Does anybody try to catch their own minnows or raise their own worms?

I've been fishing several times lately, the crappie are biting like crazy, and my bait expense is just too darn expensive. At $3.00 per dozen minnows, 1 dozen is not a budget breaker, but to buy many dozen is getting too much, due to the fact the fish are biting like crazy. My soil is nasty old red clay and worms don't do well in it.

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), May 04, 2002

Answers

We just go down to the creek with rubber boots and a net. Minnows and crayfish galore!! Find a little creek and you'll be amazed at what you can catch.

-- Cindy (ilovecajun@aol.com), May 04, 2002.

Try getting some artificial bait..

Make jigs from buck tails..etc. Check with a local tackle shop or Cabelo's Catalog for making your own. They are fun to make and reusable.

Just a thought. Good Fishing.

-- milam (Milam@nospam.com), May 04, 2002.

Get a white jig that has a red eye. Put a slip bobber on and cast the jig out then bring it in with small jerks making the jig jump up and down. Clean the crappie with electric knife then call me just before they are ready to take out of the skillet.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), May 04, 2002.

Try canned corn kernels, chicken hearts or livers or whatever is cheap with small hooks and very light line. Keep your rod up. Invite me. When they are really biting they will probably go for cig butts, grass or bits of yarn. Yum.

-- MartyB (mebtn@hotmail.com), May 04, 2002.

I raise red worms in a styrofoam cooler in the kitchen. They are always ready to go fishing when I am. I fish for catfish so I have to use several at one time. The crawfish are everywhere right now because of all the rain we have had. Look for muddy ditch water, and you can rake them out of the ditches with garden rakes. I also have a 1/4 inch hardware cloth minnow trap that can be set out to trap small perch and minnows. The only time I buy bait is when my husband goes fishing. He thinks if it doesn't cost money, it won't catch fish. Crickets and grasshoppers catch fish too. Especially crappie, perch, and bass. The crickets are out now and the hoppers will be along shortly. Good luck.

-- Robin Downing (Southpawrobin1@aol.com), May 04, 2002.

When I was a kid--we would take a sane to the creek than throw M-80's in the water. We would stun hundred of minnows at a time than put them in 5 gallon buckets and con dear ole dad into driving us out to the bait shop. I think we got a dime a dozen from that guy. Those were the days of tax free business.

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), May 04, 2002.

Hey Gene, hope you are having some good luck fishin'. I caught about a dozen this evening.(Sandbass) Would of caught more but I had my little girls with me and they was tired and wantin' to go home.

I know what you mean by getting expensive when it comes to buying minnows. I use tube jigs alot anymore, they seem to be about the cheapist thing to buy and come in a lot of colors. Tie a jig head on and you can keep changing the tubes or curley tails until you find a color that they are biting on. This evening I was catching mine on a red head and chartrues curly tail.

However I can remember a time or two when all the jig fishermen around me couldn't catch a thing while I was slaying them on live minnows. But I have always had a hard time finding minnows along the lake/river when the crappie and sandbass are biting. I do live next to a cold spring fed creek that is loaded with minnows, but I have a hard time keeping them alive. The spring creek has a lot more oxygen in the water than a lake or river. When you take a spring creek minnow and place him in river or lake water he kind of suffocates. It is best if you can find minnows from the actual water that you are going to be fishing in.

Worms are kind of easy to find right now sense we are getting weekly rains. Just look under a bunch of leaves along creek and river banks. They are taking advantage of all the newly compost on the grounds.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), May 04, 2002.

On grasshoppers, I remember reading where one guy rigged up a catch tray on the front of a car and drove through high grass in fields. Caught and sold bunches. Something similar might be rigged up for an ATV.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), May 05, 2002.

What is a Sandbass ? I'm sure I must know it by a different name. Is it a red eye ?

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), May 05, 2002.

A sand bass, or "sandie" is the official state fish of Oklahoma. It's a white bass, basically.

I caught close to 40 crappie in 2 hours the other night, using minnows. What I am wondering is if anyone seines for their own minnows or raises their own worms. I'm not interested in chicken livers, shrimp, artificial lures etc. Thanks.

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), May 05, 2002.

Minnow trap, that's the answer. I keep a couple out most of the summer. They need to be fairly well hidden where there are minnows. I like culverts in small creeks, where there is not sufficient water for ordinary fishing. Use crackers or bread for bait, and if you would also like some crawfish add anything meaty to the bait like chicken bones or fish heads. I check mine once or twice a week, and am usually provided with all the bait that I need.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), May 05, 2002.

If you set the hook properly when you get a strike, it is pretty easy to recover your bait for the next catch. It is a little harder if they swallow eveything, but you gotta recover the hook so you might as well recover the bait, too.

Then again, my family invented copper wire by fighting over pennies.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@somewhere.com), May 05, 2002.