Fishing With Live and Prepared Baits

Live Bait

Fishing with live bait is widely thought to be the most effective way to catch fish. I disagree, but that could be due to the fact that I'm a lousy fisherman. There are a few different choices with which you can fish.

• Worms, nightcrawlers and red worms. I find that nightcrawlers work better than skinny little red worms, but I understand that red worms do a number on trout . Crawlers can be used for panfish of all types, bass , catfish , perch , and walleye . Northerns will take them but only when you are fishing for panfish, it seems like.


• Leeches. Leeches are one of the great walleye baits, when fishing from a boat. I don't know how effective they are for other species, but walleyes love them.


• Waxworms. Waxworms are used mostly for ice fishing, best as I can tell. I haven't used them in winter, but I have never had luck with them during other seasons either. Still, they sell them, so they must catch something.


• Catalpa worms. These are caterpillars, not worms. I don't think they sell them, but lots of people in the south collect them for panfishing, as they are supposedly one of the great baits for bluegill , crappie , etc. Again, I haven't used them, but Melissa's dad used them when he was a kid and says they work great.

So ends the list of invertebrates. Of course there are others, most notably grasshoppers and crickets for topwater bass fishing, but these are the major baits.

As for vertebrate bait, there are several choices. I don't like using vertebrates for bait. I especially have a problem using frogs, since they are declining worldwide. However, here are the common vertebrates used for bait:

• Minnows. Usually shiners of some sort, minnows are great bait. The only time I use minnows though is when ice fishing, when they'll catch walleye , northern , and perch (at least in ND). When ice fishing they are usually hooked through the back on a jighead ; when casting and retrieving they are usually hooked through the mouth on a jig.


• Frogs. Frogs are a fairly common bait for catfish bass elsewhere. I don't like it and I think that it should be illegal. But that's just my opinion.


• Suckers. If you are fishing big channel cats on the Red River of the North, you use suckers. In many waters they are not legal because if they escape and become established, they eat the eggs of most other fish. But I'm told that they are the way to go when river fishing big cats.


• Other fish. Especially in salt water fishing, other fish are used as bait. I have heard of people using live bluegill for bass , live perch for northern, etc., but it varies as to legality from state to state.

Prepared Baits

There are lots of different kinds of prepared baits.

• Cheese baits. These are doughy baits used for catfishing .


• Stink baits/blood baits. Often homemade, these involve cheese, blood, brains, and other niceties left in the sun to go rancid and then slopped on the hook. Not for the faint of heart, but people who have secret recipes will guard them with their lives. Again, these are for big catfish .


• chicken liver. Not really prepared, but not really live. Again for catfish . This is what Eric caught his big cats on in the Red River. The bad thing about them is they don't stay on the hook that well.


• Pork rinds. These are for largemouth bass . They are usually cut into shapes, like frogs or crawdads, and colored .they are sold in jars. You rig it on a bass jig . I've never used them, but I'm told they work pretty well.



• Salmon eggs. Sometimes dyed, sometimes flavored, these are used for trout , a major egg predator on salmon. Since I've never fished for trout I've never used them, but they seem to be effective. Fly fishermen use beads and puffs of fuzz to simulate salmon eggs, too.


• Dough balls. These are for carp fishing. I've never caught carp, but I'm told that the fight is phenomenal, though eating them is to be avoided.


• Corn. Again for carp. The usual method is to broadcast corn into your fishing spot on the river for a few days before fishing, which attracts the carp. Then when you toss in your hook with a hunk of corn on it, they expect it, and you better hold on.

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