Take it from him: live bait!

He told me he's had it with fishing because he can barely walk. He's lost sight in one eye, and his overall physical strength is at a minimum.

But that didn't stop me from suggesting to 81-year-old Roselle resident Ray Buchiccho that he join me in the spring while guide Darrell Baker chauffeured us around the Fox Chain.

Despite my efforts with the carrot and stick technique, Ray expressed tremendous reluctance to give himself a day on the water.

"Let me show you a bunch of pictures of some very nice fish I caught at Busse Lake," Buchiccho suggested.

Not too many years ago, Ray would take his 12-foot boat with the electric motor and explore the various deeper spots on Busse. One prized photo depicted Ray holding up a very heavy walleye.

"I caught that not far from Higgins Road," he explained, "and most of my fishing embraces the old Bill Binkelman techniques."

The late Bill Binkelman was a pioneer with live-bait fishing in the late 1950s and '60s. He authored quite a few booklets about nightcrawler techniques using No. 8 and 10 hooks along with a single split-shot.

Buchiccho didn't hesitate to brag about how he met Binkelman in the Three Lakes, Wis., area many years ago. He also became an instant convert to the Binkelman methods.

"I don't care what anyone says, you just can't beat a lively, conditioned, nightcrawler on a small hook and 4-pound test line," Buchiccho said.

And Ray is right on target.

I've written quite a bit about Binkelman's Nightcralers Secrets and his other bass and walleye supplements. I was fortunate to know Bill since 1966, when he paid me a visit to the radio-television station I was working in South Bend-Elkhart, Ind.

Binkelman came by to personally inform me I was "all wet" with what I was telling listeners to my afternoon, outdoor radio show. He told me to report to him on his lake near Milwaukee and demanded that I meet "two young kids" he was working with.

Those two kids were Al and Ron Lindner, inventors of the famous Lindy Rig. And that was in the summer of 1966.

I went on to travel with the brothers Lindner for a while and, at the same time, wrote articles in Binkelman's fledgling Fishing News and Secrets, based on my newly found live-bait fishing knowledge.

To this day, I still use many of the techniques Binkelman taught me when we would motor around, exploring his home water, Lake Okauchee.

To this day, I continue to write about how to "condition" nightcrawlers so you can wind up with bait that will outfish the standard box of crawlers you buy at a bait shop.

"I've caught so many fish with my nightcrawler rigs that I've lost count," Ray declared. "I just wish I had the physical wherewithal to keep on going and hit the old lakes again, just a couple more times."

Well, maybe I'll keep that carrot and stick in front of Ray as we get closer to spring and see if I can convince it's never too late to partake in the one sport he dearly loved.