Down in the dumps

[Big Ben]

Here I wanted to go wear out a bluegill bed tomorrow and every bait shop in my area is out of crickets and have no idea when they will get more. I called out up to 40 miles away to every bait shop I could think of with no luck. I managed to come up with two small cups of wax worms, about 2 dozen in a cup. $2.50 a cup. I buy them online all winter for under $10 for 250 with free shipping from up north.

 

[choupique]

pet shops.

 

[WTM]

i havent used live bait in years. 1/32 or 1/64 oz popeye featherlite jigs tipped with gulp pink or chartreuse waxies for shallow bluegill and a shakey head rig with berkley crawlers for shallow shellcracker. no floats. 1/32oz beetle spins for search baits.

deep water fish i either drop shot 1" gulp lil minnows or 1/12oz kastmaster spoon tipped with 1" lil minnow. trebles are either clipped or replaced with a #6 or #8 salmon egg hook.

 

[catman529]

Pet shops and Walmart usually have crickets

Why not use nightcrawlers?


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[fairchaser]

I haven't drowned a cricket in years but I love using wax worms on a hand tied squirrel tailed jig under a thill float. They are irresistible to bream.

 

[Big Ben]

I haven't drowned a cricket in years but I love using wax worms on a hand tied squirrel tailed jig under a thill float. They are irresistible to bream.

Just seems we catch larger gill's on crickets. I use wax worms all winter on ice fishing jigs in open water but my 500 I had have died over the year. The wax worms I got today were the last the bait shop had even. May as well close the darn door if they can't get/keep bait. Only two live bait shops in this area about 20 miles apart.

 

[raywa]

Try Starkey's Bait and Tackle.
(615) 391-4460

 

[RUGER]

I know this doesn't help your current situation but I got tired of messing with them and built me a cricket box.
Order them online 5,000 at a time. Quite a bit cheaper that way too.

 

[woodyard]

I know this doesn't help your current situation but I got tired of messing with them and built me a cricket box.
Order them online 5,000 at a time. Quite a bit cheaper that way too.

I had big plans this year and got back in the shop after first getting back from GS and then the emergency room deal on April 27 and built me a cricket box. Got it all fixed with thermostat and light bulb. Ordered some crickets thinking I would be getting out to Garrett. Then found out I had better set my butt around mostly and then it has gotten drug out longer. The crickets started kicking off and I cleaned it out and thought they might make it longer. This past week there weren't many still alive so I just turned them out and cleaned it up until this deal is done.
I got them from Flukers cricket farm in Louisiana. I was feeding them apples and wheat bran. I ordered the 5 week ones and I think they were mostly old ones ready to pass on. :lol: bigger size than I ordered.

Where you getting them and what age or size?

I do have a bunch of meal worms that will be ready before too long that raised from the ones I got in the winter. We will get you a start on them. They are pretty dog gone easy to grow.

 

[woodyard]

 

[Big Ben]

The smell alone would run me away from building my own box. I did find a bait shop that has crickets available 24 hours a day. His cricket box sits outside the shop and has a tube you put your money in to pay if he is not there. $7 large tube $4 small tube, that's about $1.25 over my local bait shop for a large tube. Only problem is he is about 35 miles away. I gave the wax worms a try this morning and only caught 4 medium size gills and one 12 inch bass.

 

[RUGER]

I can't remember the name off the top of my head ..... gahnns or something like that.



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[RUGER]

That looks good!
Mines not that nice lol


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[woodyard]

That looks good!
Mines not that nice lol


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I had an accumulation of 3/8 plywood piececs too small for bee equipment, so I let her rip. :lol:

 

[Headhunter]

i havent used live bait in years. 1/32 or 1/64 oz popeye featherlite jigs tipped with gulp pink or chartreuse waxies for shallow bluegill and a shakey head rig with berkley crawlers for shallow shellcracker. no floats. 1/32oz beetle spins for search baits.

deep water fish i either drop shot 1" gulp lil minnows or 1/12oz kastmaster spoon tipped with 1" lil minnow. trebles are either clipped or replaced with a #6 or #8 salmon egg hook.

Several have went bluegill fishing with me and told me I would not buy another cricket after they showed me how to catch them on their lure. So far, no one has even come close. Doesn't take long before they ask if I had enough crickets for them. I always do. Bluegill love a cricket. I use a fly rod at times and try to use small lures but nothing beats a cricket or at least hasn't yet with me.

 

[WTM]

i havent used live bait in years. 1/32 or 1/64 oz popeye featherlite jigs tipped with gulp pink or chartreuse waxies for shallow bluegill and a shakey head rig with berkley crawlers for shallow shellcracker. no floats. 1/32oz beetle spins for search baits.

deep water fish i either drop shot 1" gulp lil minnows or 1/12oz kastmaster spoon tipped with 1" lil minnow. trebles are either clipped or replaced with a #6 or #8 salmon egg hook.

Several have went bluegill fishing with me and told me I would not buy another cricket after they showed me how to catch them on their lure. So far, no one has even come close. Doesn't take long before they ask if I had enough crickets for them. I always do. Bluegill love a cricket. I use a fly rod at times and try to use small lures but nothing beats a cricket or at least hasn't yet with me.

not arguing that in most instances on shallow bedding fish, but i go after the bigger bulls which will hit the little bigger baits more aggressively. late winter fishing is an exception when they are feeding on midge larvae and hatching midges in feb and march. when big gills come off the bed first, they head for deep water. you cant get a cricket that deep for the smaller gills tearing it up before it hits bottom where the bulls are laying. big bluegill are predators just like big bass thats why crappie guides will commonly accidentally catch them over deeper water with minnows or crank baits.

i wasnt trying to put down live bait or anything but since the OP couldnt find crickets was just trying to throw out some ideas for catching big bluegill which i tend to keep close. it sure beats staying at home.

 

[rsimms]

Think back to those days when you were a kid and made your Mom mad digging holes all over the backyard searching for redworms. You can still do that. #justsayin

 

[Big Ben]

Think back to those days when you were a kid and made your Mom mad digging holes all over the backyard searching for redworms. You can still do that. #justsayin

Never made Mom mad but I had a super spot if you could stand the smell. The High School FFA raised about a dozen hogs on the school property. You could go to where they clean out the pen concrete floor and wash the crap into a ditch and dig worms by the hundred's in just a hour or so. When I lived in NW Indiana mid 70's I caught and sold nightcrawlers to a local bait shop. A normal night was 100 dozen that brought me $50 for a couple hours on my hands and knee's crawling around some yards I had permission to hunt them in. I would put them a dozen to a cup and snap on a lid then the wife would come out and pick the cups up and put dirt in them.

 

[Headhunter]

WTM, only time I fish for them is when they are on bed. I don't know anything about fishing for them at any other time.

Not to do with you, but I have had several tell me when we went that they would catch more than I would on crickets. it would be nice, but even if it happens, I will still probably fish with crickets, I love watching a float.

 

[Bone Collector]

Pet shops and Walmart usually have crickets

Why not use nightcrawlers?


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Some walmarts quit selling them. the one in Cool Springs did.