What Do You Guys Use For LiveBait And How Do You Catch It?

[divemaster99]

Youre bait could be used to catch the bait that I will use to catch the bait Id ultimately use....

Nothing beats a bonita or small tuna for MONSTER pelagics and jacks!

Is that a small fish joke?! lol

I do catch fish much bigger than I'd use worms for, Lake Char, Esox, Carp/Buffalo, etc. but usually only use artificials for them casting, jigging, or trolling lures and fly fishing.

 

[Bryan Crownover]

I occasionally trap live minnows at a stream near my house. Look for choke points when the water level drops in the summer, where your trap is almost as wide or as wide as the channel and face the entrance of the trap upstream. I'll use large chubs I get for Northern or Muskie.
I also use panfish or suckers I catch to work up to large predators. Use those as cutbait or on a quickstrike rig on a large float and keep in mind that they count towards your daily bag limit.
My favorite live or cutbait though is shad. If shad run near you, invest in a cast net. Shad will destroy any other livebait during a run, especially for catfish. You can't keep your bait bucket full enough with those.

 

[Bryan Crownover]

As far as live bait, nothing is better for me than a nightcrawler. Either whole or a section fished in a variety of methods. Works for just about every species. When I use live fish for bait, I usually just take my seine with me and grab a few of whatever the most abundant species I find is. Hooked through the lips on a size 8-12 hook works well in most cases.

Night crawlers are my go to. I bank fish 3 poles per person in my party and two of those will be baited with one to 3 whole crawlers while the 3rd gets chopped northern sucker or something like that. I've seen Pike and Bowfin taken on crawlers rarely.

 

[markstrimaran]

I have a minnow trap, and a back porch minnow tank.

 

[PatrickMW36]

Bait trap and tie on a sack of oatmeal with liquid stink bait wrapped in pantyhose

 

[Wailua Boy]

Bait trap and tie on a sack of oatmeal with liquid stink bait wrapped in pantyhose

Cool, i have never heard of using oatmeal. In my region we occasionally use pumpkin to attract a prized bait fish .

 

[Wailua Boy]

Cool, i have never heard of using oatmeal. In my region we occasionally use pumpkin to attract a prized bait .