Live Bait Bass

This is something I want to try this year but I have no idea how!

I have a small creek by my house that has chubs and creek shiners (golden and silver) when the water gets warmer, so in another month I will have a supply of unlimted bait. Most shiners are in the 4-6″ range, but I’ve caught chubs up to 10″ with regularly, biggest being a 14″ horny head. Is there a preference on bait species?

I tried netting there today and its still too early. Didn’t see any chubs or suckers yet (its crystal clear), but did see a school of small river shiners go by and netted a couple for crappie fishing.

I think I remember a video where James was fishing for bass with sucker minnows, but I cannot locate it.

How do I fish them? Under a big bobber or weightless and just drag them along?

I know, live bait is taboo in the bass world.. I love fishing plastics but I just want to try something different! Who knows, might get a big pike or walleye as well!

I put them on a hair jig and crawl along bottom. Seen guys use floats with circle hooks do quite well. Kind of depends on current and area what I would do.

Don’t waste such good bait on bass.

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Don’t waste such good bait on bass.

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x2 Bass eat everything. Save the big chubs for pike and cats, use the shiners for walleyes.

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x2 Bass eat everything. Save the big chubs for pike and cats, use the shiners for walleyes.

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Bass don’t always eat everything. One day last Spring I was fishing from shore at a community hole that was loaded with bass, but I wasn’t catching much of anything. A guy showed up with a bunch of shiners he had caught himself and started catching bass immediately. He was kind enough to offer share the shiners with me, and I started getting bit on every cast. After about 1/2 hour of only catching bass, the guy was after walleye, he gave me the shiners and left.

I fish them in the fall on a jig worm jig or a split shot rig.

Not a big enough population of pike here to target, but we usually get lucky and boat a couple in the early spring. I don’t fish for cats other than tossing some stinkbait out in the summer when everything else is slow.

When I was little, me and the neighbor kids used to take a big blue tub down there and fill it full of chubs in a couple hours. Probably 2-300. Once I got older I started fishing it for smallies, and there was always chubs in there. Should be no problem at all to get enough bait for a week in a half hour.

Is live bait more of a summer/fall type bait or year around? Seems like this early in the year the fish would be a little sluggish, but maybe not! Like I said, completely new to this! Only live bait I’ve fished for bass is the odd live crawler tossed into a bed while bluegill fishing in the spring.

In Florida we use large shiners on bobbers best way to catch big bass. Okeechobee known for that. Most bigger bass caught on shiners.

I use livebait all year long, and all my big fish last year came on a shiner and sucker. A lot of the time though artificial is just the way to go, more efficient. I would bring them along, but I’d start with my plastics and or raps first and if they are finicky go to live. Just BC you got it doesn’t mean that’s what they will respond best to.

I use the live bait in the fall for smallmouth…works 3 to 1 for me over artificial that time of year.

A bit off topic, but has anyone used the Uncle Josh “Meat” products? Worms, pork, etc. Wondering how it truly compares to live bait?

I have used the strips as a trailer for johnson silver minnows, but have not used any of them by themselves like you would a plastic. They did work very well as trailers though!

I’ve used small suckers for bass. Personally I think jumbo leeches are to Minnesota bass as shiners are to Okeechobee bass.