Squirrel bait

[jbmaine]

I must admit that the bat, duck, rat, etc. looking top water baits have , to me, seemed a bit much but now, maybe not.

 We were out fishing an area between an island and the main shore, maybe 30 ft. between the two. My wife says " what's that in the water? " I caught a glimpse of something as it ran onto the island. A while later she says " there it is again." We moved closer and saw it was a red squirrel. The darn thing was swimming back and forth between the island and the main land. Nothing got it, but it sure looked like it would have made a good meal for a LM.

 First time I've ever seen a squirrel swim.

[Dirtyeggroll]

There is a local lake where I live which is one of the only lakes where there are black squirrels in this area. Seeing a black squirrel in my area is uncommon and kind of like finding a four-leaf clover. I have been dreaming of building a “baby black squirrel” swim or glide bait kind of like a Johnny Rat or Ms Slammer.

[Brad in Texas]

From my childhood and youth reading Field & Stream and Sports Afield magazines, such great little rustic ads in those days from little mom and pop businesses all over our country selling all sorts of things, some also indicating "looking for" various needs. It is seemingly long gone today, so much more commercial.

 

Old-timers will remember these old small ads: chinchillas, hunting airedales, chicken egg incubators, raise quail for $$, "how to" manuals, "we buy bulk . . ." and on and on. A kid could dream for hours and hours just reading these ads sprinkled throughout these mags with a whole section of classifieds at the back as I recall.  

 

*So, I received a Mepps catalog after an order not long ago and, I'll be danged! They have something in it looking to buy quantities of squirrel tails (ostensibly to be used to make some of their lures). You'd have to really be a squirrel hunter to have the sort of volume Mepps was looking for, like 50 if I recall, but how great to see that there is still sort of a barter going on for such items.

 

Whether squirrel shaped lures would work, or not, their tail hair is still being actively sought out. There is actually a market for them. Greatness!

 

Brad

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

There is a local lake where I live which is one of the only lakes where there are black squirrels in this area. Seeing a black squirrel in my area is uncommon and kind of like finding a four-leaf clover. I have been dreaming of building a “baby black squirrel” swim or glide bait kind of like a Johnny Rat or Ms Slammer.

Wow! I can't imagine that. It's the most plentiful game animal we have here. If society ever crumbles you could easily live off squirrels here.

[Dirtyeggroll]

8 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

Wow! I can't imagine that. It's the most plentiful game animal we have here. If society ever crumbles you could easily live off squirrels here.

We have an abundance of RED squirrels, it’s the black ones that are uncommon.

[the reel ess]

2 hours ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

We have an abundance of RED squirrels, it’s the black ones that are uncommon.

Oh, I see. The black ones we call fox squirrels around here and they shun people like the plague. It is rare to spot one and most have a little white on the body.

[thinkingredneck]

No shortage of sqirrels, armadillos, coyotes, deer, wild hogs, possums, coons, snakes, or gators. A Redneck buffet out there.

[scaleface]

5 hours ago, jbmaine said:

First time I've ever seen a squirrel swim.

I only seen it once . Fishing on Mark Twain an old squirrel  was trying to kill a young one and it jumped in the lake and swam for his life to some standing timber .

[georgeyew]

I would think that a squirrel swimming would look similar to a rat.....except for the fluffy tail.

[Todd2]

I've never seen a squirrel swim but we did see a whole herd of Deer crossing the middle of the lake on south Barkley one morning, that was cool.

 

For years, I've had several white albino squirrels in the trees behing my house. A big red tail Hawk moved in back in the Spring. No more white squirrels left.

[Way north bass guy]

I’ve witnessed a red squirrel getting smoked by a largemouth as it swam across a small lilly pad filled bay. I also caught a 4lb smallmouth on a spinnerbait on a big, clear northern lake that had an adult squirrel in its guts already. The tail was sticking out of its throat, was the only part of the squirrel with fur still on it. Talk about a hungry smallmouth!

[Black Hawk Basser]

Never seen a squirrel even swimming anywhere but last year I saw an adult duck that was apparently too injured to fly get seriously harrassed by something, over and over.  Had to be LM, pike, gar, or catfish in this particular pond.

[Bluebasser86]

I saw a squirrel fight going on in the top of a VERY tall sycamore tree in a creek bottom when the loser was suddenly plummeting towards the ground. It smacked the water so hard I was sure it was dead but the little sucker just swam to the bank and shot back up the tree. 

 

There's an old story about a squirrel trying to get a hickory nut off a stump near the shoreline. The tree rat finally got brave and swims out to the stump and grabs the nut but on his return back with his prize, he disappears in a giant toilet bowl flush swirl. About 5 minutes later a 15lb bass was seen setting the hickory nut back on the stump. 

 

There's possum and chipmunk baits out there, probably a squirrel too. 

[TylerT123]

[Dirtyeggroll]

15 hours ago, TylerT123 said:

Where do you find that?

[TylerT123]

5 hours ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

Where do you find that?

Google Images