CRAWLERS, LEECHES, OR MINNOWS?? 
By Bob Jensen

At certain times of the year, live bait is a great way to catch fish. In fact, there are times when nothing will work as well as live bait. However, there are lots of different types of live bait. Leeches, crawlers, minnows, frogs, crawfish, grasshoppers, crickets, they’re all popular with live bait anglers at one time of another. However, in the Midwest, for most species of fish, crawlers, leeches, or minnows will often be the bait of choice. Selecting the right bait can be the difference between a good catch and no catch.

It is often thought that during the summer months, leeches and crawlers will be the most productive for walleyes or smallmouth bass. Most of the time that assumption is accurate. A crawler or a leech on a Roach Rig has been the undoing of lots of these fish. The best way to tell which is the “bait of choice” on any particular day is by trial and error. If two anglers are fishing from the same boat, one should try the leech, the other the crawler. If one bait is more productive, both anglers should go to that bait, or one angler should abandon the unproductive bait and go to a minnow.

There are times in the summer when minnows can be very productive. All sorts of fish eat minnows in the spring and autumn, and they will eat them in the summer as well. However, baitfish populations are at a season high in the summer, and it’s hard to make a minnow on a hook look different enough to attract consideration from a walleye, bass, or pike.

If you can see fish on your sonar, and they won’t hit a leech or crawler, be sure to hook a shiner or a redtail-chub onto a jig and drop it down there. Not many fish can resist that presentation during any season.

The reason many anglers don’t mess with minnows in the summer is that they can be hard to keep. If you have the right aerating minnow bucket though, it’s no problem to keep bait alive. The Aqua-Life Bait Station runs on power from your boat or batteries and produces lots of little bubbles that keep bait alive even on the hottest day. Keep the water cool and keeping minnows will be no problem.

One question that beginning live bait anglers always have is when to set the hook. Again, experimentation is the key. Let the first fish go for ten seconds, then set the hook. If that works, stick with it. If you miss the fish, let the next one go a little longer. It seems like fish usually take leeches the most aggressively. Often you can set the hook right away.

I’ve seen times when it was necessary to let the fish have a crawler twenty or thirty seconds, but that doesn’t happen very often. Usually a fish will have the crawler in its mouth in just a few seconds, especially if you’re using a colored hook or have a bead on the line ahead of the hook.

Keep your crawlers and leeches cool in the boat. Fish don’t want dried up scraggly bait anymore than you would want a piece of pizza that smells and looks bad. Good bait catches fish.

From now until the water freezes, live bait will be a good selection for a variety of fish. Let the fish show you what live bait is most appealing to them, then give it to them. You’ll find yourself catching more fish if you give the fish what they want to eat, not what you want them to eat.