FISH FOOD

OUT OF BAIT? PET AND GROCERY STORES CAN KEEP YOU IN THE GAME

BY CRAIG MITCHELL

WHEN YOU CAN’T find what you want at your usual bait store, sometimes it pays to think outside the tacklebox and head to your local grocer or pet shop. They carry a wide variety of relatively inexpensive items that can also make for very effective—and perfectly legal—baits. Of course, be sure to first check your local bait restrictions, which vary from province to province, and sometimes from one body of water to the next. And never use exotic live fish or other critters as bait, which can devastate native populations if they survive and gain a foothold. Otherwise, a whole new range of bait options awaits.

GROCERY STORES Not just a source for canned corn when you’re angling for the likes of carp, panfish or stocked trout, grocery stores also offer a wide variety of other bait choices, from canned snails to frozen seafood. They can even be an affordable source for large dead baits, such as inexpensive frozen mackerel. Chicken livers are another cheap bait date. Want to save even more money? Ask the fish monger or butcher if you can have any scraps.

Frozen, fresh or canned sardines, shrimp, squid and other dead sea creatures of various sizes can also be used for different angling purposes. Whether you’re targeting panfish with small pieces of shrimp, trying to land a trophy pike with a mackerel on a deadstick or hooking into catfish using thawed sardines for cut bait, your options are only limited by your own creativity.

PET STORES Most pet stores carry food for a wide range of different pets, many of which have similar diets to the fish species we target. For example, reptiles love to eat a variety of live insects and invertebrates that trout, panfish and more would also happily devour. As a bonus, reptile food is also often available frozen or vacuum-sealed, making it easy to transport and preserve.

Among the potential baits available at many pet stores are crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms, butterworms, silkworms and roaches. My favourites, however, include hornworms, superworms, trout worms and waxworms. Bright blue or green in colour, hornworms are at the expensive end (averaging $1.50 each); they come in a variety of sizes, up to four inches in length. Similar to mealworms but five times larger, superworms sell for an economical $2 per dozen, while trout worms—a classic trout and panfish bait—go for $7 a dozen. As for waxworms, these small white grubs are an ice-fishing staple, particularly good for catching panfish. They cost a reasonable $3 per dozen. OC

Largemouth Bass

So many largemouth bass techniques involve stout gear to flip and pitch heavy jigs, but my buddy Matt Straw recently dialed me into an outrageously effective finesse approach instead. He starts with a 1⁄8-ounce Terminator Finesse Jig, which he dresses with a soft-plastic skirt (a quality pre-skirted jig will work almost as well). He then adds a Kalin’s Lunker Grub or PowerBait Power Grub and slowly swims the rig through emerging weed tops and along weed edges. Every so often, he twitches his rod tip—or stops reeling altogether—letting the offering fall to the bottom. Both manoeuvres cause the skirt to flare, triggering violent strikes in the process. A seven-foot six-inch mediumaction spinning rod and reel spooled with six-pound Maxima Ultragreen monofilament is ideal, with the long rod letting you make longer casts and cushioning the light line.

—GORD PYZER

Smallmouth Bass

Fishing a spybait is possibly my favourite smallmouth bass technique, because when the fish want it, they’ll crave it above everything else. And while a spybait may look like a small meal, a big bronzeback will totally crush it—if you keep these key details in mind. First, spool on four- to six-pound-test fluorocarbon line. Not only is it near-invisible, it also sinks, helps you maintain speed and depth control, and doesn’t overpower the lure. Next, reel in extremely slowly. If you already think you’re crawling your spybait back to the boat, slow down even more. Finally, don’t impart twitches or any other action on the lure, even though you may think it looks static coming through the water. With spybaits, less is always more.

—GORD PYZER