The ins and outs of using live bait while fishing

When we last met, we were talking about live bait. I agree with live bait users that this is one of the best things you can use to tempt fish to take a whack at what’s on your hook. Live bait works.

How do fish know what live bait even is? I really don’t know. When a bass sees a nightcrawler coasting along. How does the bass know the worm is even edible? I don’t know, although some people will tell you that they see plenty of crawlers that get pushed into the water when a healthy rain floods the banks and pushes worms into the water. I’m not sure if that is true.

Years ago, the late Doug Hannon, known as the “Bass Professor,” made a fortune selling his plastic snake baits. I asked Doug why bass ate the snake baits because I never actually saw a bass go after a snake that was swimming in the water.

For that matter, I asked him if snakes ever really swam in ponds and lakes because I had never seen any. He said: “The reason you don’t see any snakes is because they’ve all been eaten by the fish. Probably by big bass.”

Plastic worms work well for catching bass and the reason may not be because the plastics look like worms, but rather that they appear to be snakes. Possible, isn’t it?

Anyway, fish like worms, plain and simple. There are many different kinds of worms, but we mostly see waxworms and nightcrawlers being used for fishing. Waxies are short white worms that are very delicate and fall off a hook quite easily. They’re great for panfish. They are not the same as spikes, which look similar and are used for ice fishing. Spikes are maggots that will turn into flies, and we don’t use them in warm-weather applications.

You may have seen bait shops selling nightcrawlers that are dyed green. I’m all for trying new things, but I don’t really see a good reason for using dyed worms. I’ll just be happy using the ones that Mother Nature decided to color brown in the first place.

As far as size, I let the fish tell me how hungry they are. I start out with a piece of crawler and if the fish are slamming my nightcrawler pieces, I’ll move up and start using larger pieces. I’ll move up until I am using whole crawlers on my hook.

I’ll generally use a whole crawler if I can impale it on a hook placed toward the center of the crawler. I know guys who stick the crawler on their hook at the end of the worm.

I think you need to be a wealthy angler to do this because if the worm is hanging from your hook by its tip, you’ll go through copious amounts of expensive live bait because the biting fish will go through dozens of crawlers without getting caught, just eating the ends of your offerings.

Minnows are excellent fishing bait, but what kind? Rosy Reds, shiners, crappie minnows, chubs, fatheads, oh my, there are so many flavors to chose from. It’s best to ask your local bait shop for help on this one. Tell him what you are after, and he should be able to steer you in the right direction. It is most important to match the size of the minnows to what you are chasing.

I am out of space for now, so I’ll leave the discussion about my favorite live bait — leeches — open until the next time we meet. Go catch some fish.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.