Procuring your own bait..

[DitchPanda]

So I was watching @TnRiver46 video in the other species thread where he was throwing a cast net and it made me wonder..how many of you take the time to catch your own bait? Lots of options around me and in a typical year ill: trap minnows,chubs and crawfish for crappies and cats, cast net hundreds of shad  for me and a few buddies( my primary catfish bait), catch goldeye and suckers also for cut bait for cats and pick dozens of crawlers off the lawn for anything that swims. Also in the past I've caught small bull heads and green sunfish out of a tiny spill way in town to use on a throw line for flatheads. I honestly enjoy the process of catching bait almost as much as the bigger fish I'm after, plus there's a sense of satisfaction that comes with it. Anybody else enjoy bait hunting?

[MN Fisher]

Lot of effort for a single day's use.

 

MN - we can harvest our own minnows, but has to be used on the same body of water you caught them in, and any left over has to either be thrown in the trash or all the water in your bucket replaced with tap or bottled water at the lake/pond/stream/whatever...no taking the water from the source anywhere.

 

[Captain Phil]

When I was growing up in Miami, we caught our own shiners for bait. We used tiny hair hooks with bread balls for bait. Here in Florida, nothing works better for bass than a freshly caught golden shiner.  When we fished offshore, catching live bait was a sport in itself.  Everything from cast netting pilchards and mullet to fishing the reefs for ballyhoo and goggle eyes.  It often took hours to catch enough live bait to fish for a day. My wife loved fishing for live bait more than catching the fish that ate them.  We would get up at 2 AM, head out the inlet and fish for bait before dawn.   We learned we could catch a live well full of bait in the lights under anchored ships waiting to go into the port.   They stopped this after 9/11, but it was great while it lasted.  Live bait fishing is the most productive way to catch fish. I didn't say it was the most enjoyable.  When I was guiding, I hated live bait fishing because it kills to many big fish.  I was being paid to catch fish and that's what it took to make people happy.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Lot of effort for a single day's use.

 

MN - we can harvest our own minnows, but has to be used on the same body of water you caught them in, and any left over has to either be thrown in the trash or all the water in your bucket replaced with tap or bottled water at the lake/pond/stream/whatever...no taking the water from the source anywhere.

 

So you guys don't have earthworms in MN?

[MN Fisher]

6 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

So you guys don't have earthworms in MN?

Oh you can dig them up - but they're not native and you can't return them to the ground.

 

Earthworms | Minnesota DNR

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us › terrestrialanimals › earth...

 

All of the terrestrial earthworms in Minnesota are non-native, invasive species from Europe and Asia (there is a native aquatic species that woodcock eat).

[padlin]

Interesting, Umass says the native worms were killed off by glaciers for Canada and northern US.

[DitchPanda]

5 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Oh you can dig them up - but they're not native and you can't return them to the ground.

 

Earthworms | Minnesota DNR

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us › terrestrialanimals › earth...

 

All of the terrestrial earthworms in Minnesota are non-native, invasive species from Europe and Asia (there is a native aquatic species that woodcock eat).

So your saying every person that works for the Minnesota DNR also owns a bait shop? That would explain the laws

[MN Fisher]

7 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

That would explain the laws

Actually, they're doing everything they can to halt or at least slow down the spread of invasive species like Zebra Mussels.

 

Bait can be had just about anywhere around here. There's one tackle shop and three convenience stores within 2 miles of me that sell worms, grubs and minnows...one of those convenience stores even has minnows tanked...not bagged.

[DitchPanda]

44 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Actually, they're doing everything they can to halt or at least slow down the spread of invasive species like Zebra Mussels.

 

Bait can be had just about anywhere around here. There's one tackle shop and three convenience stores within 2 miles of me that sell worms, grubs and minnows...one of those convenience stores even has minnows tanked...not bagged.

Guess that's the point I'm trying to make. Buying bait isn't cheap...much cheaper to get your own. So they are extremely stringent on collecting your own bait. What I'd like to know is how do the bait shops get policed? Are they only able to get bait from and sell to the exact same body of water? If not why are they so special?

[MN Fisher]

17 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Are they only able to get bait from and sell to the exact same body of water? If not why are they so special?

The minnows and leeches the shops sell comes from licensed dealers. Some are tank raised while others are collected in the wild - but there's a whole bunch of regulations they must meet.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing/commercial/minnowdealer/index.html

 

While there's native earthworms across the country - Minnesota's earthworm population was exterminated when the glaciers came through...species from Asia and Europe arrived with the first settlers in the area. Our native plant species depend on something that earthworms destroy so disposing of the unused worms in the trash helps protect those native species.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html

 

Purchased bait be used anywhere, but it's up to the purchaser to follow the regs and dispose/transfer their bait in a safe manner to prevent the spread of invasive species.

[DitchPanda]

5 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

The minnows and leeches the shops sell comes from licensed dealers. Some are tank raised while others are collected in the wild - but there's a whole bunch of regulations they must meet.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing/commercial/minnowdealer/index.html

 

While there's native earthworms across the country - Minnesota's earthworm population was exterminated when the glaciers came through...species from Asia and Europe arrived with the first settlers in the area. Our native plant species depend on something that earthworms destroy so disposing of the unused worms in the trash helps protect those native species.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html

 

Purchased bait be used anywhere, but it's up to the purchaser to follow the regs and dispose/transfer their bait in a safe manner to prevent the spread of invasive species.

Well...fair enough!

[gim]

7 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Lot of effort for a single day's use.

Ain’t worth it if you ask me. I know most ice anglers use live bait this time of year but very few of them are procuring their own. Most are bought at the bait shop I’m sure. This is when a lot of live bait is sold. And I’ll bet they buy other items while they’re in there too.

[DitchPanda]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Ain’t worth it if you ask me. I know most ice anglers use live bait this time of year but very few of them are procuring their own. Most are bought at the bait shop I’m sure. This is when a lot of live bait is sold. And I’ll bet they buy other items while they’re in there too.

This I go along with...I'm not raising maggots for my ice fishing. Biggest thing around here for open water is there are no bait shops within 30 minutes..and the few there are have small selections. So if you want good bait...like the ones I mentioned... you get it yourself or its gas station worms for you.

[N Florida Mike]

We have  bait holes that we get ours from when we fish certain inshore areas. We can get mullet, mud minnows, shrimp, barnacles, oysters, etc.

In freshwater, I can catch shiners or throw a cast net for them. We can use bream for bait, but they must be caught on hook and line, without a net.

I have a worm bed out back too. 

I still live bait fish for bass occasionally, and all bigger bass are released unharmed. Have not had one die on me in many years now…

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

We have  bait holes that we get ours from when we fish certain inshore areas. We can get mullet, mud minnows, shrimp, barnacles, oysters, etc.

In freshwater, I can catch shiners or throw a cast net for them. We can use bream for bait, but they must be caught on hook and line, without a net.

I have a worm bed out back too. 

I still live bait fish for bass occasionally, and all bigger bass are released unharmed. Have not had one die on me in many years now…

We trapped some mud minnows with a funnel trap in SC, fish were biting them in half like crazy. I had never seen them before , pretty fun

[N Florida Mike]

15 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

We trapped some mud minnows with a funnel trap in SC, fish were biting them in half like crazy. I had never seen them before , pretty fun

Yeah, and they are tough as nails. They aren’t like a lot of other baitfish that you basically put on life support as soon as you catch them. They’ll sometimes live for days in a bucket of water without aeration!

Reds and flounder love em…

I once caught a bass on one out back !

 

 

[Catt]

Procuring your own bait..

 

I tell Aiden, stay out of my tackle & procure your own!

 

Down here we can procure our own but with the vast number of places that sale live or frozen bait it's easier to buy it.

[gim]

2 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Have not had one die on me in many years now…

That you know of.  Scientific studies have shown that delayed mortality is higher with the use of live bait, especially in warm water.  Just because every fish swam off or stayed upright doesn't mean they didn't die shortly thereafter.

[scaleface]

As a kid one of my side hustles was selling fishing worms . Everybody wanted big fat night crawlers but the best worms were the stiff , green ones that I dug from a storm sewer . I trapped , seined minnows and crawdads , Made my own carp bait . Helped my uncle make catfish stinkbait that he sold locally . Those little bag worms that you see on evergreen bushes and trees are fantastic bait . A pair of manicuring scissors will quickly remove them from their little cocoon . I used casting nets to catch shad for catfishing . Now when I want live bait I buy it .

[casts_by_fly]

I don't fish bait much since I'm mostly bass fishing.  When I take a friend's kid fishing or we are at the beach I'll buy bait for all the more of it I need.  On the beach I'll pick sand fleas (mole crabs) but I've still not caught anything on them so mostly that's something for the kids to do to help 'uncle rick' fish.  Also, I'll pick a couple dozen small worms in ~March every year in case I decide to go trout fishing in the early season.  I didn't go last year and ended up dumping the worms back outside.

 

Growing up though, we used to seine and trap the local creeks for minnows or crayfish.  We'd then take them to the various other creeks/rivers for smallies.  I remember one trip where we took the legal limit of 50 minnows and caught more than 50 smallies.  Every cast was a fish whether the bait was alive or not.

[Bluebasser86]

I catch my own bait whenever I catfish or use live bait for wipers or bass. Throw net or rod and reel are my preferred methods. I'll get shad or catch green sunfish/bluegill/crappie/white bass on the ultralight. Grab crawdads or nightcrawlers by hand. If I'm after blue cats in the summer time, the bowfishing rig comes out and I just find a feeding carp or drum and collect all the bait I need in 1 shot.  

[N Florida Mike]

6 hours ago, gimruis said:

That you know of.  Scientific studies have shown that delayed mortality is higher with the use of live bait, especially in warm water.  Just because every fish swam off or stayed upright doesn't mean they didn't die shortly thereafter.

  My experience is this: I don’t gut hook very many with live bait ,and the ones that I do gut hook I carefully operate or a few times leave the hooks to rust out . I have  never had a floater and there would be no other reason for them to die .  If they’re fine when they swim off ( I don’t mean barely swim off, but vigorously) why would they suddenly die? 

 

Nothing personal, but a lot of “scientific studies “ have a built in agenda. I’m just a skeptic I guess and don’t trust all scholarly sources…

 

I’ve had plenty of fish die almost immediately from artificial bait damage though, and actually gut hook more fish using artificials…