Whatcha know, or whatcha use or whatcha your favorite?
Thought this would be a fun thread while passing the time for the new up and coming deer hunting season. I hope that many here will hopefully participate and share your secret and/or go to bait for certain types of fish, and/or whatever you deem to be important in order to increase your success or lesson the odds for the day while getting your pole wet?
_______________________________________
Growing up on the largest finger lake in N.Y., Oneida Lake, as a kid, and not born with a silver spoon in my mount or two nickels to rub together in my pocket, my brothers and I would go on the hunt for live fishing bait regularly, so we could go fishing and/or often would sell our collection to other fisherman that came into the area looking for any fishing bait.
Such as, but not limited too;
My mother would take us boys often to the local cemeteries at night with a flashlight in one hand and coffee tin can in the other, right after a nice heavy rain to go nightcrawler huntin. Those cemeteries were great for hunting down nightcrawlers let me tell ya. We would catch them by the thousands at a time and would set up the very next day in front of our home to sell most of them to the weekend fisherman. Of course, the only way of marketing them back then was to post a large sign you made up and placed it out at the main road on a utility pole, just off the Northshore, State Route 49, and another one nailed down on our boat dock, stating either ‘LIVE BAIT’ or ‘WORMS FOR SALE’ with a big arrow pointing right to our home. Often however, most were sold through word of mouth and usually pulled up to our boat dock asking for them before heading out to their favorite spot on the lake for the day.
Just to mention if by change you didn't know, another down and dirty way of getting worms real quick anytime and pretty much anywhere, is to take a 5 gallon bucket with lukewarm water and a small amount of regular liquid dishwashing soap, mix it up pretty good and then poor it over some decent shaded grassy area, and wait for them to rise up out of the ground. That mixture alone would suffocate any worms below ground level if they do not surface rather quickly for air, then grab what you need. Rinse them off afterwards in clean water. That trick alone would usually cover my entire day of fishing in like 10 minutes of work. Of course, you would want to also, dilute the soapy grassy area with more water if you do not want to burn up that grass and have someone really, really pissed off atcha
It will burn up in the direct all day sun & heat...
On any given weekend, we’d make a killin, usually selling most of the nightcrawlers for about $1 dollar/100 or $4 bucks/500. That would cover for any new fishing gear and/or fishing tackle and/or fuel for the boat for us back in the day after a month of sales.
My grandfather created and operated his own bait shop business when I was just a little toddler and he too taught me a whole lot about fishing, and I'm just thankful that I had the pleasure and opportunity to fish with him often back in the day. He was a wise man that shared all his fishing secrets with me.
___________________________________________
Anyhow, I would like to hear from all of you, what’s your secret or go to for fishing bait, whether you use live or artificial bait, lurers, jigs, spinners or whatever. Please share with all of us, and any of the details with regards to your fishing rod setups, along with whatever type weather, wind & water conditions most preferred for your choosing, and finally, what specifically you’re fishing for with regards to your bait selection plus rod setup.
Again, I hope most here will participate, so perhaps some can learn and potentially make their day when they hit the water with a fishing rod in hand.
___________________________________________
Finally, I never used Cicadas before because I never seen them before until I lived here in the beautiful Buckeye State. I just took this photograph of one that is on my pickup truck tire moments ago and I immediately thought about using him for fishing bait. First, are they legal to use for fishing and, anyone know by chance if there're any good for it? I would imagine so cause grasshoppers or carpenter bees work absolutely great for most any kind of bass with just a light line and a decent hook set through the body of them while floating on the water surface in calm waters. I've landed some of my biggest bass catches in moments, almost as soon as the bait hit the water, by doing just that over the years. Hope someone can chime in and let me know, thanks! I haven't really looked into it on-line and thought someone here could let me know.
_____________________________________________'
BTW, I looked briefly for a thread much like this one I just created that covers specifically this information, and I really didn’t see one exactly like it, but if there is one, then please disregard, and kindly delete this, if by chance there is in fact one already created. Appreciate it, @bowhunter1023 or @Jackalope !
Thought this would be a fun thread while passing the time for the new up and coming deer hunting season. I hope that many here will hopefully participate and share your secret and/or go to bait for certain types of fish, and/or whatever you deem to be important in order to increase your success or lesson the odds for the day while getting your pole wet?
_______________________________________
Growing up on the largest finger lake in N.Y., Oneida Lake, as a kid, and not born with a silver spoon in my mount or two nickels to rub together in my pocket, my brothers and I would go on the hunt for live fishing bait regularly, so we could go fishing and/or often would sell our collection to other fisherman that came into the area looking for any fishing bait.
Such as, but not limited too;
- Nightcrawlers
- Earth Worms
- Leaches
- Grubs
- Grasshoppers
- Carpenter Bees
- Caterpillars
- Spiders
- Snails
- Frogs
- Salamanders
- Small Snakes or Baby Snakes
- Soft crawls
- All kinds of Minnows & Creek Chubs
- Larger fish caught on fishing line for larger fish to be caught, such as Blue Gil, Sunfish, Carp, & Small Yellow Belly Bullheads for Large Catfish or Northern, Muskellunge or Pickerel Pike
My mother would take us boys often to the local cemeteries at night with a flashlight in one hand and coffee tin can in the other, right after a nice heavy rain to go nightcrawler huntin. Those cemeteries were great for hunting down nightcrawlers let me tell ya. We would catch them by the thousands at a time and would set up the very next day in front of our home to sell most of them to the weekend fisherman. Of course, the only way of marketing them back then was to post a large sign you made up and placed it out at the main road on a utility pole, just off the Northshore, State Route 49, and another one nailed down on our boat dock, stating either ‘LIVE BAIT’ or ‘WORMS FOR SALE’ with a big arrow pointing right to our home. Often however, most were sold through word of mouth and usually pulled up to our boat dock asking for them before heading out to their favorite spot on the lake for the day.
Just to mention if by change you didn't know, another down and dirty way of getting worms real quick anytime and pretty much anywhere, is to take a 5 gallon bucket with lukewarm water and a small amount of regular liquid dishwashing soap, mix it up pretty good and then poor it over some decent shaded grassy area, and wait for them to rise up out of the ground. That mixture alone would suffocate any worms below ground level if they do not surface rather quickly for air, then grab what you need. Rinse them off afterwards in clean water. That trick alone would usually cover my entire day of fishing in like 10 minutes of work. Of course, you would want to also, dilute the soapy grassy area with more water if you do not want to burn up that grass and have someone really, really pissed off atcha
It will burn up in the direct all day sun & heat...On any given weekend, we’d make a killin, usually selling most of the nightcrawlers for about $1 dollar/100 or $4 bucks/500. That would cover for any new fishing gear and/or fishing tackle and/or fuel for the boat for us back in the day after a month of sales.
My grandfather created and operated his own bait shop business when I was just a little toddler and he too taught me a whole lot about fishing, and I'm just thankful that I had the pleasure and opportunity to fish with him often back in the day. He was a wise man that shared all his fishing secrets with me.
___________________________________________
Anyhow, I would like to hear from all of you, what’s your secret or go to for fishing bait, whether you use live or artificial bait, lurers, jigs, spinners or whatever. Please share with all of us, and any of the details with regards to your fishing rod setups, along with whatever type weather, wind & water conditions most preferred for your choosing, and finally, what specifically you’re fishing for with regards to your bait selection plus rod setup.
Again, I hope most here will participate, so perhaps some can learn and potentially make their day when they hit the water with a fishing rod in hand.
___________________________________________
Finally, I never used Cicadas before because I never seen them before until I lived here in the beautiful Buckeye State. I just took this photograph of one that is on my pickup truck tire moments ago and I immediately thought about using him for fishing bait. First, are they legal to use for fishing and, anyone know by chance if there're any good for it? I would imagine so cause grasshoppers or carpenter bees work absolutely great for most any kind of bass with just a light line and a decent hook set through the body of them while floating on the water surface in calm waters. I've landed some of my biggest bass catches in moments, almost as soon as the bait hit the water, by doing just that over the years. Hope someone can chime in and let me know, thanks! I haven't really looked into it on-line and thought someone here could let me know.
_____________________________________________'
BTW, I looked briefly for a thread much like this one I just created that covers specifically this information, and I really didn’t see one exactly like it, but if there is one, then please disregard, and kindly delete this, if by chance there is in fact one already created. Appreciate it, @bowhunter1023 or @Jackalope !
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