Live Fishing Bait
June 11, 2009 by Daniel Ambrose · Leave a Comment
There are a lot of live fishing baits in this world and they all are broken down into many different categories. For instance, you are not likely to use a one inch minnow as your live bait if you are fishing for sharks in the ocean.
So you see there are some restrictions to what live baits you use and where you use them. Some baits are only available in certain areas or during certain times of the year, while others are simply not useful for one kind of catch, but extremely good for another.
We want to discuss things like minnows, and other baitfish, as well as things like crickets, frogs, toads, leeches and worms, crustaceans, salamanders and all sorts of flying insects.
Minnows are used for numerous reasons. Some minnows are chosen for their size, shape, activeness, sex, flash or color, even taste and smell. With so many decisions its a wonder anglers ever have time to get their bait in the water and this is just the decisions regarding the minnows and we still need to figure out our hook. But we will save that for a different topic.
Lets quickly go over minnows so you can identify them and perhaps even learn why some are chosen for one catch, but not the other. We will now identify the most popular thirteen minnows at your local bait shop.
Minnow Identification:
1) Fatheads, sometimes called mud-minnows or tuffies, have a short first ray on the dorsel fin and live in lakes and rivers throughout most of North America.
2) Creek Chubs look similar to the hornyhead chub, but have smaller scales and a dark spot at the front base of their dorsel fin. A very common stream minnow usually found in eastern North America and thrives in gravel bottom streams east of the rockies in the United States and southern Canada.
3) Bluntnose Minnows are more rounded at the nose than the fathead and have a dark band from the tail to eye and they live in the eastern half of the United States.
4) Horneyhead Chubs, also known as redtail chubs, have a lateral band that extends to the tail and they prefer gravelly streams from Wyoming to New York, south to Arkansas.
We will pause there and pick this up in our next post, so be sure and check back for Live Fishing Bait -Part – 2. I would strongly suggest you bookmark the website, or take this opportunity to sign up for my free RSS feed.
Tips For Fishing Crappies and Other Pan Fish
June 4, 2009 by Daniel Ambrose · Leave a Comment
This article has excerpts from a wonderful book written by that great fisherman Dick Sternberg, titled: Fishing With Live Bait. You will love the fishing for Crappies information in this article.
More Crappies are caught on small baitfish than on all other baits and lures combined. Yellow Perch, White Perch, Rock Bass, Warmouth, White and Yellow Bass, and some species of Sunfish will take minnows.
A variety of baitfish are routinely sold as Crappie Minnows. Fatheads and shiners are the most popular, followed by small dace and chubs. Large Crappies, Yellow Perch and White Bass will take a minnow up to 3-inches in length, but in most cases a 1 1/2 – 2-inch minnow works best. Sunfish usually ignore a minnow longer than 1-inch.
When the shallows warm in the spring, minnows move into quiet bays and sunny shorelines. The Crappies are not far behind. Most shore fishermen use bobbers and minnows, or jig-minnow combinations.
Later in summer, large Crappies move out to deeper cover. They frequently hang around mid-lake rock piles, sunken islands or submerged brush. During the day, they may suspend in deep water away from cover. Most fishermen catch them on slip-bobber rigs or tandem hook rigs fished vertically.
When fishing with minnows for other panfish, anglers often use bobber rigs, split-shot rigs or jig-minnow combinations. Some Crappie fishermen in the South use welding rod rigs in heavy brush to avoid constant snagging.
How to Make a Welding Rod Rig:
#1
Cut an 8-inch piece of welding rod.
#2
Flatten the ends and drill a hole in each end.
#3
Insert a snap at one end and a snap-swivel at the other.
#4
Use a #4 light-wire hook and 20-pound mono.
#5
Hook a small minnow through the back.
#6
Fish with a shorter rod in dense brush.
Stream Trout Fishing Tips
June 1, 2009 by Daniel Ambrose · Leave a Comment
Dick Sternberg is widely recognized as an expert fisherman and outdoor writer and this article has excerpts from his book: Fishing With Live Bait. So you can rest comfortably that these stream and lake trout fishing tips are of great value.
I for one love trout fishing and it really does not matter if they are lake or stream trout as long as they will measure up to my frying pan.
As trout grow larger, they eat fewer insects and crustaceans, and more fish. All trout eat some minnows, but a big brown relies on fish for most of its diet. If minnows are scarce, a brown trout will not hesitate to eat its own kind.
A fisherman using baitfish stands a better chance of hooking a big brown trout than an angler using other live baits or artificial flies. Stream fishermen catch browns on lip-hooked shiners, dace and fatheads weighted with only a small split-shot.
On some mid-western streams, anglers seeking trophy browns still-fish deep pools with 4-to-6 inch sucker fillets. They leave the skin on to keep the fillets on the hook.
Following ice-out, Great Lakes fishermen catch brown trout as large as 25 pounds. Some anglers still-fish or slow-troll with alewives and smelt in shallow bays and near power plants discharges. In summer and fall, browns and rainbows school around Great Lakes piers and tributaries, where they are caught on slip-sinker rigs with alewives.
Sculpins take many trout in western streams. They can be lip-hooked or fished with a double needle hook. Plug-cut herring are widely used for huge rainbows in high-altitude lakes of the west.
How to rig a Sculpin:
Step #1 of 3
Tie 6-pound monofilament line to the clip of a #4 or #6 double needle sculpin hook.
Step #2 of 3
Push the tapered end of the hook into the fishes vent, through the body and out the mouth.
Step #3 of 3
Attach the clip to the hole in the shank to complete the rig. The hook should swing freely on the clip.
Remember to sharpen your hooks.