First of all, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with this forum. It's people like you and the other generous folks on here who help make this newly found hobby for me that much more enjoyable as I try to figure out some of the basics that you all have mastered. Many times I was ready to simply give up the entire hobby and then I read some brilliant post on here about technique, location, etc. and I'm reinvigorated. Much obliged.

I have been trying to understand what makes emerald green shiners irresistible to these finicky perch in the western basin. In my limited experience, emeralds catch them exponentially more frequently than goldies or fatheads (or worms or any number of the things I've tried to get them to bite). Clearly they have a preference. So, here are my questions on this topic:

1. Live/dead minnows - you mentioned not freezing dead shiners. Is that because the coloring/reflectiveness of the skin/scales diminishes when the minnow dies or another reason freezing dead ones isn't good?

2. When you thaw frozen minnows for use, do they stay whole or are you cutting them up into chunks to bait your hook? For some reason I am picturing a chunk of head cheese like you see in the deli case and you would only be able to get chunks of mushy minnow parts.

3. Is it the specific coloring of emeralds that make them so appealing to these perch, or is it something else?

4. Back to the live/dead minnow topic, surely we catch fish on dead minnows. They only seem to stay alive for a minute or so after being put on our hooks and dropped 20-50' in the lake, and we get bites well after that minnow has expired. I am reasoning that live minnows still have all of their natural coloring and even movement, albeit that of snack that is impaled with a shiny hook. Or is the attraction because of other factors such as blood in the water? I understand that perch use their senses other than sight, for the most part, to find food. This would tend to make us think that the color/shimmer of the minnow isn't as important but we know that it certainly does. Any insight here?