for the most part i resisted fishing live baits because it was messing and always required way too much effort to deal with. and from what i can tell i could do crappie and bass just fine without love bait. i can do catfish on stuff that can sit in the fridge. bit the bluegills want live bait. and they really want crickets. I would rather use a piece of worm but all i get is small fish. even on big night crawlers it's still smaller fish. as soon as i toss out a cricket i start get bigger bluegills and the are a lot quicker to bite. the fresher the cricket the better. and while the will bite on other baits they just seen to bite a lot better on crickets. and I still ge the occasional bass or catfish.