Haven't fished bait in a long time but have good memories of pulling nightcrawlers, catching grasshoppers and craws one at a time as I fished. Presents a whole different appeal to our sport. It's all good. I think it's the best way to introduce a kid and as mentioned it broadens the specie possibilities. Gotta think that a minnow or crawler is going to work anywhere I'm throwing lures.

2 hours ago, Bird said:

I don't know,

As kids we had great success with mad Tom's , crayfish and nightcrawlers but it's gonna fall short compared to today's artificial. 

 

Way to many repeat casts with artificial and reaction strikes you get with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and buzzbaits.

 

Artificial has come to far in mimicking live bait anyway.....there's drop shots, Ned rigs, flukes and a zillion soft plastics.

 

In a tournament, artificial would prevail if that's what your asking. 

 

 

Then why is live bait outlawed in tournaments? 

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Then why is live bait outlawed in tournaments? 

Because someone might throw a snakehead. Lol

I recently bought a Engle Minnow Cooler(13qt) and fish with my 3 1/2 year old son, under Thill micro bobbers like you would see while ice fishing.

Im trying to teach a building block skill to him about smaller fish, catching larger fish. Not exactly the topic of this thread, but I think people put the blinders on when it comes to live bait.

Same thing with squirrel hunting...it seems to be "below" people.

My biggest fish were are caught on live bait.

1 hour ago, Bird said:

Because someone might throw a snakehead. Lol

Haha. You know they are out their throwing their snake heads Monday -Friday before the derby also.....

No they don’t. 

Why?

Think about where you throw a frog.

Where you flip.

Where you skip under docks.

Good luck fish a shiner there

A well presented bait in the proper location is most likely to catch a fish, regardless of whether it's an artificial or live bait.

 

I think the biggest deciding factor is the fish are aggressive or not. Aggressively feeding fish can be caught quickly on artificial baits, while a live bait fisherman will be wasting lots of time rebaiting and could potentially run out of bait even. Finicky fish that are difficult to get to bite are usually much easier to trick into biting if you hold something live right in their faces.

Conditions definitely play a role in the live vs artificial decision. I only fish artificial at this point. I caught 62 bass in one hour from the bank in 43 degee water on a tiny trout colored Rapala. I've never witnessed the equivalent with live bait.

I firmly believe it's whichever one you spend the most time fishing. 

 

That being said, I think live bait has the advantage of catching big bass. Take our world record for example.. live bait. And its because these older bass are more wary and no doubt harder to catch. Unless you put it's main forage right in it's face. It's facts. 

 

My pb is on aritifcal but this goes back to my first sentence. 

All my live bait dies after a few days in back of my car.  the fake stuff swims as soon as it get back in the water. 

 

I even prefer to make my kids fish for bluegills with little jigs as we'll have a 0% fish mortality rate.  if i give them corn or worms, even on circle hooks, they manage to let a few swallow the hook.

It depends on where I'm fishing, but if you gave me nothing but a bucket of minnows or a can of crawlers to use, I probably would probably catch more fish than if you only let me use artificials.

 

But if you let me use only artificials, I probably would catch more bass.

The reasons live bait wasn't allowed for money derbies that evolved into bass tournaments was cheating and a precieved lower skill set using live bait. By eliminating the use of live bait it promotes a more competitive event.

Bill Murphy author of In Pursuit of Gaint Bass dedicates chapters to live bait fishing  and lure fishing, both require skills to do effectively.

Some bass are not catchable using artificial lures and may require specialized live bait presentations to catch these bass. When I was fishing the San Deigo city lakes in the 60's live bait was thought to be the only method to catch big Florida strain LMB and everyone in the Picses bass club fished live bait when I was a member. Bill Murphy and most top trophy bass anglers in California were live bait anglers at one time or another.

I stopped using live bait to target big bass in the early 70's because I felt it was unsporting to use live bait during the spawn cycle. Looking back restricting myself to artifical lures only reduced my chances at catching a world record bass.

Tom

If you fish mostly with live bait, that's what you're going to report as working for you.  Likewise with artificials.

On 9/17/2019 at 7:52 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Then why is live bait outlawed in tournaments? 

The bass fishing industry wants bass fishermen to continue buying lures and whatever else professional tournament bass fishermen recommend people to buy. It is to their best interest that people buy lots of lures and other fishing tackle related to lure fishing. There is little to no money to be made if people catch their own bait compared to buying lures. With that said I feel it is easier to catch a 5 bass limit on lures than only using live bait. You can fish lures in more varied conditions compared to live bait.

On 9/18/2019 at 1:36 AM, GreenPig said:

Conditions definitely play a role in the live vs artificial decision. I only fish artificial at this point. I caught 62 bass in one hour from the bank in 43 degee water on a tiny trout colored Rapala. I've never witnessed the equivalent with live bait.

I caught 149 bass in less than 6 hours of fishing from the bank, all on lures. Lost count of +50 bass days all on lures. I doubt I can do that with live bait since I will be limited by how much bait I have. You can easily catch +50 bass on the same jerkbait, the same cannot be said for 1 live shiner.

7 hours ago, Ratherbfishing said:

If you fish mostly with live bait, that's what you're going to report as working for you.  Likewise with artificials.

I have spent countless hours trying to make artificial work

On 9/17/2019 at 4:37 PM, Big Rick said:

By the way, you win the prize for longest thread title...

You beat me to this response.  When the thread title is longer than the post, the author may want to rethink his strategy.

 

The title should be just a short summary of the post.  The post is used to get into the details.  Doing it the other way is like trying to listen to a 4 year old telling a story.  The beginning, middle & end are all mixed up, important details are left out, kind of like a Tarantino film.

 

The title of this thread should have been "Live Bait vs. Artificials".  The experiences you had talking with seasoned anglers should have been part of the post.

On 9/17/2019 at 1:46 PM, A-Jay said:

What about combining live bait with an artificial lure ?

Like throw an A-Rig with one or two live minnows added to the spread . . 

That could be crazy . . . 

A-Jay

Very true. I’d triple the laughing emoticon if I could. Dare I say I’ve dropshotted with nightcrawlers (live), squid and shrimp (bait but not live). The horror!

Many years ago, while Bill Dance was doing a crappie show using crappie jigs,  he said "Most people use live minnows but I don't have a live minnow sponsor."  

 

If Joe's Bait Shop would start sponsoring major pros,  maybe live bait would get a little more respect.  ?

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Many years ago, while Bill Dance was doing a crappie show using crappie jigs,  he said "Most people use live minnows but I don't have a live minnow sponsor."  

 

If Joe's Bait Shop would start sponsoring major pros,  maybe live bait would get a little more respect.  ?

with the artificial crappie baits made today there's no need for live bait ... they're that good ...

 

each to his own ...

 

good fishing ...

I'm not the type of angler that can sit on a spot for hours, drinking beer while listening to a ballgame, or whatever. Heck I don't spend more that 30-45min. on a spot even when I'm catching fish.

I'll sit at home, in the air conditioning, watching the bait monkey viewing monkey porn before I'd do that. It's much more entertaining and my recliner loves my booty.

It depends on the body of water & the health of the fishery. A group of guys & I used to fish three farm ponds in south Georgia exclusively with live shiners. The ponds held some big fish 9-10 lbs but were mostly over populated. We caught numbers & quality. After a couple of trips I decided to try artificials only to compete against the two other guys to determine which was the most successful. Using wacky rigged senkos we determined that the hassle of buying (expense) & keeping the live bait alive wasn't worth it. The senkos were just as effective & more user friendly. I ended up catching my PB at the time on a LC pointer from one of the ponds. Winner artificials. 

 

Now my experience in fishing public waters in Florida gives the edge to live bait hands down. I know some professional guides in FL who will only fish live bait. One guy in particular has caught 100 trophy bass this year 2019 entered in the state run trophy bass program exclusively on live bait. Minimum weight to qualify is 8lbs submitted to the state with a picture of the fish on a scale showing the actual weight. This same individual has three 13lb plus bass to his guiding credit. 

 

My experiences on lake Erie fishing for smallmouth always gave the edge to artificials over live bait. My success with artificials with good enough I never really considered live bait as an option. It just wasn't necessary.  

My vote is live bait.  I've caught bass on live bait after failing to catch them on a lure several times.  I believe a bass (or any fish for that matter) will choose to eat a live bait over a lure in most instances.  There are always exceptions of course.  The question is whether or not live bait is necessary to catch fish.  The obvious answer is no, and lures are much more convenient, faster and allow an angler to cover water.

 

28 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

. Using wacky rigged senkos we determined that the hassle of buying (expense) & keeping the live bait alive wasn't worth it. The senkos were just as effective & more user friendly.

Possibly the first post I've seen on BR in praise of the cost (and durability) of senkos 

Can you catch an alligator with a rubber chicken?

Fish bite live bait when hungry. Fish will bite lures even when not hungry.