OK live bait users.Here is your chance .Please tell us how you aquire your bait.

Personally I can't spend much time catching bait and will not pay the prices asked at bait shops.

If you have a cool secret you can feel free to whisper it right here.I promise I won't tell.

I'd have to say that small gil's is probably the most common af all the live bait's used & most of the time fairly easy to catch with just a redworm or piece of nightcrawler on a small hook...You can catch your first gil then bait up your rod for cat's...Then continue catching the gils as your waiting for that WHOPPER of a cat...

Thanks printman but I fish a combination of trotlines bank poles and pole and line, usually all at once, so I need all or almost all my bait at once.
I would like a lesiurely day of fishing so I could use your method.

Just a thought, Ask your local bait shop or shops to save their dead shiners and minnows for you.... Supply them with the bags and a little something for their time and maybe you can get an easy supply of bait.... Catman

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Catman767

If people concentrated on the important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing rods.

I don't know about your local laws, but I have in the past gotten a good mess of shad or shiners with a cast net... Bait up a likely area with dry dog food, come back a little while later and take a shot with the cast net... You should be able to get enough for todays fishing and some left over to freeze... Catman

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Catman767

If people concentrated on the important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing rods.

Sounds like a great tip Catman.

Thanks

I make a run down to the crick, use my sang net ta catch minners and crawdads. Big ole crawdad makes good bait too fer trot lines. Cut bait, too. Takin some real small bream and usin em works good. I make my own minner traps outta a milk jug, ya'll do that too?

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Take a youngun fishin!

No I don't...But please elaborate on the minnow trap....
I find this intresting....

Well...
Ya need a funnel, like a regualr plactic motor oil funnel (bigger the better) and a milk jug. Take the milk jug, and poke alot of holes all in the bottom with a nail (i use 20d)
This is so water can flow thru freely. Take the funnel, and cut the small part off so that debris and junk doesn't stop it up. Cut it off to the point where the funnel will fit tightly into the milk jug, maybe 2 inches below where it fits into the milk jug. Silicone and glue ( flooring glue is excellent for this) the funnel and jug together (allow 2 or 3 days for it to set up good). Then, with yer nail again, make 2 holes in the side of the jug, and run some 20 er 30 lb test line (fishin line takes along time to rot) thru both sides. This will let you tie the jug to some kind of anchor. I just use about 5-1" nuts on either side, or some heavy lead sinkers.

Don't be a goober and use it in a white water raftin river....but in small creeks with a ton of minners..it works great. Best of all...it's cheap!

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Take a youngun fishin!

I tried about the same thing with 2 liter soda bottles. Cut the top funnel part out of one and the bottom out of another.Put the funnel part inside the one with the bottom cut out.I just stapled them together. I caught a crawdad with it.
I baited it with a slice of bread.

I tried it in 2 holes that I knew held some minnows.I don't know that any other trap would have worked better but a umbrella minnow net does fairly good in each hole.

Including Tips of cheap ways to do it. Kinda my best dave letterman top ten list stlye

1: Overcrowded farm ponds have lots of very small panfish.
Normally I can get a dozen very small panfish in twenty minutes with a 1/64 ounce jig. Still the best baits for pole and line will always be locally grown fish where you are going. printman31 got that right on,

2:Goldfish at the petstore are legal here and rather cheap as long as you don't get the funky looking ones. I don't do this myself to expensive.

3:Grow your own nightcrawlers Well just go ahead and pick them up off the sidewalk when it rains. (justwanna no it will still cost you a small cooler or a coffee can So save up or have a BYOB party and a cooler normally gets left behind.

4: Make friends with someone in a nice place to eat. We get shrimp raw for free a couple times a spring/summer when they are doing specials or something gets left to long to cook. Normally a fancier resturant has more expensive tastes and wallets and you get the better class of Nasty catfish bait. Liver patte rocks! Normally you need to get to know the cook to get the good bad stuff.

5on't be afraid to try the old just about anything will catch catfish rule. Hot dogs in WD-40 sauce, Ivory soap, Night crawlers, Crawfish, Dough balls all have their place and time.

6: Check out others Peoples Ice boxes for leftover goodies likes open for a year and still half full caviar, cheese that cost LOTs AND NOBODY LIKED THAT CAME 3 YEARS AGO in a X-mas present, see rule 3 above for limits. See that friend from work for a beer and see if he has some catfish bait in the fridge.

7: Try the old cheese bait or dough ball route, Normally rule 2 or 4 will give you a small headstart but a box of Post toasties is $1.50 and then there is goverment cheese (Justwanano sounds like we think around the same the best cheese bait we ever made was in college with a big block of goverment cheese left in a roomamtes dorm refridge.

8: Buy a Catalpa tree. Use what you can and barter for the rest of your bait needs.

9: Go to the old swampy area (Everybody has that old swampy place around) and walk around without shoes or pants. Pick off all those leeches for free.

10: Try the old cast net at a local stream or lake edge.

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All you really need is worms hooks and time.

Jmarriott




You know , we have 6 catalpa trees in the yard and I've never seen a catalpa worm on them.

You forgot fat head minnows bought by the pound.

I tried pork liver once and didn't catch anything??????????

I like the BYOB party idea.

The best bait was......

I must say I am sorry to the bird watchers first...I am sorry....

Raid a sparrows nest....Take the baby sparrows..No feather yet....Kill them...let them cure in hot sun a little...

Caught monster catfish as a kid on them!!!!

I use a cast net, near Dam's and in weed beds for small gills. At nite when the Shad are running, take a spotlight and hit the water with it, then i cast my net out and most of the time i get more than i can use. Also keep those small Crappie & Bullheads. I have caught some Big fish on them.

Is it legal to use gills and crappie and bull heads as bait... Down here in the sunshine state that would get ya in big trouble.... Good cattin to all, and catch a bigun... Catman

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Catman767

If people concentrated on the important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing rods.