crappie, trout, walleye, sauger, steelhead and other fishing are done in the fall, winter or spring anyway, so Quick Minnow is ideal to use much of the year. Quick Minnow is not intended for use in hot weather unless you let it float in water that is cooler than the air temperature. Water as warm as the air temperature will not help much. Protect the cap from freezing temps in the winter months.
Quick Minnow is designed to carry two to three dozen small to medium sized minnows. Carry less if hotter, more if real cool or cold. Keep an eye on your bait and change the water as necessary to keep it fresh. There are several ways to change water. You can pour it out the nozzle with the strainer in place. When you do this, it helps to squeeze the bottle gently to force water out around the minnows that gather in the nozzle. Or you can simply unscrew the bottle, hold your hand over the bottle to keep the minnows in, pour the water out through your fingers, and then dip Quick Minnow in the water to refill it. You will find you can dip Quick Minnow in the water to refill it without losing minnows. Kenna and I most often dip Quick Minnow to refill it when we are fishing.
Tips to extend minnow life
Add a pinch or two of Bait Saver, Shiner Life or other granular additive to keep minnows alive for a much, much longer period of time. Bait Saver is inexpensive. A small pack or bottle of it will last you a long time. Try it, and like us, you will grow to love it. On an early September day, I was fishing for small bass near my home in Pittsburgh, PA. I had 30 medium- sized fathead minnows in Quick Minnow. The temperature was 80 degrees when I started fishing. By putting Bait Saver in Quick Minnow and by changing the water two or three times, the minnows stayed alive for four hours, by which time I had caught 20 bass and used up all the minnows.
When moving between fishing spots, fill Quick Minnow completely full of water, then reduce the water level to about half, or slightly less, when you get to the next fishing spot and begin to regularly use minnows. If in your boat where you may have ice handy, put some ice cubes in Quick Minnow to keep the water cooler. With the strainer in place, dangle Quick Minnow over the side of the boat, or from your belt if wading, so it is in contact with water. If the water is cooler than the air, letting Quick Minnow float in the water helps a lot to keep minnows alive.
Quick Minnow’s blue nozzle cap is designed for thousands of openings and closings without breaking or wearing out. Kenna and I have used our Quick Minnows for two years without having a nozzle cap break or malfunction. The main thing is not to hit the nozzle cap sideways while it is open. To prevent this from accidentally happening, close the nozzle lid before storing Quick Minnow in your vehicle or boat. If your cap or any other part is damaged or lost, you can order replacement parts from us.