Freshwater Baits - Part 1 - Natural Baits

In my fishing adventures, I've come across all kinds of things used as bait for freshwater fishing. Some commonly known, others, weird. One thing though, no matter how weird it is, if it catches fish, it's a good bait. Natural baits come in many varieties but generally can be classified into several categories. There are the live, dead, plant baits.

The one critical aspect that most anglers fail to observe is they assume their favorite bait works in every body of water. This is almost always not the case. The best bait is still what is easily found near the waters. This could be fishes, tadpoles, worms, frogs, lizards, insects, fruits, leaves, flowers, nuts & any edible flora or fauna found in the immediate area. Wild fishes has to be resourceful to survive hence they need to forage for food whenever, where ever  they can. But, having said that, there are exceptions to this rule as in recent years, fishing & tackle manufacturers have come out with highly effective groundbaits & artificial baits that could rival or even exceed natural bait's effectiveness.

Live & Natural Baits

This can be categorized as live fish, animals, fruits, flowers & any naturally available living fauna or flora found in the natural environment.

Earthworm

This used to be the universal bait for Tilapia, Carp & Marble Goby fishing, some anglers even has a way to rig it for Snakehead (Haruan) fishing. It catches most bottom feeding fishes. It still works in wild areas but has lost it's effectiveness for some unknown reason. Earthworms was very effective as Tilapia bait in areas like ex-mining ponds & lakes. Before baits were commercialized, the usual way of getting earthworms was to go digging for them at nearby places the day before fishing. Finding & digging for earthworms is a skill by itself. You could be digging at random soils & yet you won't encounter ANY worms. Best places to start digging would be at trash dump sites or those farm land soil. The soil has to be moist, plenty of rotting leaves & fairly damp. The best sort of worms are those of about 4 to 6 inches long. Fat & juicy. That's what the fishes love.

Earthworms, ready for the hook

Maggot

Animals & fish die. Some by the banks. They rot & soon enough, maggots appear around them. Some maggots get adventurous & goes swimming. They end up as fish food. Although I've not personally tried fishing with maggots, I've seen it's effectiveness. Moreover, it is easily obtainable at aquarium & pet stores at cheap prices, this bait is a sound choice for Tilapia, Carp & Pacu fishing. Comparatively, maggot is even more 'acceptable' to hold & bait for beginners compared to earthworms as they are less slimy to handle.

Imagine this came from a rotting carcass                                      

Cricket

Usually the beginner fly fisho who has not learned to tie their own flies would use crickets as a substitute or live bait. I have used this bait before & boy does it work good! It's cheap & most aquarium & pet store stock up on this tasty bait. One thing though, to present a cricket bait properly, you must not add any sinkers. The cricket should be sent out to do it's job hopping, struggling & bumping on the surface attracting every predator nearby. It would be challenging for conventional angling technique to cast this bait out to a reasonable distance without the use of sinkers. The use of a weighted bobber (Spin Fly) fishing would solve this problem.

Nice juicy succulent insects                                      

Tiny Prawns

Most freshwater rivers, lakes & ponds has an abundant colony of prawns & small plankton eating pereopods. Fishes love them. In fact, most fishes eat baby prawns when they are small & slowly move on to other diets. Prawns provide fishes with good protein for them to grow. Catching live prawns is best done using nets, scooped along the banks. You can also buy them at aquariums but the price may be a little steep. You'll need a portable air pump to keep them alive in your tank.

Shrimp ready to catch fish.

Tiny Frogs

Mostly used by the Haruan (Snakehead) anglers. This is an old school reliable bait for snakehead casting. Although I've not used one for a long time due to it's scarcity & more over, the dwindling population of frogs may not be eco-friendly. Frogs are nature's answer to control mosquito populations. The way to rig a frog bait is to kill the frog first, use 1 or 2 hooks to impale it's body & rig it weedless by embedding the hook tip onto it's hind legs. The alternative to frog baits is luring with plastic frogs & soft plastic baits.

A baby frog rigged with an embedded hook for weedless fishing                                      

Minnows

Popular bait used by Giant Snakehead anglers. This is basically any small baby fishes caught along the banks or bought at the aquarium. Some popular bait fishes are baby Carps (Koi fishes), baby Cichlid (Tilapia) or baby Catfishes (Keli). Specimens of about 3 to 4in is best as it will stay alive longer & is more appetizing to the larger predators. To keep carps & cichlid alive, you need to continuously supply oxygen to the tank by using a portable, battery powered air pump.

Baby Tilapia

Baby Keli

Chicken Heart & Gizzard

Another reliable but slimy bait for Toman & Pacu fishing, works for Catfish too. Generally works for most predatory fishes. The trick to make fishing with chicken gizzard bait successful is to source for the freshest, bloody ones straight from the wet market. The scent of blood attracts predators. Preparing chicken parts as bait has also developed into an art form by itself. Some anglers even have their own tricks in cutting up the gizzard in a way to attract different fishes to take it. While it's effective, I normally avoid using such baits as excessive fishing with such baits could potentially foul the waters in the area. Not eco-friendly.

Chicken gizzards

Chicken hearts

Palm Seed

This is the go to bait for Kelah, Temoleh & most Carp river fishing. Old timers swear by it's effectiveness. The oil released by the fruit is an attractive scent to these omnivore fishes. The best palm fruits are those that is ripe & slightly soft. The technique is to have a bag of palm fruits submerged in the water for several hours prior to fishing to let the oil slowly mix in with the surrounding waters. This will attract fishes from the area to investigate the scent.

                                       

Tapioca leaves / Water Spinach leaves

Some fishes are exclusively herbivores. Fishes like wild grass carps & most other carp species feed on plant matters. In the old days, anglers would use this as bait, in fact, when dough ball & groundbaits don't work, this is the next best alternative as it is easily available along the banks. Two of the most popular vege bait are Tapioca leaves (Pucuk ubi) as well as Water spinach (Kangkung). Collect a bunch, remove the hard stems, roll the leaves & the soft stems onto the hook until it is secured enough for casting.

Water Spinach (Kangkung)

Tapioca leaves (Pucuk Ubi)

This concludes the first part of freshwater baits. On the next part, I will elaborate more about groundbaits (dedak) & pellets as this has become very popular in freshwater bait-fishing.

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