Thread: #1 Gill/Cracker Bait

I like mealworms for bluegills and red worms for shellcrackers.

I carry a long handled bait net with me and scoop in the weeds to get grass shrimp and small crawdads. Nothin like matchin the hatch. Maki plastics makes some great micro baits that I use alot. He sent me some tiny grass shrimp imitations to try with my last order. They work great drop shotted in the pads and spadderdock roots.

Originally Posted by shooter

artificials,i catch more big ol biguns on artificials,flies of course i do not jig fish for gills or chinks.
but i must admit i have caught well on live bait when i could not get anything to take any flies in my box.

I'm in shooters boat. Almost nothin' like gills on the fly. Just caught me a dozen Fri. on a black knat #14 hook. All were females holding eggs. One speck in the catch. Fly needed to drop tho, they weren't comin' to the top for it.

YD

I use nothing but artificial's tipped with waxies. Some of the time we use plastic grub's, simetimes jig's tied by my fishing partner. He tie's the leg's on his homade bug's and they work really well.

Originally Posted by CrappieDon

I found it. My original name was croppy1. Here's the link.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/panfi...anfishing.html

DS

I had this old post on my computer saved in my documents. This is something I always wanted to try because it sounded so good. I actuly saw another post that someone had that placed the shrimp on paper and covered with salt. He let them set for a few min then salted the other side. He would pat them dry then resalt. He did this for several hrs.
I did this then covered the peices with salt in a bowl then left the shrimp in the fridge for a couple days stiring with a spoon to keep the salt on top. I am waithig for the water to go down and the lakes to reopen to try them.
One time I had my wife to pick me some up when she went to Kroger and she couldn't find the ones in the package so she got the ones in a can. Don't try this they are too mushy. Don't think they would stay on the hook.

Catawba worms. When i used them back home in South Carolina at my dads pond and lake wateree i would kill em. even when the fish arent biting, you can throw a cricket and nothing happens, throw a catawba worm in the same place and wham. makes you wonder about all those times you go fishin somehwre for the first time and dont catch anything and say " there aint no fish here", well maybe there is, you just gotta give em what they want or something they aint never seen. it just sucks that you gotta wait for em to get on the trees. my dad always gets alot and and puts them in the freezer so he can use em later.

I stand by what I said two years ago:

Originally Posted by deathb4disco

Maggots are easily #1. Mealworms would be a distant second.

Fished correctly, they're the deadliest bluegill/trout bait on the planet.

Maggots or wax worms on a teardrop.