re: Panfish versus crickets

Thanks For the info BP.

I'm really trying to find an artificial bait so I don't have to mess with live bait with the kiddos as much.

I will give that a try this weekend.

I use Gulp crickets all the time and my kids have caught bunches of bream on them. I like the Gulp crickets because it's easy to keep them and one will last for a bunch of fish.

They are real and freez dried. Good for 2 years on the shelf. Once opened 2 weeks if you put th in the fridge when you get back from fishing.

They have them at most cabelas or bass pro. I got hooked on them in OK. I like the meal worms from timbuktu also they catch less but bigger bream.

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I use Gulp crickets all the time and my kids have caught bunches of bream on them. I like the Gulp crickets because it's easy to keep them and one will last for a bunch of fish.

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Yes Sir, that's what I've been looking to hear!

Bluegill are in full spawn at Lake Toho right now and they are tons of them in he reeds (water is high with all the rain we've been getting). I bass fish the place all the time but never fished for bluegill before. The other day I went out there with abut 50 crickets, a few different colored beetle spins, and a couple of lead heads and black and whit skirts. Only thing they would touch was the crickets. But they would destroy it as soon as it would hit the water. Went through 50 crickets about as fast as I could load them on the hook.

I have a feeling that they are gonna tear those gulp crickets up! But I wanted a couple of other suggestions for easy bait just as a back-up.

Plan on snagging a couple hundred this weekend. The spawn on this lake is crazy! I threw a cast net just for giggles ata spot and pulled in about 20 with 5 being the size of my hand. Obviously I can't catch and keep them with a cast net but I just wanted to see what was up.

I've had not problems using live crickets...one of my favorites.

I've amazing luck with panfish using little cubes of SPAM for bait.

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SPAM

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Talk about a phucking win/win.

Catch fish on spam - eat fish
Don't catch fish on spam - eat spam

I'm all in on tha idea!

Wax worms are the cats meow up here. I never remember seeing them growing up but since I've moved to Pennsylvania I've found that these are the premier panfish bait. They look like really big maggots. Will live a long time, and are easy to deal with.

They are alive until I drown them, but most don't survive long enough to die of drowning before a bream or trout eats it. Fairly cheap too, last I bought was 250 for 12 bucks.

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This will not work. As soon as you change to artificial the bite will stop with bream.

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That's been my experience too.

Do want to try these "Bream Bugs" though. Anyone here use them?


Breambugs

Got my artificial bait in today. Gonna try the crickets and worms under a cork and try the nibbles under a cork in conjunction with a lead head and tube skirt.

If it works it will be much easier to keep this crap at the house so when the kids want to run out to the boat to go fishing we don't have to start running around to find bait. And if the fishing trip/their patience only last an hour...screw the cap back on and head home. As opposed to throwing out shite that we had to go pick up just to throw out an hour later.