Yesterday, I posted a big thread on How To Catch Big Bluegills. I've decided that I'm going to do a 5-part series of those articles. Today's will be on catching live bait for big bluegills.
FATHEAD MINNOWS: One of the most popular baits for any fish is a fathead minnow. If you can find ones around 2-3", you can use them for big bluegills. My preferred way to catch them is:
The first step is to find a body of water filled with fatheads. You can't catch them if they're not there. Look for a pond with clear to stained water, and a decent amount of vegetation. Go for ones with submerged native grasses, rather than lots of pads or hydrilla. The grass beds make excellent spawning grounds for them. Wade out into the shallows until you find a spot full of minnows. Star by instantly catching some with a shad net. My preferred net to use for all of the bait species is the Shad/Shrimp/Smelt Net, found at Bass Pro Shops. You can also chum them. These fish will eat crushed up crackers, among other things. Once you have caught at least a few in the net, it's time to collect some other types of bait. It's good to have as many different types of bait for big bluegill, because big ones can be extremely picky. While you search for other bait, throw out as many minnow traps as it takes to surround the bed. Fill them with dry dog food, maybe 15-20 pieces. Tie them off to trees. If you need bait now, take a big seine net, and surround the minnow traps and grass bed with it, to keep the minnows in until they go into the traps.
MOSQUITOFISH: Mosquitofish are little fish that you find in swamps, ditches, and other stagnant bodies of water. I have ponds filled with them. They like ponds that are stained to muddy, with lots of pondweed in them. They like to hide in the stringy stuff, not the firm, stalky stuff. They are often to small to be caught in a minnow trap. The best way to catch them is to chum liberally with crackers, and then scoop them up by the dozens with a net.
SHINERS: Golden shiners can work, so long as you use ones 2-3" long. They are often found in shallow water of all qualities, often around grass beds (robbing fathead eggs), or lily pads. You can usually catch them around the same place you'd catch fathead minnows, and you can use the same methods. Traps work better than nets.
BABY BASS: These baits are like bullgill candy. The first thing to do is to find a body of water to catch these little guys in. The perfect body of water:
Is privately owned, and you have permission to take baby bass
Has a healthy or high bass population, including plenty of breeders
Has clear to stained water
Has plenty of logs, rocks, and stalky plants
Has soft bottom
Once you've found a body of water, the best way to catch them is with a seine net. The dip net usually doesn't work, because the fish are so fast. Traps don't work because they don't eat "human foods". Be sure not to take too many of these guys. Also, collect them around May to August, right when they are still really tiny.
BABY BLUEGILL: Find a lake with stained to muddy water, and stringy vegetation. Make sure it has a good population of insects in/around it. That helps a lot. Find a spot around 3 feet deep, and around structure. Fill a few minnow traps with dog food, and throw them into the spot. If you have a big concrete pipe, like some ponds do, reach the net down into it. You may pull out tons of bluegill. Keep the minnow traps tied up to trees, and check them every 2 hours.
GOLDFISH: The only reliable source of goldfish is the pet store. Get bright, small ones. These baits work great in winter.
CRAWFISH: Catching crawfish for bass and catching crawfish for bluegill are two completely different things. My preferred way of catching them for bluegill is to find a super stagnant pond, with stain ed water and lots of hydrilla, maybe 2-3 feet deep. Then, just scoop the net right on the bottom, and you'll probably catch some craws.
GRASSHOPPERS: Chances are, you've seen some grasshoppers near your fishing spot at one point. However, that may not be a reliable source of bait. The best way to get them is to take a good old net (I've taken a butterfly net, and replaced the wire with a thicker gauge, and replaced the mesh with the stuff in the shad net), and find a big field of green grass. Now, with crickets, you can throw out bread crumbs and stuff. That kind of stuff doesn't work with grasshoppers. To catch grasshoppers, just swing the net over/all around the grass, and you'll probably catch some. The best time to catch these grasshoppers (the green kind) is during the summer. However, the tan grasshoppers you may see work just as well, if not better. To catch those, take the shad net (that thing can take a beating) down to a big pile of rocks. They should be like plain tan pebbles you'd find, just bigger. Kick around stones until you see a grasshopper fly off. Chase it down with the net, and swing it down on top of them. There are ups and downs to green and brown grasshoppers. Green ones are easier to catch, but don't work as good. Brown ones take longer to catch, but work much better. You can be the judge of if browns are worth it. My vote is 'yay' to browns.
COCKROACHES: I've never seen, nor heard of, another angler using cockroaches for bait. The idea branched off when I found one in the bottom of my tent, and I had run out of bait. I threw one of those on the hook, and - BOOM! - 1.5-pounder. The good things about cockroaches is that they are easily available. I usually throw out a few pieces of newspaper on the floor in the corner of my garage. The next part of the trap is to place super-thin wire mesh around the edges of the newspaper. On the inside of the walls, line the top of the mesh with petroleum jelly, taking care not to let it get on the outside edge of the mesh. You can nail a bit of wood to the inside, and coat that with petroleum jelly if using mesh is too hard. Next, throw your dinner scraps into the pit, and let it sit over a few days. After a while, it should be full of roaches!
FROGS: Using frogs can be a great way to catch greedy sunfish. Naturally, tiny leopard frogs and bullfrogs tend to dive downward to escape prey. They will only dive down if they are too far from shore, though. The trick to fishing live frogs is to use a super long loop for the hook with a drop shot rig. This allows the frogs to dive right down into a bluegill bed. Often times, you'll catch a big bluegill on a frog when nothing else works. To catch frogs, find a stagnant body of water with stained to muddy water, stained preferred. The next step is to take your shad net, and just scoop right along the edges of the water. You'll either scare frogs out of the water, or into it. Once you see the frogs, try targeting them one by one. Use frogs an inch or under. Go for cricket, chorus, leopard, or bullfrogs. Toads have never worked, as they drown rather than dive.
TADPOLES: During the summer, take a kid down to the pond with you the day before. Give him a net, and let him catch you a bunch of tadpoles. After he's gotten tired of catching them, go through them and release all of them that aren't between 1-2 inches total length. Save them until the next day, and fish them on a drop shot rig, just like a frog. The place to catch these is preferably in stained water, although muddy water produces lots too. Any type of vegetation is a must. Open ware seldom produces tadpoles or frogs.
KEEPING BAIT ALIVE: To fish baits for big bluegill, they have to be alive. I've never caught a bluegill over a pound on dead bait, nor anything from my kitchen. I have been, however, working on a secret bait formula (*hint hint* look for it in the next thread) that has caught me quite a number of big gills. To keep fish alive, I've always taken a 5-gallon bucket, and filled it with pond water. Then, hook up an aerator and you're set. If you're fishing in the heat, keep the bucket in your tent and drop ice in every once in a while. If you're keeping them for a long time, get a bulk can of shrimp pellets from the pet store. To keep craws and tadpoles alive, do the same rig, except feed them something different. Feed tadpoles specialized tadpole pellets, available at the pet store as well. Feed crawfish scrap lunch meat. They like roast beef. I'll take it off my sandwich and throw some in their bucket. Don't add lots of ice to tadpoles' water; quick temperature changes will quickly kill them. Instead, add 1-2 cubes every 30 minutes or so. For frogs, use a bucket, but no aerator, and throw a few rocks in the bottom, so they can leave the water if they want. They usually will be fine without food, but if you want, feed them tiny chunks of earthworms. To keep insects, I've always used cricket baskets for green grasshoppers and cockroaches. For brown grasshoppers, I usually use a critter keeper from the pet store. Handle them in your tent, or else they'll fly off! For insects, throw an assortment of grass and cheerios in the cage.
FINAL WORDS: Well, thanks again for reading! It really does mean a lot. In the next thread, we'll be discussing my newly developed dough bait. It may take a while to make, but you can easily make a bulk container of it, and it will last a long time. Well, see you in the next thread!
