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BAIT FISHING JUSTIFIED: Part three of three: REALITY vs. THEORY

© Louis Bignami

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Today's urban and suburban fisherman can use live bait to take a variety of game fish near home to save on transit costs, and more important time.. Invest in a five-foot ultra light rig and neighborhood panfish your challenge skills. Consider a simple cane pole for the small fry; add a bobber, small hook and a lively worm and you eliminate tackle hassle. Fishing with live bait can be simple. If should be cheap, because terminal tackle costs little. You can save even more if you make your own bobbers, cast your own weights and wrap your own rods to spread the attractions of the sports to bad weather months. . Don't buy the "dumb bait type" bit either! Bait fishing need not be a "no brainer" method. It can be the most complex form of fishing available in fresh water!

Author's wife, Annette with a seven plus pound brown trout baited up from a lake just 20 minutes from their California home. Note: low water year meant zero fish survival so fish was kept.

Consider the options! There are over 1,000 different live baits possible if you add up the species of minnows, baitfish, worms, leeches, frogs, toads, salamanders, crayfish, shrimp, aquatic insects, terrestrial insects and larvae. Compound this with double rigs that let you offer two, or more baits at a time. Consider the complications of hook choices to suit the variety of live bait sizes and types, the addition of dead or preserved baits, and the host of bobbers designed for different techniques in still and moving waters. Compound the many bobbers, sinkers and lure/bait combinations possible and it's very clear that mastery of live bait fishing in all its aspects is as likely as winning the state lottery. Fortunately, one need not master everything to catch fish first time out, but it's comforting to know the challenge never ends.

COST CONSIDERATIONS

It's vital to understand bait-fishing costs less. Decent line, an assortment of bobbers, weights and hooks and some bait put you in business. You can make bobbers, cast weights, wrap rods and snell your own hooks at considerable savings too. It's a nice diversion during fall's NFL games. You don't need expensive tackle. A rod and reel suited to your quarry and techniques and you're equipped. Separate the nice from the necessary. Mid-range tackle works nicely. If, for example, you fish with bobbers and vision is the key to connecting with fish, you don't need the graphite rod that can improve results when bottom bouncing bait. On some species you can take more fish with the simple cane pole that remains the best way to start small fry in pursuits piscatorial.

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