Keeping and Using Crickets

Crickets are wonderful bait for panfish, trout and other species, but they can be hard to find when you need them and harder still to keep them and tote them to the water. So here's how to catch and keep crickets with minimal trouble and, if you keep your containers in the garage, minimal spousal abuse

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.

Toting hoppers on the stream or lake remains a problem for those too timid to pocket a few that are rolled up in a women's nylon stocking. All sorts of commercial contraptions work some of the time. Anyone who has loaded a batch of cool, dormant hoppers into a container, then opened the container in the heat of the day, knows how hoppers got their name. To tote a few hoppers, consider film canisters punched full of holes . Add one or two hoppers per container and you avoid mass escapes. Smaller hoppers can also work in cricket holders. You can also add a bit of Velcro(tm) to the inside lido of your containers. This will usually stick hopper legs enough so you can get your hook in. Tip: on board, keep hopper containers in the cooler with the ice and drinks and the crickets stay calm until hooked.

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