Anglers shouldn't be ashamed of using live bait
Our weekly conversations are getting to be marathons, filled with opinions and remembrances.
Almost every exchange contains a reference to live bait and how for quite a few years some area anglers seemed to shun that age-old practice of tossing a nightcrawler in to the water.
"Mike, I know you've seen a resurgence of nightcrawler fishing on the Fox Chain and a few other lakes near the Wisconsin border, said Outdoor Notebook Publisher Bob Macuilis.
Little did Bob realize that the move back to live bait is more of a stampede than just a ripple on the water.
Take Schaumburg angler Ken Abraham, a longtime devotee of nightcrawler fishing on his "headquarter" lake, Geneva. There was a time some years back when I offered him some crankbaits. He refused, declaring he fished that lake with 'crawlers.
One day while slowly cruising Pistakee Lake I asked a dozen fishermen if they were using live bait. They all responded they had a big supply of nightcrawlers and minnows. I also inquired if they caught any fish on the popular crankbaits, or even Mepps spinners? The replies were all negative.
"Do you think people are going back to their roots and embracing nightcrawlers and Lindy Rigs here in the Midwest?" Macuilis added.
I agreed this so-called rebirth of live bait angling brings to mind the years I spent with the brothers Lindner (Al and Ron) back in the mid and late 1960s.
I would join the dynamic duo as they went from town-to-town in central and northern Wisconsin in their beat up Ford station wagon. The brothers invented the legendary Lindy Rig, (a shoe-shaped, slip sinker and small hook), an improvement over Bill Binkelman's tiny hooks and light line spinning, terminal tackle.
The Lindy Rig was a primary element responsible for thousands of Midwest fishermen to catch more and bigger walleyes. Ron and Al would walk into a bait and tackle shop and ask questions about how fishing was on a handful of local lakes. Quite often the shop owner would complain that some of the lakes were "fished out", and heavily pressured.
That's all the brothers had to hear. They hit the water and later returned to the shop with massive stringers of fish. That's how they sold their invention well over 40-years ago.
"I keep hearing stories lately about some very heavy walleyes taken from northern Wisconsin lakes by live bait anglers," Macuilis added to the conversation. "And it seems the Binkelman methods and 'crawler fishing with Lindy Rigs is making news again."
Vernon Hills walleye aficionado Fred Pauling's e-mail about nightcrawler fishing brought me back to a time when crankbaits like the famous Rapala minnow bait were priced low enough so any angler could afford to have a couple in their tackle box. Here's what he added to the stew.
"I had a so-so run with a variety of different crankbaits over the years. I was told I was old-fashioned by my fishing friends for using live bait, so I switched to artificial lures after they embarrassed me," he explained. "But it was only when I went back to a nightcrawler or minnow did I catch bigger numbers of fish versus a crankbait. Go figure. I won't put up with their ribbing again."
Perhaps it's time to "condition" some nightcrawlers and find those No. 8 hooks and Lindy Rigs and then start taking pictures with your digital cameras that will prove to the naysayers that live bait still works well.