DIY: HOW TO MAKE (OR FIND) YOUR OWN BAIT

It’s a hot Saturday afternoon at the lake. You’re in a daze, casting mechanically from the shore for what feels like the millionth time. It’s hot, and nobody seems to be catching anything. That is, except for that kid on the dock. He’s doing exactly what you are, but it seems like he’s pulling lunkers straight into his cooler every two minutes. What’s his secret?

Chances are, he’s probably just trolling on a treble hook with something he found in the fridge. But how could that possibly work better than nightcrawlers? Or that stinky silly putty stuff you buy at the store? Well, the fact of the matter is fish are smarter than we think. In stock ponds, they’ve all been caught a time or two, and they’ve learned that the stinky green gunk is not to be trusted.

What should we be using, then? The answer is a lot simpler (and cheaper) than you’d think. You can source your own bait from the lake in the form of fish, bugs, and other creepy crawlies. Even better, you can just use stuff you’ve got at home. We’ve put together a guide to how to find and even make your own bait so you can fish like you’ve got cheat codes.

Bait From The Lake

Before going out to catch or gather wild animals as bait, always check your local regulations. Some states regulate how much, or how, you can capture and keep bait from waterways. In Ohio, where we’re located, the state doesn’t restrict what you can catch. As long as you don’t have more than 100 crawdads, you’re good to go.

How to Catch Minnows For Bass Fishing

The best method for catching your own minnows is using a seine net. First, find a stretch of river that’s slow-moving and shallow. You should see minnows darting around the shore. Stretch your net out and sweep it through the water before lifting it out, and you should have a bucketful of minnows. Then you can sort through them for the keepers, and toss the rest back.

Minnows are good all-around bait. They attract bass, trout, catfish, and pike. If you’re bass fishing, select your minnows based on how large of a fish you want to catch. Hook your minnow through the lips on a circle hook for the most lifelike display, and you’re set to go.

What’s The Heck’s a Hellgrammite?

Hellgrammites sound like something out of a nightmare. But they’re really just dobsonfly larvae. They look a little like a caddisfly larvae that’s outside of its gravel casing. The main differences are they’re flatter and much larger.

Catching them is a laid-back activity that mostly involves flipping over rocks until you find one. When you do, just toss it in a bucket. You can buy a small container with some natural foliage and water and they’ll keep for weeks at a time.

Hellgrammites do well attracting small and largemouth bass. Just pop one on a circle hook and let it wriggle. You may want to add a sliding bobber to suspend it near vegetation or some kind of cover. The fish will go crazy for it.

Craw-Cray-Fish-Dads

However you say it where you’re from, crawdads are some of the best bait you can find for bass, catfish, and trout. In general, live bait is one of the most effective ways of enticing a fish. Think about it. Everything else - lures, bait, jigs, are made to look alive. But when you’re fishing on live bait, you don’t even have to trick the fish.

When using crawdads, there are a couple things to keep in mind. First, make sure you’re only using crawdads from the area you’re fishing. There are multiple species of crawdads, one of which is wildly invasive in the US. Do your part to make sure they don’t end up where they’re not supposed to be.

Second, the process of using crawdads as bait can be a little tricky because of their claws. To simplify it, just snip them off before you hook them. Fish will lock on to harmless crawdads much more readily. Last, using a large circle hook, pierce through the tail of the crawdad. You want to use a big enough hook that it’s sticking out on the other side so the fish will get easily hooked too.

Leftovers Around The House

“Hey, don’t throw out that cheese! That’s still good!” There is plenty of stuff in your fridge you can get some use out of even after it’s gone bad. Fish often hunt based on smell and employ the “bite first, figure it out later” method of hunting. Here are a few things you can try.

***Cheese***

Some anglers think of cheese as a silver bullet. It’s fatty, it’s sweet, it smells. It’s even brightly colored. For a fish, that’s about as good as it gets.

***Soap***

Soap is made of fat, and fish love fat. Anglers have been using scentless lye soap for centuries to reel in big fish. Whether it makes sense to our palates or not doesn’t really matter.

***Corn***

Corn is another food packed with high-energy carbs. It attracts trout, perch, and bluegill like a dream. When fishing with corn, it’s a good idea to toss out a scoop of kernels into the area you plan to cast. This will draw the fish in and get them eating. Then load a few kernels onto a hook and cast. With any luck they’ll be so distracted feasting that they’ll go straight for it.

***Dog Food***

This is another example that will work best on fish that like stinky food. Think catfish and carp. You can try either dry or wet varieties. One approach is to mix the dog food with cornstarch and water to give it more of a putty-like consistency.

***Chicken Liver***

Chicken livers reek to high heaven. They’re also full of fat and protein, which is what the fish is really after. Chicken liver works famously well for lots of species, but in particular catfish love them.

Make It Yourself

You can even make bait from cheap stuff you’ve probably already got at home. We’re just going to combine some of the stuff that we’ve already covered above. We’ll provide two recipes, one savory, one sweet. Feel free to try it out, see what you get, and even combine them! If what we know about improvised bait holds true, different ingredients should attract different fish. Here’s what you need to make it.

Savory Bait Recipe

Ingredients

• Dry bait base (equal parts flour and cornmeal, 1 cup each)

• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar

• 1 cup of yellow processed cheese (Kraft singles, cheez whiz, whatever you’ve got!)

• 1 Tsp garlic powder

• 1 Tbsp peanut butter (optional)

  Instructions

• Melt cheese in the microwave, add a little tap water and mix until cheese becomes thin

• Add bait base, sugar, and garlic powder. Continue stirring until incorporated.

• Add water until you get a consistency that can be kneaded

• If the consistency becomes too wet, add flour and cornmeal

• Knead the dough until you have your desired consistency

• Pull off pieces and roll them into balls of your desired size

• (optional) coat savory dough bait balls in peanut butter

• Store in the fridge for later! You can keep them in an old egg carton to keep them from sticking together or just a plastic bag.

Sweet Bait Recipe

Ingredients

• Dry bait base (equal parts flour and cornmeal, 1 cup each)

• 1 Tbsp brown sugar

• 1 cup molasses

• 3/4 cup water

• 1 Turmeric (optional)

  Instructions

• Add dry bait base, turmeric (optional), and sugar to a mixing bowl, stir to combine

• Add tap water (roughly 3/4 cup) to dry ingredients until doughy

• Form the dough mixture into balls

• In a medium saucepan, combine 3/4 cup water and molasses, bring to a boil

• Add dough balls to water/molasses mixture

• Boil for 2-4 minutes

• Remove saucepan from heat

• Retrieve dough balls with tongs and place on a baking sheet to dry

Do It Yourself

Because why spend the extra money? Because why not try something the fish haven’t seen or smelled a million times? Because chances are, the stuff you have around the house works better anyway! There are about a thousand reasons to source your bait from nature or make it yourself, and now you know exactly how.