Baits

[Vic Tankersley]

What is the craziest Bluegill bait you have ever used or heard of?........Need all post on this one guys because I believe I may have heard them all. Real or Fictional ..we will all enjoy your post, it's Winter Glum Months so hit me with your best shot........

[Dwayne Denison]

dont forget a little vingar for those greens, add some blackeyed peas. I have to stop, I am hungry for grandma's cookin. To heck with the fish, thats some good eatin

[Vic Tankersley]

I think maybe a lot of you guys north of the Masson Dixon Line could become great Southerners..You definantly have southern taste buds.....Keep em coming guys...Now if I could just get Idaho to import some sweet tea and Grits....:LOL

[dick tabbert]

You really done fine till you got to the Grits.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Grits are the stuff of legend, Dick. I get a little anxious when I find I'm running low on them, and I will make a special trip to get some. Cook em half with half water/half milk. And I always include a handful of them when I mix up a batch of ground bait.

My favorite way to eat em is with sausage gravy. But Fat Bacon and Grits - well, that is just some good stuff. Add some sliced tomato and you're done, boy.

And Vic... send me your address and I'll send you some grits.

[dick tabbert]

The sausage gravy part sounds good except on home fry's and onion.

[Dwayne Denison]

I like to mix my grits in with my fried eggs (runny yoke) eggs have to be fried in bacon grease

[Leo Nguyen]

You know, with the bait glue, you can put as much grit onto the single hooks and go crazy catching them fish.

[dick tabbert]

Now here is a man that knows his stuff.

[Mark Stine]

when we were kids sometimes a piece of string on a cut willow pole with a kernal of corn would be my strange bait.  Also any thing that crawls or wiggles when you turn over a rock or log.  I've used all manner of things caught in a seine net, but particularly "soft craws" you can take the meat out of the tail and use it like a piece of shrimp for gills or use the small ones whole, also helgramites, minnows and any bug larva.  Now I keep some kind of "fishbites" or sometning in the tackle box all the time.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

One of my favorite ideas isn't really a bait, per se. It's more of an attractant. It is low cost, environmentally friendly and it is sure-fire where you can apply it.

What you do, first, is find something dead. Road kill is good. Culled chickens are a classic for this, too. But dead things washed up along the water's edge or offal from cleaning a mess of fish will also work. It doesn't matter, really, as long as it was living not long ago.

Next, wrap up your Awful Offal in a loose net material of some kind and secure it in a tree branch a few feet over a secluded fishing spot. Maybe tie it up on a pole you sink into the bottom. Whatever. Just get it a foot or two over the water, preferably in some quiet spot near deep water and with lots of cover.

Now, just let it sit up there. As the days turn and roll on, flies will find it and get to work. Bacteria will soon enjoy the microscopic banquet you've set before them. A little rain and a lot of sun.... and that carcass will go to oozing goo something fierce. Oils and icky drippings will fall in the water and soon the maggots will start to drop.

Baitfish, brim and catfish will be directly attracted to the area, thanks to your "recycling" efforts. Soon, the predator fish will follow all the commotion created by the smaller residents. Fish can't resist something like this, and before long you will have put up a nice honey hole. Of course, you want to visit your bait station often. Every couple of weeks, add more dead stuff to keep the fun going.

WARNING: Make sure this is legal. Some places are kinda restrictive and don't approve of you feeding their fishes. They like things to be sanitary and neat. They could get their nose out of joint over something as creatively uncontrolled as this technique.  So check on that.

Second, where legal, it shouldn't be done in widely used, public places.  Off the beaten path is best. As you can imagine, this thing will soon become, well.... Let's just say that your "gut bait" may be too much for reg'lar folks. They'll get a whiff of it, eventually find it in all it's funky glory - and knock it down. Worse, if they're fishermen, they're liable to figure it out, set up on it and rob your spot.

SO plan accordingly.

[Vic Tankersley]

On the serious side.. I have used serveral things that has not been listed as of yet, like maybe a larve(we call them weed worms, DUH) found in common weeds along the road side..catauba worms...young wasp larve,,,helgamites,,those really hurt....Mayflies or sometimes called Williow flies..I guess a Bluegill will hit just about any thing that wiggles or gives off a smell or stink or in the case of a piece of plaid shirt...Just looks good in water...

 

On the lighter side, My grandfather once said he was out of bait one day and only had his plug of Bloodhound chew with him (you know where this is going don't you) yep he said he cut into little pieces and cast it out onto the water close to the boat, and when the Bluegills came up to spit, he would knock them in the head. If it,s a lie, he told it.HAHAHAH

 

 

[Jimmy Walters]

The old carcass on a limb trick!  Saw it decades ago in the Herter's Professional Guides' Manual.  Thanks for reminding me of it.