Leeching off Mother Nature has its rewards

When I was a mere sprout I was the one relegated to using red worms and an occasional nightcrawler so I could catch panfish on Deep Lake and the Fox Chain.

By the time I was 11, I was promoted to the manly art of fishing with minnows and small hooks for crappie and white bass. I finally was one of the boys, trying to keep up with my father and uncles.

Flash forward to the 1960s and I found myself being tutored in the wide world of nightcrawler fishing, a la Bill Binkelman and his treasure trove of live bait secrets. Every outing with Bill was a learning experience, but I also had a secret I did not share with him.

I was living in Madison, Wis., and I happened to stumble across Fred Greer. When Fred got off work Friday afternoons, he would head north to Rhinelander and start catching lots of big walleyes. I asked him how he managed to outfish the locals there, and his answer was short and to the point.

"Leeches, me boy," he exclaimed. "That's all I use up there on the lakes I frequent, and they're good all the way until fall."

Before I started earning a living, I used to frequently travel on the subway to Chicago. I remember passing an old-time pharmacy on Wabash Avenue. In the window facing the street sat several huge glass bottles filled with extra-long, black, slithery creatures.

I asked the pharmacist what was in the bottles and he told me they were medicinal leeches. Some of these things were a good 10 inches long. I later did some research and learned there are people who use these monsters to bleed themselves, thereby supposedly ridding their bodies of impurities and toxins.

Anyway, Greer wasn't into de-toxing, but his mission was to entice big walleyes to the hook. Greer shared with me that he had a supplier near Wausau who sold him all the leeches he could use.

And then Fred laid down his bombshell in front of me while we had coffee one day.

"I'm not bragging," he said, "but not only do I catch jumbo walleyes, but I also nail huge smallmouth bass."

It was then he showed me the pictures of his catches. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. His camera included readings from an old spring scale. The smallies weighed more than 6 pounds, while his biggest walleye tipped the scale at slightly more than 10.

When I moved to the Minneapolis area, I managed to find a bait supplier who could sell me all the large leeches I wanted. That was when I headed to the St. Croix River just north of Stillwater and went to work catching big smallmouth.

Later, after I returned to Illinois angling, guru Spence Petros told me his favorite bait for jumbo bluegills and smallmouth was leeches.

Fox Chain walleyes and even largemouth bass have succumbed to a leech rig. The same is true on Lake Geneva and Lake Delevan. But where I really struck gold was on the Fox River, working riffles and dropoffs with a No. 8 hook and a fat leech.

The other hot spot for a decent leech bite is Lake Michigan, right in the rocks, along the shorelines and then to the drop-offs, where smallmouth grow to very impressive sizes.

The setup is simple to put together. I'll often use a No. 8 or No. 6 hook tied to a fluorocarbon leader and then tie that to a small swivel. If I'm fishing deeper than 15 feet I'll use an 1/8-ounce slip sinker above the swivel, but if I'm in shallow water I prefer a small split shot.

Give leeches a try this year, and get ready for some big surprises.

angler88@att.net