Live bait gets fishermen reeling 'em in

NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Felix Soto shows a stringer of channel catfish he caught during the Care Community Center family fishing derby at Veteran's Park in Rogers late last month. Worms or nightcrawlers are good live bait for channel catfish. Flathead catfish prefer sunfish or large minnows.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Felix Soto shows a stringer of channel catfish he caught during the Care Community Center family fishing derby at Veteran's Park in Rogers late last month. Worms or nightcrawlers are good live bait for channel catfish. Flathead catfish prefer sunfish or large minnows.

Some anglers would rather feed 'em with live bait than fool 'em with lures.

Give fish the real thing to catch them is the mantra for fans of live bait. Worms, nightcrawlers, minnows and assorted other wiggly critters are what the live bait crowd carries to the water. Most trips, they'll tote home a fine mess of fish.

Some area anglers share their thoughts here for catching fish with live bait, how to keep live bait lively and what fish prefer what bait.

Minnows

Most fish eat minnows. That's what makes minnows one of the most versatile and effective live fishing baits. Dunk a minnow, and there's no telling what might bite. Crappie, walleye, black bass, white bass, striped bass and catfish all go for minnows.

Rance Carter of Rogers uses minnows most of the year to catch crappie at Beaver Lake. He's a fishing guide who relies on live minnows to keep his customers satisfied.

Catching crappie can be the easy part. Keeping minnows alive can be tricky, especially on hot days. Minnows die in a hurry if they're simply dumped into a pail with some water. Keeping plenty of oxygen in the water and keeping the water cool is key, Carter said.

Minnows, a versatile live bait, will catch most every game fish. They’re sold in small, medium and large sizes.

Small minnows are a good choice for crappie. Medium is good for black bass and walleye. Brood minnows are the top choice for catching striped bass.

Source: Staff report

An aerated minnow bucket should be standard equipment for minnow users, Carter continued. An aerator keeps water moving and bubbling, constantly adding oxygen. Without it, minnows go belly up in a matter of minutes.

Another option is a minnow bucket that can tied to the side of a boat and kept in the water, but Carter prefers an aerated bucket.

"You don't want to overload your bucket so the minnows use up all the oxygen. My standard is about a dozen minnows per gallon of water," Carter said.

Keep the minnows cool by freezing bottles of water and placing one in the water of the minnow bucket. Use lake water in the minnow bucket. Tap water will kill the minnows, Carter testified.

Minnows are sold in small, medium and large sizes. Small minnows work best for crappie. Anglers after black bass use medium. For striped bass, large brood minnows are the preferred size.

Worms

Bluegill and catfish can't resist a juicy, wiggly worm, or its larger cousin, the nightcrawler.

Thread a worm on a small gold hook, crimp a split shot above the hook and fish the worm under a float. Bluegill will come 'a knocking. The catching can be fast and furious, which is why bluegill fishing is great for kids. Lots of catching goes well with their short attention spans.

Nightcrawlers are the choice for most catfish chasers. Glob a couple of nightcrawlers on to a treble hook and fish it on the bottom to catch channel catfish.

Worms or nightcrawlers are also great bait for rainbow trout, said Lisa Mullins, a guide on the White River below Beaver Dam.

"The time to use worms is after a rain, especially if it gets the water a little muddy. Worms have been washing in to the water," she said.

Nightcrawlers get special treatment in her boat. Mullins likes to inject air into a nightcrawler so it will float. Small nightcrawler inflators are sold at bait shops to air up a 'crawler. They're a small plastic bottle with a needle on the tip. Squeeze the bottle to inject air.

Float the nightcralwer two feet off the bottom, Mullins coached. That applies still water, or in current when electricity is generated at Beaver Dam.

Brown trout and walleye below the dam go for nightcrawlers, too, she said.

Crickets

Legions of bluegill fishermen swear by the fish-catching power of a cricket. David Powell sells dozens of crickets at the Lake Fayetteville bait shop. The lake is known for good bluegill fishing.

"Crickets have a collar right behind their head. Thread the hook right underneath that collar," Powell said. "That keeps them kicking, but they don't live very long under water anyway."

In the worms versus nightcrawler debate, Powell has a simple solution. "If one isn't working, try the other," he said.

Crawdads

Crawdads are like candy to black bass. They'll catch all three black bass species -- largemouth, smallmouth and spotted.

Carter, the Beaver Lake guide, said crawdads are a "secret" bait for catching catfish.

"Big 'cats love big crawdads," he said.

During spring when white bass are spawning in the White and War Eagle rivers above Beaver Lake, small crawdads are his preferred live bait.

Hook one through the back of the tail, cast it out and hang on.

Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected]

Sports on 06/05/2018

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