Fishing with Terrestrial Live Baits -- Part Three Crickets

Many experts consider this bait rather overrated. Crickets are popular with commercial growers, because they are easy to grow, but crickets are delicate enough to require the finest wire hooks, and frequent bait changes. The do catch a lot of panfish. A number of species confuse choice, but most store-bought types are the large black field crickets that, like grasshoppers, reach peak size and numbers just before fall freezes. Catching crickets is easy. Most local species fall to traps made from hollowed bread or coffee cans , baited with bread and sugar and left out overnight. Picking crickets up and putting them in a bait container can be like getting slumber party of 12 year old girls settled down in the giggle ghetto. Some use cardboard scoops to grab crickets. One imaginative type uses a cordless vacuum cleaner to collect crickets that are dumped into holding cans. You can also flood a good cricket spot and, since crickets don't like water, they'll move out to where you can catch them. Hooking crickets through the back with a size 8 or 10 fine wire hook works. So do hooks with a bit of wire soldered on their shank -- use the wire to tie on the cricket. Tiny rubber bands from your neighborhood orthodontist and self-adhesive thread used for spawn bag fishing all deserve a try. Most methods work for a time -- sort of!

CRICKET CONDOS Raising crickets isn't difficult . A large container like a garbage can filled with six inches of damp sand is basic. Cover the top with a wire screen. Plastic containers may be slick enough to keep crickets from climbing out. Otherwise, use coat the top ten inches or so of the container with spray on floor wax or polish so crickets can't climb out.. Cover the sand with straw and add a couple of dozen crickets -- you can, if you like, sex crickets by their terminal tube on the tail. Half of each sex is ideal. Add a small container with poultry mash and a saucer half-full of water that's filled with cotton so young crickets don't drown. As an alternative, put a small screened container of crickets in a warm, dry place like the top of your hot water heater . If you plan to grow crickets all year you need warmth. Growth slows in winter. At 80 degrees it takes crickets about three months to mature. At 60 degrees you can wait much, much longer. So as the temperatures drop add an aquarium or terrarium heater, of simply a light bulb in the container can keep it warm enough for year-round production.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic