Archive for May, 2010

What is the best bait for fishing?  There is only two "best baits" for fishing, “PATIENCE” and the “one that catches the fish!”  There are two types of bait, Artificial, and Live or Natural baits. When learning to fish with bait, every fisherman you ask will have a different favourite bait. Some of the most popular baits while learning to fish with bait are found last minute or by accident. However, there are only a few that do produce over and over.  At the end of the day the best, bait, lure or person who uses them, and catches fish, then, that’s probably the best bait for fishing when learning to fish with bait.

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Artificial Bait:

These are man made baits and can be the lure or hook itself that is produced or made to imitate the real thing. If you look at Shad Rap, Husky Jerk Minnow, and the many Jointed Minnow hard baits or the Mimic Minnow Shad, Swim’n Grubs, Slurpies Minnow and the many Gulp! Minnow, Powerbait Finesse Worms, 5” Jumbo Leech, Alive Leech or Jumbo Leech, Pork Spin Frog, and Chigger Craws the thing they all have in common is they look like the real thing. Then there are the attractants such as PowerBait Attractant

Live Bait:
These are the real thing, the true living being but there are issues with all live bait and that is (Make sure you can use live bait and what type of live bait) where you will be fishing. Saskatchewan does not allow live minnows, has import restrictions on leeches and worms and some native species such as frogs and salamanders are protected. More issues arise when trying to keep live bait alive and finding a source or supply of bait.

Minnows – RULE ONE of fishing – Fish eat fish! The good hooks and lures all strive to imitate this food source. Why not just use the real thing Minnows.  Minnows have long been known as the greatest bait for fishing, and when it comes to walleye fishing, minnows are incredible bait. The downside of minnows is not all provinces, states or countries allow the use of live minnows and if they are allowed then keeping them alive is a problem. You will find only a few bait shop dealers who will keep shiner minnows during the summer months because they die quickly in the dealers tanks and in the fishermen’s minnow buckets.Two ways to overcome this are: 1) use commercially frozen minnows or 2) many anglers say that the Berkley Gulp minnows are as good as live minnows. Minnows are used for tipping jigs, best fished vertical, bottom fishing or fishing under a bobber.

Worms – Earthworm or Dew Worm are one of the most popular and readily available baits in spring, summer and fall but in northern climates when lakes and ground freezes they are hard to come by. They could very well be the most effective in summer when trolled using a harness or on a rig of gang hooks.  The worm spread out over a series of hooks enables the worm be presented in a natural manner. The biggest problem with worms, are short bites as worms stretch out really long when dead and keeping them alive in the hottest part of the day. In winter you can use meal worms but are hard to find in summer. Meal worms are used to tip jigs, straight J hook or small spoons.

Leeches – Leeches are a great bait for walleye. Ribbon leaches are an excellent bait because because they swim, and squirm constantly after they are placed on the hook when the temperature is above 50deg, but are poor choice below this. Used in the same time frame as worms but there are three big issues with leaches: availability, keeping alive and transportation. Leeches are hard to find most times of the year, they need constant fresh water to live and transporting into some areas is restricted. Leeches used on crawlers and harnesses in summer are very effective but the work to find and keep them may not be worth it.  Gulp does put out a great leech bait and you can buy artificial lures that look just like leeches.

The above 3 are the most used and probably the most successful of live baits to use but here are some other baits – beef heart, fish belly, fish eyes, fish eggs, insects, marsh mellow, corn, cheese balls, maggots and gummy bears.

Yes the gooey gummy bear in multi colors. One time out fishing for walleye we found a real nice spot with lots of perch chasing, following, stealing and being pains in the (&^%$*). We had a young child with us and he was eating gummy bears and accidently dropped one in the water, in seconds there was a school of hundreds mouthing then spitting it out and another taking then spitting it out constantly. We put a gummy bear on a straight J hook and caught fish after fish, what a thing to see. On this day the best bait was the gummy bear.

There have been many fishing surveys published that show fishing for walleye with live bait accounts for over 2/3ds of all walleye that are caught, and is still the preferred choice over artificial lures especially when walleye fishing gets slow.  If you can use live bait, make sure the live bait you choose to fish for walleye, is active and lively. When learning to fish with bait and walleye are agressive or feeding you can get by with a half dead minnow or chewed-up night crawler, but a fresh struggling leech or squirming worm will catch more, bigger or trophy walleye quicker.

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The jig should dance, do the shimmy, glide, twitch, thump bounce and the twist and shout to attract walleye. The jig is the most used lure from any tackle box. Yes, you can simply tie a jig on and throw it over the edge of the boat and you probably will catch fish.  Good job, you caught some, now if you only put that jig to it’s best use you can catch more and bigger fish.  In order to use the jig learn to make the jig dance. If done right and you are concentrating and have the touch you can expect to feel anything from a solid tug, sharp tap to the faintest of line movement. Active walleye will inhale the jig non agressive and non feeding walleye may just mouth the jig and quickly spit it back out. Walleye are notorius for laying just behind your jig and if it turns or twitches just a little they will hit it, mouth it, perhaps more than once giving you a second chance to hook one, or ignore it. Put on your Glades Explorer Hat, Bucket Hat, or Omni-Shade Cachalot Hat, and lets learn to dance.

How To Do The 5 Step Jig Dance:
Step 1: Cast (Down or Out)
Vertical fishing a jig or jigging spoon does not require a cast or throw of the hook. You simply place the rod tip and lure over the side of the boat, open the bail or press the thumb and let the line spool out and your lure sink to the bottom.  TIP: let the lure fall a few feet and stop descent put a little tighten in the line, feel if any weight, then let lure fall some more, repeating the stop until lure hits bottom. Your line will go completely slack and no more will come off your reel. Walleye will take the hook as it falls so if you never stop the hook as it goes down how do you know if you did or did not have a bite already.  Simply reel line in until lure is 2 – 6 inches off bottom and when you drop the rod tip towards the water surface, the lure will rest on bottom. 

Horizontal fishing a jig does require casting or throwing your hook away from you.  Casting is used when you want to cover more water to find fish or to get your lure to a place into or past where the fish are and retrieve your lure through the school of fish.  This can be done by anchoring upwind from where you want to fish and letting the boat float back until it reaches the end of the anchor rope or letting the boat drift and you either fish vertical or cast as the boat floats over the underwater structure. Still when casting again don’t just let the lure sink without any control, you will miss fish strikes.  When you do cast, be safety aware careful of other people in the boat. NEVER make big sweeping casts where the lure swings throught the boat area. Hooks are sharp and hurt when you are caught on one.

Step 2: The Shimmy
You casted and started the dance, controlled the descent, now you need a few moves to attract the prey.  The first is the shimmy, using your rod tip, give 4 or 5 quick little 1 - 2 inch jerks of the line.  This will cause the curly tail or the bristles to move or shimmy, a subtle little move that fools fish into thinking the lure is moving it’s tail or fins and is about to dart away.  Bait fish and smaller fish will either remain motionless, hide or dart away so they do not become lunch, you are imitating this behavior.   

Step 3: The Sweep 
As you jig the lure or retreive your lure you need to move it throught the water. Same as when your dancing you need to glide to areas on the floor and keep moving, so does your lure.Think of the bottom of the lake as the dance floor when casting and the water between you and bottom as the floor when vertical jigging.  If vertical lift the rod two or three feet and let the lure flutter back down, check for weight then let it sit do the shimmy a few times then try another sweep.  Horizontal with the lure on bottom sweep rod forward a foot or two move rod tip back towards hook and wind in line as moving rod, give a shimmy and sweep again. If at any time you feel any resistance set the hook with a quick flick of the wrist, you just caught a walleye. 

Step 4: The Twitch
Almost the same as the shimmy except you are moving the lure 4 – 6 inches at a time. This is for two things to make the lure look like a bait fish that is darting away or a wounded baitfish.  As your doing the sweep you can do the twitch about 6 times then wind in line the same by keeping tension on line as you swing rod back towards lure. Make sure to do a shimmy or short twitch to check for resistance before doing sweep or twitch again.

Step 5: The Thump
You want to do the shout to the twist a few times during the retrieve.  This makes your lure look like a dying baitfish or a baitfish feeding on something on the bottom, plankten, insect or smaller fish.  When vertical jigging simply lift rod tip 4 inches from bottom and drop the rod tip quickly so the lure thumps off the bottom. Raise 4 – 6 inches and drop thump off the bottom. When horizontal you want to move rod tip more than a shimmy but less then the twitch. It is two or three, 2 – 4 inch quick jerks of the rod tip to move the lure about the same distance in quick jumps.

So lets do the dance. Everyone grab your partner and cast the dosey doe. Bow to your partner with a shimmy shake. Now lets move across the floor with a sweep and a twitch or two. Stand in place and thump the floor throw in a shimmy then change your partner with another sweep and a twitch. Repeat the process with the bow.  When you get directly below the boat DO NOT reel your line in quickly do a shimmy a twitch and a thump.  The walleye may have followed your lure all the way but hasn’t made up it’s mind to bite or not give the fish a second or two.   

Tips:
Do not just let the lure fall control the drop
Walleye bite on the fall or stop, not upward or forward
Reel in line as you move the rod back towards the lure
Concentrate on small line movements and slight line tightens
Set the hook if you feel anything different weight, tug or tick
If in doubt set the hook with a flick of the wrist, quicker jerk 

Other Articles:
What are Stinger Hooks
What are Jigs
Walleye Size Chart
Know the Walleye
Know the Sauger
How To Fillet Walleye
Putting On The Ritz Recipe

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Copyright © PRACTICAL SPORTMAN

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