School me on live bait. I haven't used it since I was a kid. Since my BC has taken over as my go to lure rod, my spinning setup is now for weightless plastics and I'm thinking some live bait and other alternative baits. It would be nice to use a drop shot setup and put it over the side of the canoe  and just wait while I fish lures with the baitcaster. My one problem is smallies love live bait and chew it to hell. how do I get the bait away from them exactly? In fact, i've thought of just catching a small blue gill, putting a big circle hook through um and drop shotting him over the side in deep water. 

You don't want to catch the smallmouth bass that are biting? Are you sure it's smallmouth that are tearing up your bait and not other panfish?

You don't want to catch the smallmouth bass that are biting? Are you sure it's smallmouth that are tearing up your bait and not other panfish?

I agree. Usually when I fish with live bait, the panfish tear up the live bait in seconds. That's why I don't use it anymore. Unless you want to use bigger minnows or shiners, it's the reality you have to face when fishing live bait.

A good alternative would be Berkley Gulp Alive 3" or 4" minnow, or any good soft plastic finesse worm drop shot rigged.

Fishing to 2 rods may not be legal and leaving a rod unattended while fishing with another usually leads to problems like gut hooking.

Live bait isn't a magic cure all technique, it takes attention to detail and requires a lot of preparation to keep live bait alive, unless you buy it and use a minnow bucket.

Tom

I use

School me on live bait. In fact, i've thought of just catching a small blue gill, putting a big circle hook through um and drop shotting him over the side in deep water.

I use this technique with large gizzard and alewife(6"+) but I use a saltwater spinning setup and I don't "drop and forget", because it gets bit, and usually by some bigger fish.

You don't want to catch the smallmouth bass that are biting? Are you sure it's smallmouth that are tearing up your bait and not other panfish?

I don't have small mouth bass in my lake. I'm talking about sunfish like blue gill and such.

A good alternative would be Berkley Gulp Alive 3" or 4" minnow, or any good soft plastic finesse worm drop shot rigged.

Fishing to 2 rods may not be legal and leaving a rod unattended while fishing with another usually leads to problems like gut hooking.

Live bait isn't a magic cure all technique, it takes attention to detail and requires a lot of preparation to keep live bait alive, unless you buy it and use a minnow bucket.

Tom

there are no limits on the amount of rods that I can use.

I don't have small mouth bass in my lake. I'm talking about sunfish like blue gill and such.

I was confused when you said "My one problem is smallies love live bait and chew it to hell"  "Smallies" for most of us is short for smallmouth bass.

I was confused when you said "My one problem is smallies love live bait and chew it to hell"  "Smallies" for most of us is short for smallmouth bass.

haha its fine. we call sunfish kivers and smallies. what do you think about using blue gill as bait on drop shot rig?

If you are going to fish live bait, fish live bait. I focus intently on whatever technique I am using at the time, because fishing two techniques at once results in sloppy presentation most of the time because you will be worried about the other rod, or it will get hung up, etc.

 

If I was going to fish live bait, I would have quite a few rods out covering different depths, like striper fishing.

 

Also, live bait doesn't listen as well as an artificial when you tell it to do something.