I’ve personally been live bait fishing for freshwater fish for more than 20 years, and in that time have learned a few things that anyone who fishes with live bait should know. In this article, I will outline 3 live bait fishing tips that will help anyone who fishes with live bait experience much more success.
These tips are 3 of the more important tips when it comes to live bait fishing. Are they the only tips? Of course not, but if someone wanted to know 3 tips that would help them catch more fish, these 3 would be them. Any or all of them will certainly help you catch more fish on your next fishing excursion.
Before I get down to the tips themselves keep in mind that live bait needs to be alive. You always want to keep your bait, whether it’s worms, minnows, insects, or anything as lively as possible. When it come to live bait fishing your bait need to be alive.
Use Light Line – This tip is true for all types of fishing, but its especially true when it comes to live bait fishing. When the fish looks at the bait, you don’t want them to see your line. The lighter your line, the less visible your line will be to the fish. This tip is especially true when fishing in clear water situations. The use of light line isn’t as important in stained or muddy water, but it still has an impact. The bottom line is that you want to use line that’s as light as possible when live bait fishing. Use Small Sharp Hooks – Many people who use live bait for fishing use hooks that are much too large for the fish they are targeting. Once again, when fish look at the bait we don’t want them to see the hooks (if possible). Of course a portion of the hook will be visible, but the smaller the hooks are the better off you will be. One of the best tactics as far as hooks are concerned when live bait fishing is the use of gang hooks. These hooks enable live bait to be presented in a totally natural and effective manner. Not only do your hooks need to be small, they should also be sharp. This means either changing them frequently (after ever couple of fish) or sharpening them with a hooks sharpener. Sharp hooks mean more hook ups, its as simple as that. Clean Your Hands – Here’s our goal; to have our bait smell like it should, free of any unnatural odors. Our hands carry all kinds of unnatural odors that will “turn fish off”, so to speak. Making sure that your hands are free of unnatural odors is a must when live bait fishing. This can be accomplished by using odor neutralizing soap, or by simply rubbing your hands in weeds or gravel before baiting up. Clean your hands and you will get more bites. This tip is especially true with larger, more experienced fish
When it comes to fishing with live bait, these 3 tips will definitely help you catch more fish. I would suggest that you add one or all of them to your fishing repertoire. You’ll be glad you did.