Why are minnows better early season than leeches and crawlers and the later better after July? I have always wondered!

Supposedly, early in the year, "minnows" are scarce. Later, after various forage species spawn and hatch,there are plenty of "minnows" so the minnow on your hook gets ignored. That's what I've heard anyway. Not sure I believe it.

Another possible reason is that in really cold water leeches ball up on your hook and don't swim effectively.

Greg i think minnows are the most (available) forage species at that time of year, it happens in the fall also with minnows also, once the water warms up you have alot more invertebrates coming up from the bottom along with other prey and fish will start targeting them, and since your leech is usually in the area that this new forage is coming from, it makes it a very effective bait, and once the water cools down to a temp thats intolerable for the invertebrate species, your leech doesnt like hanging out either, it wants to curl into a ball, and the funny thing about fish is, even though its still a leech when its in a ball it doesnt look natural to fish and will turn them off, when weve fished together sometimes it make a difference if you adjust the angel of your jig a sixteenth of an inch, the stupid fish wont notice one way or another but trust me the big ones do..

Minnows are the first of three that are found after ice-out I'm sure that the fish are conditioned to that fact and are actively looking for them over leeches and crawlers.

Maybe the reason that people use them more often in the spring is because they are easier to keep alive in the cooler weather. Leeches become more popular in the summer because of their durability. just a theory

Ahhh, the old "match the hatch" again.

I agree with BassPro - it's a season thing. Izzy