odd natural baits

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

dogfish:

We sometimes went fishing with no bait at all and just used what we could find.

Slugs,worms,caddis,grasshoppers,big maggots from under dry cowpats etc.

Surprising what you can find and what fish will eat!

 

DF

hehe proper fishing,sometimes you do have to look back to go forward if you get my meaning,using ol dtechniques and bait,did they used to use grasshoppers for "dapping"

[dogfish]

It was all good fun though. We did not know or care what PB meant.

We even made the odd fire and cooked our catch

Oooops!! a bit un PC there

 

Happy days which I think have made me a better angler today.

Mind you catching the odd fish now and again would do that!!!

 

DF

[Noggin]

Slugs,Slugs,Slugs.

My favourite bait at the moment (mainly because I'm tight and I've got an endless supply in my garden).

I'm catching a lot of tench and carp in close on these fellas. The one downside is the puss and slime that gets on your hands when handling them .When they are too big I cut them to size and you wanna see the innards of a slug, not a pretty sight!!

Needless to say I've stopped eating as much at bankside

 

[ 11. June 2004, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Noggin ]

[Andy Macfarlane]

I've used Waterboatmen, Snails, freshwater Shrimp, allsorts of flying things like Mayflies and Moths...Bes and Wasps even. In fact, I think I've tried everything that moves at one point or another. The Trout love a bit of variety.

[Newt]

The thread title is 'odd natural baits' but I think the key here is that to the fish, anything 'natural they normally see in the water that is good to eat will not be the least bit odd to them.

 

I have good luck on insects after they begin to get active in spring but not much luck in winter when they aren't to be found outside.

 

I have the best luck with lobworms (any worms really) right after a strong rain that will have washed some into the water.

 

As already mentioned above, with this being a year we expect to see huge numbers of cicadas in the Eastern US, they will be a hot 'natural' while they are plentiful. Not only live ones but also lures that mimic them.

 

I fished the Red River in Canada last year for catfish and normally the time of year we were there is excellent for catching cats on the species of frog that is very plentiful in that area. However, it had been a really dry spring and there were almost no frogs to be gathered. The folks who bought them from bait shops noticed they weren't catching much and I'm convinced it's because the fish weren't seeing frogs in the water that year.

 

[ 11. June 2004, 06:17 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

the title was aimed more as natrual baits are ie lobworms or grashoppers,crickets,slugs live fish what WE term as naturals not the fish.thats how ive always seen them?for example sweetcorn is not a natural bait nethier is bread.some "naturals" are not odd_lobworms very common bait-graqsshoppers-not so commonly used.soo i deem them "odd".

 

[ 12. June 2004, 10:00 PM: Message edited by: ratty46 ]

[davidP]

I've used live frogs (platana or clawed frog) for catching catfish in Zimbabwe - horrible to put on the hook but a great bait. A lot of local anglers keep supllies of them in water butts or specially constructed boxes.

 

In the UK I've tried various insects, usually out of desparation and with fairly limited success. If you aren't catching on your usual baits then I don't think you are much more likely to catch on anything else. Having said that I did once catch a few semi-decent rudd on a difficult finicky water using some very soft white insects I found in the numerous cowpats.

 

[ 13. June 2004, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: davidP ]

[Stefan]

davidP:

using some very soft white insects I found in the numerous cowpats.

Good times, good stuff?

[Newt]

Typical results for me yesterday with crickets. I was anchored in 10 feet of water but fairly near shore and had rods out for carp.

 

Things were slow so I broke out an u/l rod rigged for float fishing and put a cricket on. #6 Gamakatsu octopus circle hook since I hate to deep hook bluegills and that is the smallest in that pattern that will easily allow hooking on a cricket. Nothing for about 15 minutes then the float vanished. Nice bluegill. Another cricket and back to the same general location. About 10 minutes for a bite this time. After about 4-5 fish things were to the point that the rig would barely settle in the water before the float went away. Pretty much had to be the cricket parts in the water from greedy fish tearing them up when they bit and creating some nice chum in the water to attract others.

 

After about 45 minutes of this the bite suddenly stopped. That is usually from only one cause - a large pred moved in to see what all the commotion was about and the smaller fish moved away to hide. So a piece of an earlier catch (I always save a couple of smaller fish in case I need some cut bait) on a larger rod and sure enough, catfish of about 5-6 lbs had moved into the area. Once he was caught and released to swim off and sulk, the sunfish started up again.

 

This continued until I finally ran out of the 100 or so crickets I'd brought along.

 

Crickets are much softer bodied than grasshoppers and smaller so they do a nice job of acting as a fish attractor and can be taken by smaller fish. I often bring both crickets and grasshoppers so the softies can come apart to attract fish and the hoppers can get me some larger fish but only crickets yesterday.

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

intresting observations newt,i see your following the seasons in order to catch the chosen fish on a chosen bait(that they natrully prey on)but if that prey is not around you aint gonna catch -true,but with chub over here the best way to catch em is to show em something they've not seen a hook in before the more natrual the better, ie a cricket over a fluro pop super boilie anyday.,i like the fact you clocked that a pred had moved in and you caught him!the season is staring this wednesday,being warm already i think them grasshoppers/crickets are gonna aoount for some good fish,bit lively tho aint they how do you hook them up?

 

[ 14. June 2004, 09:59 PM: Message edited by: ratty46 ]