Bass fishing with live bait

[MGF]

I used to use a live leech as a trailer on a small marabou  jig.

 

The only other way I used live bait for game fish is like a carolina rig except that I nose hook a live nightcrawler. We used to use a "worm blower" to pump a little air into the worm so it would float off the bottom a little.

 

In shallow water I would fish the nose hooked crawler weightless or with only a small splitshot.

 

Neither method is good for heavy cover and all sorts of non target fish will take your worm piece at a time. LOL. Still I caught a lot of fish using both methods.

[K1500]

The guys that slam you for thinking about fishing with live bait are probably the same guys that fish tournaments every weekend, hauling bass around in the live well all day with floats clipped to their lips, culling as they go, and then dragging them to a weigh-in miles away from where they are caught, pretending they don’t cause fish mortality. I doubt the OP fishing bait is going to put more of a dent in the bass population than tournaments do, and live bait fishing has a long tradition. Although I don’t have experience fishing for bass with bait I am intrigued. Give it a try and report back.

[Mbirdsley]

I’d be using a bigger minnow ,blue gill( check your local laws), or my personal fav a golden shiner on a circle hook. Up here using live bait like that I’d have to run a steal leader to keep toothy critters away.  I don’t think you have that problem. I’d probably skip using a worm under a bobber.  However, if you were to t-rig a live crawler that would work 
 

if you were fishing 6-8 foot of water I’d only put that minnow 2-3 feet down ( adjust for what ever depth your pond is).  Run a big split shot 8-12 inches up from the hook. The split shot that far off gives the minnow free range of about a foot radius but, won’t let it go much farther.  I liked using bigger bobbers just so you can see the minnow start to panic by the bobber moving. However, the minnow won’t take the bobber down 
 

As long as you pay attention and set the hook when your supposed to and use a circle hook. gut hooking should be non-existent. We used trebles all the time as kids. We currently still use  trebles hooks  for ice fishing and catch bass occasionally on tip ups and still havnt gut hooked a bass in over ten years 
 

in Michigan with all of  walleye, salmon, trout, perch, pike, catfish, whitefish , sunfish species and all the other edible species bass are treated like 3rd class citizens but, they are gaining more respect. 

[Cgolf]

For me we aways bought crawlers and leeches for eyes on vaca and I would try them on a Ned sized jig where I knew bass lived. I think I  Maybe caught 3 bass. At least on this lake the bass preferred artificials.

 

if you want to make your plastics stand out try a gel scent like liquid mayhem or megastrike. It will make the artificial smell like live bait. 

[Luke Barnes]

17 hours ago, cgolf said:

For me we aways bought crawlers and leeches for eyes on vaca and I would try them on a Ned sized jig where I knew bass lived. I think I  Maybe caught 3 bass. At least on this lake the bass preferred artificials.

 

if you want to make your plastics stand out try a gel scent like liquid mayhem or megastrike. It will make the artificial smell like live bait. 

Ive thought about this too. Thought about making a thread for it and now I will. Never used any so no idea what is good. 

[Luke Barnes]

Also I decided to try small bluegill instead of worms. Closest place I can buy minnows is 20 minutes away and they arent always open and dont have regular hours. I would love to get ahold of some big shiners though!

 

Nice thing is I can catch a handful of really small gills with my fly rod quickly. The big ones are just fun to catch then toss back, but the smaller ones I'll keep to use. 

[Big Hands]

On 11/20/2020 at 4:37 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Maybe get a bluegill and free line it (unless of course you are in Minnesota or California, which you aren’t).

I don't think there is a law in California that says you can't catch a bluegill and reel him in   v e r y    s l o w l y ?