Half of the seasoned fishermen I talk to tell me that by far they catch more with artificial, the other half say nothing beats live bait. Which is true??

[MIbassyaker]

On 10/3/2019 at 2:16 PM, soflabasser said:

You should be able to catch bass on lures in a pond with very little fishing pressure. Try fishing at nighttime or try fishing with a lure that most people do not use there.

If I lived up north I would focus more on muskie and fish very little for walleye. I do not see why people make such a big deal about walleye. I have caught them, ate them on the same day and I was not impressed. Try eating a freshly caught hogfish and you see how walleye is an overrated fish.  I agree lure fishing is much more effective when it comes to catching large numbers of bass. 

 

I also think walleye are overrated.  But you must understand, northerners who live away from the coasts are......um, how to put this?  Not exactly known for our epicurean taste in food...

[soflabasser]

2 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

I also think walleye are overrated.  But you must understand, northerners who live away from the coasts are......um, how to put this?  Not exactly known for our epicurean taste in food...

Its not just hogfish that taste better than walleye it's almost any type of saltwater fish I have eaten. Mangrove snapper are a common catch and they taste way better than walleye. Back to the subject, both live bait and lures have times they do best. A person who only fishes with lures or only fishes with live bait is limited compared to a fisherman that knows how to fish both live bait and lures well.

[Deleted account]

16 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Its not just hogfish that taste better than walleye it's almost any type of saltwater fish I have eaten. Mangrove snapper are a common catch and they taste way better than walleye. Back to the subject, both live bait and lures have times they do best. A person who only fishes with lures or only fishes with live bait is limited compared to a fisherman that knows how to fish both live bait and lures well.

Snappers are some of the best eating fish there is. I like the silver (the ones like porgies) but please don't bully them. They'll just cling to their Lunds and Muck boots. Speaking of coasts, I just got some fresh rod and reel caught toro loins overnighted to me from New England, now I just gotta get the sticky rice right

[fordstrokers]

Once I found the 297 swim senko, bass fishing has become relatively easy. It catches fish regardless

[gim]

On 10/5/2019 at 9:20 PM, soflabasser said:

Its not just hogfish that taste better than walleye it's almost any type of saltwater fish I have eaten. Mangrove snapper are a common catch and they taste way better than walleye. Back to the subject, both live bait and lures have times they do best. A person who only fishes with lures or only fishes with live bait is limited compared to a fisherman that knows how to fish both live bait and lures well.

 

You must understand that the walleye is king up here.  Our lakes are managed for them and no other species is really that close.  The problem is that 95% of the anglers target them ONLY to harvest them - they have very little interest in releasing them.  Most anglers do not target bass or muskies up here with the intention of keeping them.  I will admit that a fresh pan fried walleye filet is good but whether I'm able to fill my livewell with some is not going to dictate how well my day went.  Most walleye guys also use live bait - there are some exceptions but its far more common to use live bait when targeting them compared to bass.  Can't argue that some saltwater species of fish are better tasting...they are.

[Deleted account]

19 hours ago, gimruis said:

Can't argue that some saltwater species of fish are better tasting...they are.

Said the bass guy with the jack in his profile picture...  

Those things pull a little, don't they?

[gim]

10 hours ago, BassWhole! said:

Said the bass guy with the jack in his profile picture...  

Those things pull a little, don't they?

Ridiculous

[TheRodFather]

I am extremely frustrated with my catch rates since moving to NC.   I am going to get a cast net and give live bait a go, at least add it as an option.  Waiting all week to get out fishing, shuffle the cars around to get the boat out, shuffle the cars to put the boat away.  All to catch a few fish at best, 3 LM bass has been the best I have done on a lake outing since coming to North Carolina.  I have been out one day nearly every weekend for a year and a half.  I can catch more dinks out of the pond in my neighborhood.

 

In PA, on the Susky where we moved from, it was nothing to catch a dozen on any part of the river, and 100 fish days on some parts if you could get past the rocks.  Heck, there were creeks I could stop at on the way home from work and catch a dozen smallies for a quick fix.

 

I realize that smallmouth and largemouth are different fish, but this is getting old.  I feel pretty confident in my abilities, and I am throwing everything at them but the kitchen sink, slow, fast, erratic, it doesn't seem to matter.  Even the ned rig is failing to keep the skunk away the last several weeks.   Putting a "pattern" together is a joke, one fish caught then failing catch or even get bit using same bait, retrieve, type of structure/cover is all I have been working on for a year.  I'm burned out.

 

I do enjoy the time out on the water, out in nature.  But I like to catch fish too, I don't think I can justify the time and money invested in this hobby too much longer without the enjoyment of a bent rod.

 

I can't believe that's where I am at these days, sad.

 

 

 

 

[Tim Kelly]

I expect, going back to your original question, that if you asked John Cox where the fish were, he'd say on the bank, and have the stats to prove it, where if you asked someone like Aaron Martens he'd say out deep, and have the stats to prove it. So your livebait guys will say you need bait and the artificial guys will say lures. You need to work out what works for you.

 

A friend of mine moved from the Philly area to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia a few years ago. I would say the fishing there sucks compared to the Susky, but really it's just a different challenge. The satisfaction when you do put a bit of a pattern together is far greater where the fishing's more difficult, but it's more frustrating when you don't. We spent a week together fishing there a couple of springs ago and struggled most days, but finally found a little pattern which worked reasonably well. Fortunately, he also has a cottage in Canada and the fishing is spectacular there, so he can still get his fix of bites when it's hot and steamy in the south!

[Carlos Lopez]

Live bait is easier and artificial is so much purer. But obviously I’ve used live bait when I just wanted to ensure I caught something. 

[TnRiver46]

26 minutes ago, Carlos Lopez said:

Live bait is easier and artificial is so much purer. But obviously I’ve used live bait when I just wanted to ensure I caught something. 

Purer?? Artificial is purer? Thats an oxymoron

[Carlos Lopez]

Outsmarting a fish to eat something that’s plastic is purer. But obviously that’s my opinion 

[TnRiver46]

10 minutes ago, Carlos Lopez said:

Outsmarting a fish to eat something that’s plastic is purer. But obviously that’s my opinion 

Gotcha. I just couldnt wrap my head around something fake being pure 

[Carlos Lopez]

I was just thinking of largemouth fishing. I have used live bait for everything deep sea and back in the day on the river going for small mouths and pike. I just know I want a 10lb bass and would feel like there would be an * if I did it with live bait. But that might just be how me and my friends think. 

[bowhunter63]

Way back in the day a book came out called lunkers love night crawlers came out. Then walking sinkers. A worm air injector and a whole system. It tore em up. So I would say it still would work today so I’m gonna say live bait. This was back before CPR too.

[TheRodFather]

Like I posted about a few posts up, I went out last night and got a cast net.  Practiced throwing it a few times in the yard.  Got up this morning, caught some Threadfin shad and nose hooked one on a drop shot. Fished a shelf on the lake I frequent, that goes from 10fow to 20fow in about 10 ft.

 

Caught my PB, 7.4lb...........

 

Do I feel like I "cheated", or there was an *.....ehh, maybe.  The next largest fish I have caught at that lake might have been 3 pounds, I don't know because I don't have a scale.  I had to borrow one today from a guy in the next boat cause this fish I caught today was a monster.  I won't use live bait exclusively, but it was nice to know that there are fish on that shelf and in that lake, and that I'm not wasting my time when I fish.  

 

 

 

 

[TnRiver46]

11 hours ago, TheRodFather said:

Like I posted about a few posts up, I went out last night and got a cast net.  Practiced throwing it a few times in the yard.  Got up this morning, caught some Threadfin shad and nose hooked one on a drop shot. Fished a shelf on the lake I frequent, that goes from 10fow to 20fow in about 10 ft.

 

Caught my PB, 7.4lb...........

 

Do I feel like I "cheated", or there was an *.....ehh, maybe.  The next largest fish I have caught at that lake might have been 3 pounds, I don't know because I don't have a scale.  I had to borrow one today from a guy in the next boat cause this fish I caught today was a monster.  I won't use live bait exclusively, but it was nice to know that there are fish on that shelf and in that lake, and that I'm not wasting my time when I fish.  

 

 

 

 

It’s magic! congrats on the 7.4! People don’t believe a bass can just sit there and ignore ALL types of fishing lures. They can and they do it all the time. There’s a popular fishing spot right below some rapids near me. After a frustrating day of chucking and reeling and finesse fishing I decided to go swimming and my buddy had a diving mask. I jumped in and was surrounded by big smallmouth and they weren’t scared of me at all. It’s also a very hard place to catch bait but when you do, a magical light switch turns on and you catch big bass and catfish left and right. I’ve probably caught 5-6 there lifetime with artificial and hundreds with live bait. Finding fish is easy, catching them can be tricky especially in popular spots

[billmac]

I use mostly lures because live bait can be a pain, but at the end of the day, I want to catch fish.  I'll use whatever is necessary (and legal/ethical) to catch them.  If I catch two five pounders, one on a senko and one on a live leech, I'm not going to feel better about catching one over the other.

 

I'm not a huge fan of eating fish, so I also lean toward lures because gut hooking is a little more common with live bait, but there are steps you can take to minimize that.

[TheRodFather]

I was fishing a creek years ago and there was a guy with scuba gear on, looking for trinkets I guess.  Out of curiosity I asked him if he could see any fish in the pool below the dam that I was fishing.  He said there were tons down there, and I wasn't getting any bites at the time.  I agree that there are fish all over the place that just choose not to fall for artificial.

 

Now whether that is the fish being wise, or conditioned against artificial, or just wrong time/wrong place, is the question.  I think they do learn, pea sized brain or not, just like any other function of evolution, they learn better ways to survive, just like any other species.  Somebody posted an article a while back, saying that catch and release fishing is causing changes in the fish population.  Allowing fish to learn, and in the long term, causing them to become harder to catch, and then they pass that knowledge on to the next generation.  I think we can all agree that highly pressured waters are harder to catch fish in, sounds like proof to me........

 

I used circle hooks by the way, he was hooked nicely in the corner of the mouth, and got a meal for his troubles .

 

Something to think about.

 

 

[TheRodFather]

On 10/6/2019 at 9:16 PM, fordstrokers said:

Once I found the 297 swim senko, bass fishing has become relatively easy. It catches fish regardless

For now.........there is a reason people spend hard earned money on new lures, techniques, combos.  Sure, some of it is our love for gadgets, but mostly it is to get better at catching fish because for whatever reason catching has gotten more difficult, at the end of the day, the tug is the drug, with relaxing in nature being second.  Lets be honest, if getting out in nature, spending time with grandkids, etc, is the main goal, there are much cheaper ways to do that than owning a boat and or fishing tackle to bank fish, especially at the level of addiction that most of us are at 

 

If the 297 swim senko, or the fluke, or the roboworm, or whatever, was the end all be all that caught fish everywhere you went for the rest of your life, there wouldn't be stores, warehouses, and careers dedicated to offering thousands of different baits.  Nobody would need them, there wouldn't be a market for them.

 

3 years ago I would have said the Ned rig was my 297 swim senko.  But sadly Ned is letting me down lately.  3 Years ago the whopper plopper was slaying bass, I haven't had a bite on a plopper in a year. 

 

 

[Johnbt]

"Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia"

 

I only go there for rockfish - striped bass. Live bait caught with a cast net, bucktails, big floating lures, etc.

______________

 

If I was starving I'd use live bait first to catch something, even a largemouth.

[schplurg]

In reply to a few posts up from mine - I don't think a fish can pass any knowledge to its young. A fish that has been caught 5 times and released has no way of sharing such info, and knowledge does not enter the DNA in such a way. If anything he's a dumber fish for being caught so many times