Freshwater
fishing is unique as there is an extremely wide range of baits
available to the anglers. Examples of the wide selection are flies,
corn, lures and many more. Below I will discuss the various types of
bait.
Frogs
Frogs are a useful bait and they can be used
dead or
alive to target a number of species such as catfish namely sharptooth catfish. To ensure a solidly hooked frog, make
sure you wipe off the slime on the frogs body before hooking them.
Frogs can be caught with a fine mesh.
Crickets
Crickets can be used to target species such as Yellowfish, catfish and
any other hungry and scavenging fish that might swim by. Common
crickets can be found in gardens under rocks or bricks. A tip when
hunting for them is to use a torch during the night.
Snails
& Slugs
Certain species such as carp and catfish love snails. The common method
of using them will be crushing them and then hooking the snail/slug
onto the hook. Prime time to collect snails and slugs will be after
heavy rains or before a storm.
Maggots
Maggots are a classic
bait and nowadays they can be purchased from most fishing shops. Dead
maggots will be eaten by most fish, but one cannot get anything better
than a live maggot. Many anglers are able to grow their own maggots by
leaving a piece of meat out for flies to land on. Maggots can
be kept in the fridge.
Worms Worms
are the freshwater anglers all time favourite and there is a
reason for this. The more active the worm, the more attention it will
attract. Worms can be found under objects and in moist soil. Keeping
them is easily done in a sealed plastic bag or container with damp soil
or newspaper. The picture on the left is a handful of earthworms which
are the most common type of worm used for freshwater fishing bait.
Fish
As with saltwater fishing and all other types of fishing, a small fish
will catch a big fish. In the case of freshwater fishing it is exactly
the same principle. Small fish that are caught and used as live bait
are excellent and the results from that can be highly rewarding. Dead
fish can also be used, but in the case of predators such as Tigerfish, live bait will attract their attention and the Tigerfish
will hunt the crippled bait.
Squid
(Commonly known as Chokka)
Squid is a strong, leather like bait that is suitable for a number of
species. The fresher the squid, the better it will perform. A
disadvantage of squid is that it is expensive.
