How To 'Minnow' Fish

When I was a young lad of about seven or eight, my friend David and I would often go 'minnow fishing' . Now, I know that doesn't sound exactly right. One is suppose to use minnows and go 'fish fishing', not 'minnow fishing', but nevertheless, this is what we did.
We would find a fairly long stick or tree branch, then find a wasp's nest somewhere. We would use the long stick to dislodge the wasp's nest, wait for the angry, homeless wasps to leave, then pick up the nest. Cruel, I know, but we were adventurous kids. We would then rig up a pole with monofilament or sometimes just a string. To this we would attach a tiny hook, the smallest we could find. We would then take the hook and insert it through a wasp larva and dangle it down in the creek below. Sometimes we would just sit on the side of the creek near a deep spot, sometimes we would sit on top of a roadside culvert and dangle the line about 10 feet down below just for a challenge. We would watch as the minnows would come out from behind a rock, swarm, nibble, bite, then set the hook. Fish on! Yeah !
Ok, so it's not a 3 pound largemouth bass or a catfish, but to the mind and body of a seven year old, it was pure ecstasy! The feel of a large silverside minnow getting hooked on a three foot long pole may have been good practice for a young lad as later years would provide more 'serious' fishing for these same two lads.