Help!!Good lures...tired of trying to find live bait!!!

[wilsonjg]

I am getting lazy in my old years. Give me your best advice for catching Reds and Trout and Bass in coastal Ga waters using your favorite lure. Tell me what you use and how you use it. Don't worry, I catch and release everything, so I am not taking your fish. Just want to have a little fun without spending half my day searching for live bait.Thanks

 

[Xenos]

Re: Help!!Good lures...tired of trying to find live bait!!!

I have never been fond of using live bait, I personally can’t understand why anyone would want to deplenish our lakes of a natural food source. For bass fishing I prefer using flipping tubes (black /blue) and white spinner baits. For trout I have had a lot of success using gold Cyclops’s. I have never fished costal waters but with the science put into today’s lures I am sure they work anywhere.

 

[Pursuit2150]

Re: Help!!Good lures...tired of trying to find live bait!!!

When I go to a tackle shop, I look at all the variaties, of lures and plugs, etc, then I say to myself, "self? Will that work?" Then I buy them, and sometimes they work, sometimes, Don't. That's why I have a tackle box of stuff,that I could make money on if I had a garage sale. But I keep trying.!!!

 

[steve forsythe]

Re: Help!!Good lures...tired of trying to find live bait!!!

Xenos...the rush that comes from a fish hitting a live bait, in his natural setting, doesnt even compare to lures. Offshore we jig up bait off the bottom and put it in the bait tank. When you have a couple of 75lb amberjacks near the boat, sure you could jig a lure near them and maybe they will hit it. But drop a live fish in front of them and they will explode out of the water almost before the bait hits! Same with Lgmouth bass. I used to live in Florida and i could catch a bass on almost anything...but throw a live 8" fat shiner in there and the lake will get electric! You will haul the BIGGEST of all the fish out with live bait!

 

[derwood]

Re: Help!!Good lures...tired of trying to find live bait!!!

I agree with purse snatcher. i love to fish with live bait. there is a small canal down here in FL. next to a mine. In the winter the trout and snook will come in to the canal to get into some warmer water. at the first twinkle of light when i free line a shrimp.... man look out. my grandfather showed me that if you fish with more than one rod you can cover more water. he always had a second rod rigged for plugs. he liked the mirrolures and used them a lot. he caught a lot of fish on them. he would not let me fish with the plugs for a long time, just told me to watch for a while. i did and i did learn. my grandfather and to great uncles were great fisherman and when they spred out a little and did there own thing (all fished 2 poles)I just sat back with my shrimp and bobber and took it in. They started me at 5 years old and he let me start throwing plugs at about ten. buy then i new what to expect . i am 33 now and my grandfather and uncles are dead but i won't forget what they taught me. funny that i never got the hang of the mirrorlures. I found that the lures that do the best job at being alive work best.(for me anyway)D.O.A. shrimp{worked slow}, top water deals that look like ingured bait fish work good. I don't buy the fat stupid looking ones because they don't work real well for me. I buy the ones that look like what the fish eat in the wild. after all when i am fishing with a lure i am the bait and that lure is just a stick. for better luck with sinking lures you would be better off asking one of the other guys on this fourm. if i cant see it or know just what it is doing i have trouble makeing fish strike. try a popper and fly rod for bass and work the popper like a frog. the bass around here go nuts over that. my granfather also had another trick when trying to catch pan fish if you fish for them. he would take a cane pole and wrap about 6 or 8 feet of line around the tip of the pole. to the end of that he tied a dry fly that looked like a water wasp. he would go arround the lake to the spots that you would not dare throw a spining bait from shore and slowly stick the pole out over the water when he saw a little action in that area. he would then twist out about 2 or 3 feet of line and tap the water lightly with the fly then land it there for a second or two. then BAMB. they almost stuck a white flag out of the water and walked down his pole and into his creel. i hope that this has helped a little. zen fishing... be one with the lure.