To Bait or not...

[CTom]

Nice pics there. Good job keeping them on fish.

Baits is a personal thing. I won't knock anyone who wants to use it, especially when children enter the picture. Often its not anything more than just plain catching when kids are involved and bait will deliver. When those kids get older they'll find out about hair and plastics and draw their own conclusions in time.

Great topic.

[STUMP HUNTER]

We do a lot of long line trolling here in SC and at times it makes a big difference in tipping or not. Most of the time you will not need to add bait but the times you do the fish are wanting a bigger profile bait and the scent of a minnow can not be replaced but there are scents that work very well. Most don't think about the size bait you end up with after tipping a jig but if you stop and think about it you start with a 2 to 2 1/2'' tied jig or plastic bait then add a small or med minnow that is also 2 to 3'' long. You add the minnow by hooking throw the lips and now you have a 4 to 5'' bait that has minnows for the scent. Bam! The fish goes to biting.
If I'm using a float and jig I never add anything to a tied of plastic bait. I use Sliders most of the time if using plastic baits and adding anything to the hook will not allow the jig tail to work as it should.
If spider rigging using minnow I use only a #2 gold hook and a minnow. If using tied or plastic jigs spider rigging I don't add anything.
If a person wants to use live bait or wants to add sent no one should ever put them down for doing so. For each their own but I do enjoy reading different thoughts about using live bait or scents.

[Bob D]

Will use a tipped bait every now and then, but usually just a straight jig gets it done.

[badaxed]

I like live bait. I like to tip my jigs with minnows. The reason behind this is that I believe there are fish out there (wether they be crappie, bass or any other specie) that will not bite artificial lures at times. I used to guide for 35 years on the Upper Mississippi river. I have observed shore lines where bass boats went by in what seemed like a never ending procession . Thousands of cast were made at the shoreline with some success for talented anglers and none for many others. I would approach this shoreline with my customers and anchor just offshore to let them observe the "congo line". They asked me if we were going to fish deeper out away from the shore. I told them "No just sit and watch what these people are useing and let me know what you think is the best lure to use." after a half hour of watching my customers would comment on the various lures and size fish that were caught and then asked if they were going to use the same baits they were seeing these "Pros" throw.
I laughed and told them "NO I just want you to see the difference between what you have observed and what you now will expeirence"
I reached into the bait well and slipped on some 4 inch live shad on their hooks 2 feet down from there bobbers and had them cast to the same shore. Within 10 seconds the customers would remark (Where did our bobbers go?"
LOL" Set the hook boys". In a short time limits of 4 lb bass were caught on the same shoreline that they had observed small fish being caught by artificial baits.
Why did this happen they asked. My opinion is that there are fish (Many times the big ones) that NEVER bite artificial lures, only live bait.
I have seen this with all specie of fish in my years of guiding. Not that fish (even big ones) can not be caught on artificial lures. just that My personal belief based on actual events observed over 35 years of using both live bait and artificials seems to support my theory on this "Happening".
Mother nature is hard to fake to a fish. LOL

[deathb4disco]

I like live bait. I like to tip my jigs with minnows. The reason behind this is that I believe there are fish out there (wether they be crappie, bass or any other specie) that will not bite artificial lures at times. I used to guide for 35 years on the Upper Mississippi river. I have observed shore lines where bass boats went by in what seemed like a never ending procession . Thousands of cast were made at the shoreline with some success for talented anglers and none for many others. I would approach this shoreline with my customers and anchor just offshore to let them observe the "congo line". They asked me if we were going to fish deeper out away from the shore. I told them "No just sit and watch what these people are useing and let me know what you think is the best lure to use." after a half hour of watching my customers would comment on the various lures and size fish that were caught and then asked if they were going to use the same baits they were seeing these "Pros" throw.
I laughed and told them "NO I just want you to see the difference between what you have observed and what you now will expeirence"
I reached into the bait well and slipped on some 4 inch live shad on their hooks 2 feet down from there bobbers and had them cast to the same shore. Within 10 seconds the customers would remark (Where did our bobbers go?"
LOL" Set the hook boys". In a short time limits of 4 lb bass were caught on the same shoreline that they had observed small fish being caught by artificial baits.
Why did this happen they asked. My opinion is that there are fish (Many times the big ones) that NEVER bite artificial lures, only live bait.
I have seen this with all specie of fish in my years of guiding. Not that fish (even big ones) can not be caught on artificial lures. just that My personal belief based on actual events observed over 35 years of using both live bait and artificials seems to support my theory on this "Happening".
Mother nature is hard to fake to a fish. LOL

Excellent story. I think a lot of people buy into the "artificial only" bass pro mentality and miss out on some good action.

[CTom]

For the most part I am a plastics guy for crappie. sunfish and waldo, but I have been known to hang a Gulp minnow on a hook too if the fish are showing a preference in that direction. Maybe 10 years back I went fishing with a couple buddies down on the Mississippi River backwaters where a reported super bite was taking place for sunfish. he other two guys had plastics along with waxies and minnows. I showed up with my plastics and a couple jars of Gulp1" minnows. We got to where we wanted to start fishing and these guys pitched out their lines, both using the waxies to start. I hung a Gulp on. My first cast landed smack between their two lines. My float didn't have a chance to right itself as a crappie nailed it almost as fast as it hit the water. I got dirty looks as I unhooked a nice 15" crappie. My second cast went right where the first one went and had the same results. When my third cast got my third fish one of the others came back and got a Gulp, "just to see for himself". His first five casts had the same result and my first three. At about 8 fish each for the other Gulp user and I, the third guys saunters back and digs in the bottle. Every single fish we caught that day came on Gulp. Minnows went un-bit. Waxies got snubbed even by small sunfish. Plastic? They just took up boat space that day. And we had an outstanding day of fishing!

Now I am a plastic dude from square one as a rule, but if I have an inkling at all that plastic is not going to cut it, the Gulp comes out before I try anything else. I seldom find it necessary to use live bait of any kind. I carry a lot of plastics in a whole world of colors so I can match the hatch so to speak and I also carry four colors of the 1" Gulp minnows and three colors of the Gulp 2 1/2" minnows....all used for crappies and panfish. If I am headed to where walleyes might get tossed in the mix during the day I make certain I have equipment and plastic specific to that species too but I use powerbait minnows for the walleyes instead of Gulp products. I've had days where plastic and hair get shoved aside by the walleyes along with the minnows or leeches, but put a power bait minnow on and hold on.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't knock anyone who has their confidence in live bait or nibbles or whatever. I have my confidence in my plastics, my hair jigs and the Gulp and Powerbait products. Everyone has their own thing and that's what makes this fishing stuff so cool.

[deathb4disco]

I'm old enough to remember when plastics were made out of ... plastic. Nowadays, many are loaded with salt, scent, etc. They practically are bait. Many plastics are illegal in my local trout river precisely because the DNR sees no difference between them and live bait.

[Bugtussle]

For crappie, I never tip.

For bluegill, I very often tip.

Same here.

[skiptomylu]

If I believe that using some live bait will help me with crappie during the spawn I guess I would probably go get some, LOL! However I never needed any for crappie that time of year. However with badaxed's story I feel like that is very true and can happen that way a lot of times, but the big boys also will hit an artificial bait many times so it's more the time than the bait I believe. I do also believe the same fish the next day may just hit that artificial, but that's hard to prove.

Heck in Florida that has been the way to a big bass for many year, they use the big shiners and a bobber!

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