Crickets

How do you guys hook the crickets? I want to use them but don't want to kill them just by hooking the, I want them to kick around until they get eat. Thanks for the help.

Run the hook through the thorax from side to side. It's pretty hard to kill an insect that easily. Heck, during the big cicada hatch a few years ago, the fish would bite off the head or the abdomen and the thing would still kick around. Sometimes we caught three fish on the same cicada (or piece of same). I have trouble keeping crickets on the hook with the way gills can suck your bait right off a hook - Roberta

It also helps to use a very thin wire hook. Some are made especially for crickets or redworms.http://www.truturnhooks.com/products/hooks_868.html

I use a #8 cricket hook. Stick the point of the hook in right behind the head and in front of the thorax on the back of cricket. Thread the hook through the body coming out the end of cricket, kinda like puting a worm on. Harder for gills to suck the cricket off but they will try until they do or you catch them. lol

Another thing you can try.....I read this somewhere and I am definitely going to try it as soon as the bream and shellcrackers get ready to do something. Use a 1/32 or 1/64 oz lead head. Instead of using a tube body, put the cricket on it. You can experiment with different color heads, but black should be good. Supposed to catch as many crappie as bream. Also, bream love crappie nibbles. Give 'em a try with a cricket on a #8 cricket hook, or very small circle hook.

The lady at the bait shop told me years ago how to hook them to keep em alive longer, but after i thought about it they cant breathe underwater so i start at the hind end and put the point of the hood in the head.

LOL at Crappisaurusrex... I like that answer

I hook mine thru the head and out of the body

have increased my catch to about 90%.even the two finger kind.fish may flies and will go thru 200 crickets easy but catch 4 ywo fingers to 1 keeper. but there is a trick to the hook too.it kinda looks like a tru turn but there is another twist.take needle nose pliers look at the hook from point to shank and bend tip to the side offset from parallel.then bend shank opposite from point close to bottom come up slightly bend back tru turn style.there is no way in a small mouth the point comes out without hitting with the twist and offset.the cricket start the hook thru the top of the back out the and then poke the point into the tail section but not out like aworm on a bass hook.try and let me know.comes from a lot of years of experience and a lot of fish.

If you dont hook them in the head, but rather through the body starting behind the head and through to the rear end they will live a few minutes under water. They like them a lot better when they are still wiggling their legs. If they drown before I get a bite (which doesn't usually happen when the fish are on the bed) I change crickets.

Ditto what slabinator said.

Dead. Just hooked. Hooked sideways. Hooked upside down. Like it matters when you are bluegill fishing. I've never seen a bluegill shy away from a cricket under a float. :eek:

I tend to agree with itallushrt but I've found that the channel cats and some other fish tend to bite dead crickets more than the bream. Most of the bream I've caught tend to like more lively crickets either under a float, bumping the bottom, or free lining. Its true that crickets don't live underwater for long periods of time so I just put another cricket on the hook after a quick cricket check (just like occasional minnow checks for Speck fishing). Checking bait from time to time (once in a while but not too often) whether live or dead (including worms) to make sure its still there and hasn't been eaten off the hook is always a good idea. After all, that's why I carry a good number of live bait anyway because I know I will have to regularly rebait hooks.

I've found it better to hook them through the arse first with the hook point out by the head. Seems that most buegill and redear go for the head first.

One of the best trotline baits when cats are spawning in shallows are crickets.I've caught 100's by using crickets with no weight in shallow water. I mean shallow 2 feet or less. Heck I've even used limb lines in 6 inches of water and caught catfish that way too. Every fish puts crickets on the desert list.....

how do i hook the crickets on a hook ? thourgh the eyes or thourgh the bodie? or where? for i have never fished with crickets.]