By Tom Roth / Freelance Writer

A small blonde haired boy of three-years-old walked down the wooden plank connecting the dock to the shoreline. A bulky life jacket was attached to his chest and appeared to be bigger than most of his torso. When he reached the end of the dock, he waved goodbye as his father and another man got into a boat and motored off for a day of fishing. His mother sat beside him and handed him a fishing pole that was rigged with a small hook, a worm and a red and white plastic bobber. He made a valiant attempt at casting the baited line far away from the dock, but the bobber only made it about six feet from the edge of the wooden structure. After a few moments, the bobber began to twitch. The boy waited patiently until the bobber went completely underwater. With a mighty heave, the small angler lifted up his rod and set the hook. After a brief struggle that was punctuated with scream of joy, the boy hoisted a plump pumpkinseed onto the dock. That scenario was repeated all morning long until our hero had filled a collapsible fish basket with the makings of a first-class fish fry.

That little boy was none other than yours truly, and while that wasn’t the first time I had wet a line, it is the first memory I have of fishing. The scene is etched in my brain as permanently as any other memory and will undoubtedly stay with me for life. While I would go on to battle many other fish in more remote or picturesque settings, that day taught me a lesson that I will never forget – live bait catches fish!

In looking back at my fishing career, I have tried most methods of angling at one point or another. I can adequately cast a fly to a rising trout, know how to work a rubber worm or top-water plug and can effectively troll hardware or streamers across any lake. But, in recalling some of my fondest fishing memories, live bait has accounted for the lion’s share of my angling successes. Here are a few of the live bait techniques that I have cultivated throughout the years:

One of the easiest baits to obtain and use is the worm. You can use the common earthworm that you find in the garden, or you can hunt for the larger and livelier nightcrawlers that visit any lawn after a rain shower or the use of a lawn sprinkler. Worms make exceptional bait for most any fish ranging from panfish to bass and even to salmon. My father spends many a relaxing evening sitting in a lawn chair on the end of his dock fishing with nightcrawlers and catches several nice bass and salmon each year.

For beginning anglers, the easiest way to catch a fish is to thread a worm on a #4 or #6 hook, attach a small split-shot sinker just above the hook and attach a bobber about three or four feet above that. The split-shot ensures the bait will get down to where the fish live and the bobber, as its name implies, signals a strike by bobbing up and down or even under the water. You can fish anywhere with this simple set-up (as long as regulations allow it) and most species of fish cannot resist the temptation that a plump worm provides.

Perhaps the next best bait to catch fish with are fish themselves. For Maine anglers, there are literally dozens of bait species available, but shiners and smelt top the list as preferred bait. Shiners are hardy and fairly easy to catch by bait dealers or anglers alike. Maine lists the common shiner, golden shiner and emerald shiner as appearing in many lakes and ponds. Using the same bobber and sinker set up as they would for worms, anglers can hook the shiner just below the dorsal fin and the bait will remain lively for hours. This is a great rig for bass, pike, pickerel and even salmon.

Lake trout, or togue as they are known locally, like their bait on the bottom. Local anglers use a “fish-finder” rig, which is a more refined version of the slip sinker. This rig consists of a plastic tube where the line is fed through. It is weighted with a small sinker and cast away from the shore or boat where it settles to the bottom. Anglers leave the bail on their reels open, and the bait is free to swim around the bottom. When lake trout takes the bait, the line peels off the reel at a rapid pace and the angler sets the hook.

Baitfish size is a personal preference, but I subscribe to the “use big bait to catch big fish” school of thought. When targeting lunker lake trout, weighing in excess of 10 pounds, I use a common sucker that is between 8 and 10-inches long. Suckers are bottom feeders and, as such, are typically found by lakers prowling the depths. Similarly, if I were to go after a mess of white perch for a fish fry, I would use small shiners, about 2-inches long, as the white perch themselves are usually under a pound in weight. It doesn’t makes sense to me that a small white perch would go after a large shiner and conversely, I imagine a large fish such as a togue would rather conserve energy by targeting fewer meals of large fish. Like any rule, there are exceptions, but I have done well by adhering to the bait size matching theory.

The freshwater rainbow smelt is another top bait, especially for Maine salmon anglers. Smelt make up the majority of the landlocked salmon diet in waters where they coexist. In most cases, the strength of the smelt population dictates how successful the salmon population will be. These iridescent colored baitfish are taken in the spring by large dip nets, either to be brought to the table for a smelt fry or, more commonly, for bait. Care must be exercised with these delicate fish as even the slightest shock in water temperature or a reduction in oxygen levels spells doom for the smelt. Because of this, and the fact that they are only caught commercially when they “run” up streams and rivers in their spring spawn, smelt command a high price at the bait shop. As the season progresses and smelt become scarce, their price goes up. I think I could actually calculate the date based on smelt prices; the later it is in the spring, the more I pay for bait!

Salmon fishermen who hit the lake right at ice-out troll smelt with great success. The traditional method of trolling for salmon calls for sewn-on smelt. As the name implies, the smelt are sewn onto a leader in a delicate and precise manner. If you have done it right, the smelt with slowly roll as it is trolled behind the boat. Many of today’s anglers opt to use a trolling harness or rig that is much easier and quicker to attach to the smelt.

While most anglers will use worms, shiners or smelt, there are other live bait options. Anything that could possibly fall into a lake can work. Salamanders were once used by Native Americans who would gather them up from under a rock or rotting log. Fly fishermen spend countless hours tying replicas of grasshoppers, beetles and spiders. An industrious angler could capture these insects and thread them on a thin wire hook and have comparable success. Leeches and bloodsuckers make great bait, but they are not for the squeamish when it comes to handling them and attaching them to a hook. In essence, almost any creature that you would find in or near a lake can be used as bait.

The use of live bait has been around as long as angling has provided food and sport. With a little effort spent hunting for natural bait, you can enjoy a day of angling with nothing more than your fishing pole, a bobber, a sinker and a hook, much like that three year old did several decades ago.