A few years ago I was in MN at about this time. We went up there with all this fancy hard/soft plastics and all we ended up using(same thing everybody on the freakin' lake was using, even the guides) were painted jigheads and minnows/shinners.[8D] That's just how it's done up there.

Move a little south and make a run at some bass, Teejay, you might get kicked out of the boat if you're using the live stuff.

...it's just a matter of geographics, guys.