#1 - Nightcrawlers are among the most popular baits used in freshwater fishing. In fact, the majority of fish like to eat worms making nightcrawlers the perfect bait to catch various types of different fishes either small or big. They are suitable to catch larger fish like the trout, largemouth and smallmouth bass, carp and catfish. To catch smaller fish such as bluegill, rock bass, perch and other panfish you can cut nightcrawlers into smaller pieces.
Nightcrawlers are available at your local bait shop, and even some supermarkets and gas stations carry stocks of this bait. You can look for nightcrawlers yourself at streets after a hard rain during spring and summertime. At this time nightcrawlers are coming out the ground and move across the streets where you can easily pick them up. Dark streets with low curbs and plenty of grass along its sides are the perfect places to find this creature.
#2 - Red worms possess s similar look to the nightcrawlers, but they are a bit smaller in size and skinnier in shape. Red worms are available in most stores or places that sell nightcrawlers too.
Red worms are perfect baits to catch trout, perch, rock bass, bluegill and is most suitable to catch panfish. Due to their small size, a bluegill can take a red worm in their mouth with ease providing you a better chance to set the hook and handling the fish.
#3 - Spikes are a sort of a very tough fly larvae assuming you put them in cold temperature ranging from 34º – 40ºF to avoid them transforming into flies. They are the right ice fishing bait for panfish, although many fishermen use them during the whole year. Some fishermen prefer to use spikes while river fishing for steelheads.
#5 - Wax worms are the wax moth larvae characterized by its white color and very small size, hence much preferred by panfish. They can be tied to small hooks or jigs. Many ice fishermen prefer to use these wax worms since they could be easily tipped with the ice fishing jigs. Wax worms are also good to catch perch, bluegill and crappie.
#6 - Leeches are fantastic baits for many different fish species. They are known to be very tough where you can place them in a container filled with some water and stay alive for several weeks.
They do well in catching bass, northern pike, walleye and panfish. Leeches are the kind of baits which they can not resist especially the free falling leech close to the bass spawning bed.
#7 - Crayfish or crawfish or crawdads, are included in the freshwater crustaceans which are very similar to lobsters. Crayfish are the well accepted bait in game fishing as well as many other species of fishes. However, when planning to use crayfish as bait it is recommended to check your state regulations since there are some restrictions on the use of crayfish as baits.
The reason is that crayfish are considered as invasive species that may affect the ecological aspects of waters. There are actually existing laws that prohibit fishermen to use crayfish as baits and regulates how to transport those crayfish into different waters. If you find such constrain the best thing to do is to look for jigs or crank-baits that may imitate a crayfish.
(ArticlesBase SC #4772511)
