October 2005
Tackling Bait

Ah, the joys of youthful fishing excursions! Now if Grandma didn't have a chore list for us Huck Finn boys, we were off through the fields to our favorite fishing hole.

There were times that my brother Carl and I set off to go fishing at the pond after digging for worms. That was more often than not an easy task. The wiggly creatures were quite plentiful in the leaching field. This particular day was one of those times.

What else would entice those finny swimmers to the hook? Well, there were grasshoppers galore, crickets, bees and even grubs. But what was more challenging? Catching the fish or catching the bait?

There were times when chasing around through the fields after grasshoppers was half the fun. Not just for the typical hopper, but flying grasshoppers, black-winged insects that were a real challenge to catch.

Crickets were a great bait to use if you wanted to catch a calico bass. I don't have an answer as to why, but you could entice those silvery black-spotted fish with paper mouths to take that bait more times than not. Paper mouth applied to calico bass is because they have a very fine mouth structure so fishermen must set the hook very lightly.

Of course sunfish or even big bluegills were not fussy. They would eat any bait you placed in front of them. Perch seemed to be a bit more selective, but I think worms were really the best choice for those scaly orange swimmers.

But did we really care what we caught? No! We were at the pond just to catch bait and catch any fish that came to dinner. We ran after hoppers and turned over rocks and logs looking for crickets. And sometimes the logs contained grubs, which we used too.

We even chased after and swatted bees. We'd pick them up while they were stunned and put them on the hook. We weren't fishing for supper; it was catch and release. We were having fun in the great outdoors.

by Lance L. Casper

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