Posts Tagged ‘live bait’
Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
If you plan on going live bait fishing on a regular basis for crappie it is a good idea to stock your tackle box with only the tackle you will need to make your crappie live bait fishing rigs.If you plan on only fishing crappie minnows than your tackle box may be quite small. But if plan on tipping artificial crappie jigs and spinners then you’re your tackle box and size will be much bigger.
To start with if you plan on fishing for crappie with a live bait such as small fathead crappie minnows. To fish with crappie minnows you will need a nice assortment of crappie Aberdeen gold hooks ranging in size from number 4 through number 1. Have at least 10 of each on hand. If you plan on fishing larger crappie minnows such as shiners then you will need 1/0 to 2/0 Aberdeen gold hooks. Again keep a minimum of 10 each on hand.
You will need a variety of crappie fishing bobbers that are designed to fish at a certain depth. You will need small fixed depth bobbers, I use a Styrofoam bobber that slides on your line and then you put a small wooden stick at the top of the bobber to keep the line from sliding through. You can move the bobber up and down the line you need to remove the stick first, then replace it once you are at your desired depth.
Or if you are fishing suspended crappies at deeper depths you will need an assortment of slip bobbers. Slip bobbers come in a assortment of different sizes and shapes. One of my favorite types for suspended crappie is a pencil shaped slip bobber. Make sure you size your slip bobber to the size of the live bait you plan on fishing with, and the sinker size you intend to use. If you are fishing deep water you will need more weight to get you bait down to the desired depth quickly. As a result you will need a larger slip bobber. You want your slip bobber to just barely stay afloat with your live bait and sinker attached so you you can notice the very slightest of crappie hits. You also do not want the crappies to feel any line resistance when they take your live bait presentation.
If you plan on fishing for crappies with any crappie jigs that you plan on tipping with live bait then you will need at least a selection different plain jigs in various sizes, from 1/64 ounce to 1/16 ounce. Have at least a quantity of 5 each of the different sizes. You will be able to cast the smaller jigs if you add a bobber.
You also will need to keep a spool of 4 to 8 pound test line in your tackle box for situations were you are fishing with ultra light crappie fishing tackle. You should also have a spool of 15lb test line in case you find an area to fish heavy brush or weed cover. It better to bend your Aberdeen hooks then break your line in these situations. A good quick fishing knot to use when you are crappie fishing is the Palomar knot. And this knot works well for any test line you will use.
Another very useful piece of crappie fishing tackle that works great for brushy or thick weed areas is the safety pin spinner and you should have a t least an assortment of 5 each in your tackle box. They are easy to use and assemble directly your existing crappie jigs. They not only ad some flash to your crappie live bait presentation but they also make your crappie fishing rig weedless. The safety pin spinner bait is also a good way to get the crappies attention on a slow fishing day. Remove any plastic from your jig and slide on a fathead crappie minnow and let the spinner bait do its work.
Well that concludes my article about crappie jigs. Have a great day!
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Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
Click Here To See Old School Walleye Fishing Secrets From 12 Backcountry Walleye Masters!
The walleye fishing jig is always thought of first when we discuss artificial baits that work well to catch walleyes. There are multiple ways to tip walleye jigs with live bait. We will talk about some of the best live baits to use in combination with walleye jigs in our article today. Walleye jigs are so universal because they can be fished so many different ways. You can cast your walleye jigs tipped with live bait or without from a anchored or drifting boat. You can jig vertically while drifting with the wind or current, or troll very slowly, bouncing your walleye jig tipped with live bait off the bottom.
You can tip a jig with a live walleye minnow which works great in the early spring or fall months by pushing the hook through the lips starting at the bottom lip and push the hook up through the top lip so the barb of the hook is pointing towards you. If you want to keep your walleye minnows on the hook longer hook them through the eye socket. The most secure way to hook your walleye minnows is is to push the hook of a plain jig with no plastics, through the mouth and up through back with the barb pointing towards you when you are finished. Unfortunately this normally kills the minnow but if you are jigging for walleye you will be replacing your live bait on a regular basis anyway.
If you want some really good action use a ribbon leech as live bait on your walleye jig and get ready to catch some nice walleye. Make sure you use a plain walleye jig with no plastic when you hook the ribbon leach. The best way to hook a ribbon leech is to push the barb of your walleye hook through the sucker end of the leech so the barb id pointing upward when finished.
The most common and widely used live bait fished on a plain walleye jig is the nightcrawler. There a multiple ways to hook a nightcrawler and they all work well. You can hook them through the head of the night crawler about one half of an inch down. Make sure the tip of the barb is pointing upward when you are done. You can hook night crawlers on a walleye jig right through the middle. Make sure you use at least two crawlers when you use this method.
Another live bait that is used in combination with a walleye jig is a waterdog, which is a salamander larva. You want to hook waterdogs through the lips with the hook on the walleye jig, then you want to add a stringer hook set with a treble hook to your jig and push one of the hooks all the way through the tail of the water dog leaving the other two hooks exposed
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Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
When people think of fishing for crappie their first impression is that the majority of crappies are caught with crappie fishing jigs. But actually the majority of crappie are caught either with a complete live bait presentation or artificial bait tipped with some type of living bait. The most important type of crappie live bait that most fisherman use is some type of crappie minnow such as golden shiners, and flathead minnows. Both of these crappie minnow types are raised by the millions in fish farms through out the United States and sold at nearly all bait shops and bait dealers.
But there are still many fisherman that catch their own wild crappie minnows at the locations they intend to fish. The most common wild crappie minnows that fisherman catch on a regular basis for live bait are the bluntnose minnow,blacknose dace,creek chubs,hornyhead chubs,red shinners, and mud minnows. These fisherman use minnow seines, nets and minnow traps to catch their live bait.
The most hardy live bait fish and small gold fish like fathead minnows, mud minnows, and small gold fish will stay alive for long periods of time if the bait container they are stored in is aerated and they are kept cool. Then there are moderately hardy living bait fish like baby bluegills, creek chubs, horney head chubs, southern redbelly dace, blacknose dace, and bluntnose minnows. Then there are the fragile crappie baits that fisherman use that need to be caught and fished with almost immediately and they are the emerald shiner, small gizzard shad, threadfin shad and spotted shiners.
If you are primarily a crappie jig fisherman here’s a good fishing tip when the crappies have absolutely turned off. Sometimes you can get crappies turn back on with a simple trick. go to your the most likely spot that should be producing crappie. Put about 1/2 dozen crappie minnows in a glass jar filled with water with the lid on tie a retrieve line on and lower the jar right next to the likely structure. wait about 15 minutes and tip your favorite crappie jig with a live minnow and start jigging right next to were your lowered the live bait minnow.
Well that concludes my article about blacknose dace,bluntnose minnows. Have a great day and the the best of luck to you on your next fishing trip
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The crappie is one of the most sought after gamefish from both beginner and expert fisherman and goes by many aliases such as calico bass,speckled bass,white perch,pole crappie,strawberry bass, and papermouth. The paper mouth feed on a variety of different food sources but their primary food chain includes small crappie bait fish such as fathead minnows, small aquatic insects, such as damselfly larva,or dragon fly larva, and crustaceans such as small crayfish. The speckled bass will be close by if you can locate one of these food choices they are feeding on and then imitate your bait fishing crappie bait to match as natural as possible. The closer you can match your crappie bait fishing selection to there natural food source the better luck you will have.
Pole Crappie will feed on a variety of bait fish through out the year. The species of bait fish that the calico bass feed on depends on a variety of different factors such as the season of the year and the area of the country you are fishing. For example if you are bait fishing for speckled bass in a farm pond in the spring and early summer you would probably use small sunfish fry to fish as a live bait or a artificial bait presentation. Small sunfish fry are typically abundant in farm ponds at the time of your and white perch love to feed on them when they are available. Or for example for example if you were fishing in southern waters and the area of water you are fishing on has large populations of threadfin or gizzard shad then you would locate the shad schools to go bait fishing for crappie.
Strawberry Bass are opportunists and will adapt to the food source that is available to them. For example if there is a new hatch of mayfly larva in the water that you are fishing a good bait fishing selection would be live mayflies or a mayfly larva imitation because chance are any crappie or other game fish in the area will feeding on the mayfly larva.
Know most fisherman think to use crustaceans for crappie bait but the truth be told small crustaceans such as small crayfish under 2″ in length make a large portion of the crappies daily diet. Another bait fish that is seldom used for white perch are small goldfish and when traditional bait fish selection are not working sometimes fishing with small gold fish will be the answer. Unlike other non traditional crappie baits such as threadfin and gizzard shad that need to be caught in the wild, goldfish are sold at just about any bait shop throughout the united states.
I have had a great time writing this article we hope you enjoyed our information about Small Gold Fish. We wish you the best of luck on your next fishing trip!
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If you want to get serious about crappie fishing and you want to catch a lot of crappie on a consistent basis then you need to have excellent crappie fishing rigs. The most common crappie fishing rig you will need to have and you will use it quite often are fishing rigs set of to catch crappie with different crappie jig presentations. You can use crappie jigs with our without live bait but sooner or later there will be a need to use a combination of artificial crappie baits combined with some type of live bait. The most common of these combinations being a crappie jig striped of any plastics combined with a live crappie minnow.
Your next step is to decide on what crappie jig you will want to use. To choose the correct crappie jig with depend on a some key factors that pertain directly to the local waters you intend to fish in. Your crappie fishing rig will change depending on what the local food source is for the crappie population you are targeting and also the season you are fishing in. To put it all together you need to do some research as to what exactly the crappies are eating on a regular basis, then you can make your crappie fishing rig selection based on this information. For example I had of this great farm pond that not many people fish in and that there was talk that this pond was full of crappie. Well the first thing I would do when arriving at the pond Is look very close at the type of bait fish I see swimming the shallows. Ok Its spring time and I notice there are just hundreds of small bluegill fry swimming around , bingo! I am going to try to match my crappie baits to look like the small bluegill fry. Actually if you had a minnow net with you The ideal bait would be to use a small crappie jig with a safety pin spinner tipped with small crappie fry. Well anyway the key here is you need to as they say “match the hatch” to be successful. I Think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results if you can design your crappie fishing rig to “match the hatch” so to speak.
There will be a trial and error period and some practice to identify on what to match the hatch with. One very effective way to see if your crappie bait selection is going to be effective is keep trying different presentations until you catch tow or three crappies and then go ahead and clean them , but be careful to open up their gut to see what exactly they are eating. In my example above I did exactly that. I got lucky and hit on the right combination right away and when I caught my first three crappie within minutes I checked to see what they were eating sure enough they were feeding heavy on the small bluegill fry. This technique will work on any crappie waters you intend to fish. Don’t make the mistake and not use this important tip because it can be very powerful information on you next crappie fishing trip to this area.
One more important note when you are matching the hatch. Size and color are very important. If you are going to say fish only artificial jigs you need to match the size and coloration of the hatch. In my example above I chose a jig head that had a color similar to the color of the bluegill fry and the size was a 1/ 32 ounce jig size because the bluegill fry were very small. The safety pin spinner was used because the pound was weedy and the water was a bit discolored so I wanted my crappie fishing rig to have some flash so the crappie could see it, and hear the vibrations.
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Fishing with crappie minnows is the most accepted way of fishing for both black crappie and white crappie throughout the united states. You can take your children out for a fishing outing with just a simple fishing rig such a inexpensive cane pole with small bobber split shot sinker and a hook to catch crappie. Or you can become a skilled crappie angler and target large slab crappie. In both of these examples the use of live bait such as crappie minnows is an important part of crappie fishing. In our article today we will discuss crappie minnow rigging methods.
Crappie minnows as a live bait presentation can be fished in many ways such as under a bobber at a fixed depth, tight line with no weight, just a hook and a minnow, trolled tipped on a crappie jig, casted and retrieved tipped with crappie minnows on spinner baits to name just a few. There are so many ways to catch crappie I could not mention them all. You would think these great tasting table fair would get fished out but that is not true, because these fish populate and grow very quickly. My point is that crappies plain and simple love crappie minnows and it will bite on just about any live bait presentation you put in front of them if you use the right presentation at the right time.
There are some crappie fishing basics you need to understand even for the simplest of live bait fishing used to catch crappie.
#1 Hook selection for crappie fishing.
You want to select a light gauge wire hook with a long shank such as a gold Aberdeen hook. The hook size will depend on the size of the crappie minnows you are using for live bait. For small to medium crappie minnows the hook sizes range would be from a number 4 to a number 1 hook. If you are more experienced and you are going after the elusive slab crappie you will need to use large crappie minnows so your hook selection will increase in size to between a number 1/0 to 2/0 hook.
#2 How to hook crappie minnows.
Now that you have selected your hook size it is time to rig your crappie minnow. You are probably think this is so trivial but rigging a minnow correctly can make the difference between catching crappie or going home empty handed. You want to hook your crappie minnow live bait presentation so it looks as natural to the fishes environment as possible. The most common and excellent way to hook your crappie minnow is by pushing the hook up through the lower lip through the upper lip so the barb of the hook is pointing at you when you are finished. This method works great for fishing under a bobber or while you are drifting or trolling.
I have had a great time writing this article we hope you enjoyed our information about live bait presentation. Have a great day!
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If you plan on fishing for walleyes using nightcrawlers as live bait there are a number of walleye fishing rigs you can use. We will concentrate on how to use, and what spinner baits tipped with nightcrawlers to use in this article. If you are fishing walleye waters that are stained or muddy using a spinner bait tipped with at least 2 nightcrawlers at all times is a very good choice.
Some of the most common spinner baits used for walleye fishing are listed below. Weight forward spinners are used for easy casting. When using this spinner bait, tip all hooks on this spinner with at least 2 nightcrawlers. Other spinners that work great for walleye are a mono line spinner with blades. These spinners are great for trolling over weed beds. You can get them in single or double hook harnesses. Make sure that you use at least 2 nightcrawlers with these spinners. Also when you use a multiple hook harness make sure when you hook your crawler, that you leave some slack in the night crawlers between hook 1 and two. Sliding spring spinners are great if you need to change hooks quickly. June bug spinners are a single hook spinner and hooked with two nightcrawlers makes a excellent walleye bait. Floater spinner multiple hook nightcrawler harnesses are great when drifting over shallow weeds. Extended arm spinners keep the hook away from brush when you are fishing thick brush areas and are great to use in flooded overflow areas.
The most fasinating aspect of the spinner bait that draws the attention of all game fish is the vibraction factor. For example if you are fishing spinners tipped with nightcrawlers in stained or muddy water with poor visibility you want to have spinners that give of allot of vibration. If you are fishing in clear water its just the opposite walleye prefer spinners with much less vibration. The amount of vibration depends on the style and size of the blade you are using. For example if you were fishing clear water use small willowleaf blade because they give off much less vibration then say a large Colorado blade. Not all blades are created equal. A Colorado blade has a 50deg pitch which gives off the most vibration. The next spinner blade is a Indiana blade that has a 40 degree pitch and gives off the second most vibration. The willowleaf blade has a 25 deg pitch and gives off the next least vibration and is the best choice for clear water.
Walleye spinners that are tipped with nightcrawlers and have a Colorado blade to create more vibration work best in low clarity water or at night. Walleyes have what is called a lateral line sense that can detect vibrations. In the late spring fish spinners with Colorado blades at a slow speed baited with at least 2 nightcrawlers.
In the summer use a willow leaf blade tipped with at least 2 nightcrawlers. To fish for walleyes using spinner baits troll or drift along breaklines. You can also drift and troll nightcrawlers over weed tops. The spinner blade works as a weed guard when trolling or drifting over weed beds tipped with nightcrawlers.
I have had a great time writing this article we hope you enjoyed our information about nightcrawler harness. We wish you the best of luck on your next fishing trip!
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If you want to be a successful live bait fisherman you need to understand the gamefish food pyramid. All kind of bait that is used for fishing that is natural to a game fishes environment has it’s set place in the food pyramid and all live baits from the top of the pyramid to the bottom depend on each other to survive.
For example for there to be an abundance of of say largemouth bass there would be need to be a abundance of plankton which is at the bottom of the food chain. You are probably wondering why. Well in order for a body of water to hold a good population of large mouth bass there needs to be a good of bait fish for the large mouth bass to feed on. Well live bait such as bait fish need to have a abundance of zooplankton, which feed on phytoplankton. Well I think you get the picture.
Actually there is some what of pecking order for the food pyramid. The pecking ordered is arranged by the number of pounds at each level of the pyramid. The lower the number of poundage the higher the live bait item is listed in the food pyramid. If one of these poundage number somehow gets out of whack, the whole food pyramid will suffer. The gamefish at the top of the pyramid need the live bait species of the bottom of the pyramid to survive. All species need to be be linked in harmony for the food pyramid to work efficiently.
For example for any food pyramid to have say 10lbs of a combination largemouth bass,pike, and walleye which would be at the very top of the pyramid there would need to be 100 lbs of small gamefish to feed on such as bluegill,yellow perch,small bass,small pike, and small walleye. The small gamefish would need to have 1,000 lbs of live bait such as bait fish. The baitfish could be made up a variety of live bait such as bluntnose minnows,shad,fathead minnows,rosy red minnows,creek chub,hornyhead chubs,blacknose dace,golden shiner,goldfish,white sucker, and madtoms or willowcats. These bait fish would need to have 10,000 lbs of zooplankton, and the zooplankton would have to have 100,00 lbs of phytoplankton. You can see know how those very large gamefish need the smallest of live baits to survive.
I have had a great time writing this article we hope you enjoyed our information about Live Bait. Have a great day and the the best of luck to you on your next fishing trip
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Our article today is dedicated those fisherman who love to fish with live bait. This article is also useful to you artificial bait lovers who know when the fishing gets tough you need to tip your artificial baits with some type of the live form. Anglers who are dedicated to fishing with live baits have a large selection of baits to choose from such as leeches, crayfish, scuds, freshwater shrimp, saltwater shrimp, mud shrimp and ghost shrimp. Other live bait selections that can be used to target various gamefish also include waterdogs, spring lizards, mudpuppies, leopard frogs, green frogs and bullfrogs.
Also when you are talking about live bait selections you can’t forget insects. Insects are a staple part of all gamefishes daily diet. These insects aquatic insects such as may flies, stone flies, caddis flies,crane flies, dragon flies. and dobson flies ( hellgrammites). They also include terrestrial adult insect types such as crickets and grasshoppers as well as larva forms of catalpa worms, waxworms, goldenrod grubs, mousees, spikes, euro larvae, and meal worms.
Now we have to mention nightcrawler and other worm types as live bait because they are as close as you can get to a universal live bait for all species of freshwater fish as you can get. They will catch any fish from common bluegill to the elusive sturgeon. Nightcrawlers have amazing fish appeal but there are some important reasons they are so popular. They are a very easy bait to find and a very easy bait to catch or raise if you are a interested in saving a few bucks,or just want fresh bait readily available.
Also we can’t forget about the many species of bait fish that are use for live bait. Freshwater Anglers use bait fish to catch small 6 inch freshwater panfish such as bluegills or yellow perch on up to large sturgeon. Saltwater anglers use bait fish to catch marlin,sailfish and Spanish mackerel just to name a few. Most all saltwater predator gamefish can be caught using a combination of some type of bait fish such as freshwater fathead minnows (tuffie, mudminnow), rosey red minnow, bluntnose minnow, creek chub, horneyhead chub (redtail), blacknose dace, redbelly dace (rainbow), golden shiner, emerald shinner, spottail shiner, common shiner, red shinner, goldfish, white sucker, madtom (willow cat), sculpin (bullhead, muddler), shad, skipjack herring, cisco (lake herring, tullibee), smelt, killfish, bluegill or sunfish, yellow perch, American eel, and freshwater shrimp. The saltwater bait fish used for live bait and cut bait include skipjack herring, mackerel, smelt , mullet, mussel, saltwater shrimp, squid and tuna.
Well that concludes my article about three way swivel rig. Have a great day!
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Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
Many fisherman know that many times just using simple live bait fishing rigs is not enough. One of the best methods to make your live baits look more enticing to the game fish you are targeting is by using a spinner live bait fishing rig combination. Whe you are fishing stained or low visibility waters the combination of a spinner with live bait vibrating through the water gets game fish in the area excited.
The flash of a blade in combination with vibrations will sometimes help catch fish when it seems like they have “turned off”. A spinner bait live bait fishing rig combo will also help you catch fish if there is an abundance of bait fish in the area. Many times game fish in this situation will only feed for short periods of the day so you need something more to get their attention.
You can fish what is called a safety – pin spinner fishing rig or a jig with an added safety pin spinner to work weedy cover. The safety – pin spinner arm protects the hook on the jig from constantly getting fouled up with weeds.
You can purchase purchase many different spinner fishing rigs designed specifically to be fished tipped with live bait but many fisherman would rather design their own. You can make your own spinner fishing rigs easily by threading a clevis and a few beads on the line in front of the hook. or tip a weight forward spinner bait with live bait such as nightcrawlers or bait fish.
Spinner live bait combos are used to catch such game fish as walleyes,smallmouth bass,northern pike,muskies,crappies,sunfish,trout and salmon. The types of hooks and sinkers used with the spinner bait fishing rigs depends on the size of the fish you are targeting and what type of cover you are fishing in.
Well that concludes my article about bait fish. Have a great day and the the best of luck to you on your next fishing trip
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