Live Bait Fishing Tips |
| Some ways to get it and keep it.
Nightcrawlers
Turn over a spot of dirt and spread moist, matted hay or straw over it to attract them.
Alot of people go out looking for them at night, but many times it's better in the early AM, especially following an all night light rain or drizzle. They are likely to be farther from their holes, ergo easier to catch, and they're easier to see in the light.
Night stalkers should wait a few hours, until they're out of their holes. If their tails are still anchored, they can rapidly retreat at the slightest vibe or light.
Cover the lens of your light with red plastic or a piece of red cellophane. Red light doesn't affect our night vision and the worms don't seem to be affected by it.
Check established lawns for them. Newly seeded or sodded lawns might not have them for years.
It's easier to pick-up wet ones off the pavement with a spatula.
Make a worm fiddle. Take a 2" x 2", 30 inches long and make 3/8" saw cuts about 1/2" apart on one side. Drive it into the ground 1' or so and rapidly rub up and down with a cut-off, 12 - 16" long, 1" wooden dowel or broom handle.
Look for them during and after a prolonged light rain. They don't like hard, heavy rain or temps below 50 degrees.
When fishing, bury a resealable plastic bag filled with icecubes in the dirt to keep them cool on hot days. The baggie will hold the ice melt and not get the bedding soggy.
Leeches
Sometimes leeches ball up no matter what you do, especially if the water temp. is below 50 degrees. Put a piece of surgical tubing on the shank of the hook or jig, hook the leech far enough back to let the sucker attach to the tube.
Leeches will start to mature and spawn when water temps. reach 50+ degrees and accelerate as the temps rise, even if returned to cold water. Put icecubes in your bucket to prevent it.
Keep them in a styrofoam bucket in the fridge at about 38 degrees. Keeping an extra bucket of water in the fridge will give you chlorine free water to use to change the water in your leech pail every few days.
Keep unused leeches from the days fishing in a separate container to keep any dead or dying ones away from healthy ones.
Dead leeches will keep for several days in cold water and in the fridge, if you're a catfisherman.
Minnows
Minnow and bait fish have to be acclimated to water temps. A temp. change of 10 degrees can kill them, so if you add ice, do it carefully.To acclimate them, place the unopened oxy pack into the water and let it sit for 45 minutes or so. By then the water temp. should have equalized allowing you to open the pack.
Any dead minnows can be dried in the sun for several hours for later use. Lay them on a screen so both sides can dry and toughen up. They can then be frozen.
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