Live Bait

[Al Agnew]

I did a lot of crawdad fishing for smallmouth when I was a kid. I know I've probably told this story on here before, but I'd ride my bike the mile or so down to the river, park it under the bridge, and spend a bit of time catching my crawdads in the rocks along the bank under the bridge. Then I'd wade downstream to what was, at the time, the most perfect spot to fish live crawdads you'd ever find. Usually the problem with crawdad fishing is that if something doesn't immediately grab them they go and hide under a rock. But in this spot, there were no rocks, just the current coming out of a riffle into about 5-6 feet of water, where there was a huge old sycamore trunk, very slick from being worn by the current for years, with a big limb coming off it to bury itself in the gravel. The trunk and log combined to form an arch through which the current flowed, with deeper water on the downstream side of the arch. Nothing to get hung on, and all you had to do was drop a crawdad on a hook, lightly weighted with a split shot, on the upstream side of the arch and let the current take it through the arch. I'd fish tthat spot at least two or three times a week all summer, keeping every legal bass I caught, and it would still be producing fish in late summer. But the biggest I ever caught from there was 17.5 inches.

Then one day just as I was getting ready to make my first cast into "my" spot, an old guy in a cedar and canvas canoe came through the riffle. He asked me if he could make a cast to that log before I started fishing, and I said sure...after all, what was a 14 year old boy supposed to say to an "elder"? He was using a steel rod, an old Keist reel, one of those that looked like a big wagon wheel, and on the end of his line was a big brown Shannon Twin Spinner tipped with a strip of white pork rind. His cast went over the log at a point just before it emerged from the water to form the top of the arch, back into the pocket below the arch. I can still remember the great swirl as a big fish took the lure just before it reached the log. He horsed it over the log, and fought it for a few seconds before derricking it into the canoe. I waded over and looked down at that fish lying in the bottom of the canoe. It was simply huge. He dug out a set of De-liar scales and hung it on them. It read 4 3/4 pounds.

I'd fished that spot for all those many times with the crawdads without even seeing that fish. It was the beginning of the end of my live bait fishing for smallmouth.

Of course, we used to fish for catfish with minnows and worms, although usually with minnows because the sunfish would nibble off the worms too much. We always tried to find catalpa worms, but we could never find but one or two trees that had worms. We'd also use Wheatie balls, just a small handful of Wheaties dipped in the water and balled up on the hook, for carp. In early spring we'd fish worms in certain areas just below riffles for redhorse suckers. All this was when I was from 10 to 16 or 17 years old. It's amazing now the amount of time I and a couple of buddies spent on the river, fishing for everything we could catch.

A little later I started fishing big live minnows for walleye down on lower Black River. Getting good minnows was almost as much a challenge as catching the fish. There were only a few select creeks in our area that held big stoneroller minnows, called slicks, in the winter, and a number of guys in the area fished with them so there was some competition for the best spots to get minnows, and even some minnow piracy...a couple guys who lived in town kept live boxes with locks on them in a small creek at the edge of town, and once in a while somebody would break the lock and steal their minnows!

I still have a creek spot where I know I can seine some nice walleye minnows in the winter, and occasionally I'll still go get some and spend a winter day on the lower Black. That's about the extent of my live bait fishing these days.

[Smalliebigs]

I never bait fish on rivers and streams for Smallies.....it is lame and there is no reason to if you are worth a crap as a fisherman. I will throw a net for skipjacks and shad on the Mississippi and Missouri for cats but that's it.

Fishing for smallmouth with minnows and crawdads is just to boost your ego and I don't need to do that.

[Smalliebigs]

So do any of you losers, use Hellgrammites anymore? I've been debating about making a hellgrammite lure. I haven't seen any in a while, but people have told be they are as good as it gets for the streams.

Mitch if you are going to Lazer scan one please let me know I will get you some....they are everywhere and yes Smallies will suck them down like crack....the problem is it usually is a small bait that is hard to replicate....that is unless you have the technology you have. Let me know we will go the Big piney and get you some, I would love to see what you could make!!!!! there is a really cool fellow who frequents the Trock forum who makes some that look great.

[Quillback]

It a super fishery for sure. Catfish is another species it's full of to, got friends that go over there and wear them out. Your grandfather was nearly my neighbor, i'm just across the river from Kennett, i'm over there almost daily. I bet he knew about the ST. Francis river flatheads as well....

I don't remember him talking about it much, but I know he ran trotlines every once in a while. When I was a kid gramps would take me down to the river outside of Kennett, we'd tramp through the woods to some waterholes that had been left behind by high water and catch a channel cat or two. I haven't been to Kennett in about 10 years, last time I was there they had really cleaned all of the snags out of the St. Francis. Used to be full of timber outside of Kennett.

[fishinwrench]

http://caseplastics.com/case/index.php

[grand75]

I will be on your lakes 2 weeks in Oct and will fish with your local bait!

[LittleRedFisherman]

I don't remember him talking about it much, but I know he ran trotlines every once in a while. When I was a kid gramps would take me down to the river outside of Kennett, we'd tramp through the woods to some waterholes that had been left behind by high water and catch a channel cat or two. I haven't been to Kennett in about 10 years, last time I was there they had really cleaned all of the snags out of the St. Francis. Used to be full of timber outside of Kennett.

Yeah, about 10 years ago they dug out a 5 mile drift that had developed south of the bridge, and cleaned it out north of it a ways, which needed to be done. There's still plenty of timber in the river south of the bridge, there it's basically still in the old channel. I fish what is called the Arkansas Ditch, although it's not the original channel, it's full of flatheads, lots of trees have toppled in over the past 20 years, good habitat!

[Gavin]

I learned how to fish with live bait, and I'm teaching my girls how to get some and fish with it if they want too...Think their best days have been on small plastics though...They can cast & catch for 5-10 minutes on a small plastic if the spot is good...Live bait requires constant supervision if you are fishing with 4 & 6 year olds. Sometimes they have more fun catching bait...that is good too.

[Ffer]

Very hesitant to respond to this topic. That being said, I don't feel that there is only one way to fish. I love catching fish period. If I can use lures etc (the only way apparently, according to smalliebgs ) then I will use them. But I have and will continue to use live bait in many circumstances. Caught many very large largemouth and smallmouth floating an extra large minnow near their hangouts. Last Wed, I used an unnamed bait on an unnamed river and caught 10 browns and 1 rainbow from 12-16" in a short time, and 1 12 " smallmouth plus an assortment of suckers. ALL fish were hooked in the mouth. And I didn't use circle hooks (which I believe are great for cats but not so much on other fish (for me)). I don't knock fly fishermen for their prefered method of fishing. Yes, I fly fish some too. But to knock anyone for using what they enjoy,whatever that may be, to me is not cool. BTW, I have some of the Case hellgrammites in a couple of colors and sizes. (whoever was looking for them shoot me a PM and I'll throw them in the mail for ya). And good fishing to all,

[bfishn]

Swallowed hooks seems to be the main objection, but in my own experience, I just don't see it. After 40+ years of live-baiting, I'd guess about 1% were swallowed (mostly by sunfish). Straight hooks mostly. I've even caught fish while I was dozed off that were all mouth-hooked.

The efforts and joys of catching bait has gotten the nod from several, but no one has mentioned the less obvious reward (and probably the main reason I enjoy it). After all that work, once you actually get to fishing, it's all downhill. Reach for and rig a bait (seated of course). Deploy it. Repeat as deemed necessary (or legal). Sit back. Dink with the graph. Soak in the surroundings. Have a snack and a drink. Watch the bass boats trying to go somewhere. Take some pictures. Solve the world's problems, then forget them. Ohhhh Sh..... grab that rod!