Fishing bait: crickets

[daymere]

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Keeping the crickets:



A well-ventilated container is needed for keeping crickets. An aquarium or a five-gallon bucket with a wire mesh cover is a good choice. Make sure the cover fits tightly so the crickets don’t get out. Line the bottom of the container with 2-3 inches of potting soil. Crickets need some sort of cover. Egg cartons or paper towel rolls placed in the bottom of the container are good choices. Cornmeal or dried dog foods are good choices for food for the crickets. The amount will depend on how many crickets that you have. If you overfeed, the excess food will begin to spoil. This can be bad for the crickets. Be sure to have a water supply for your crickets. A good way to keep water in the container is a sponge soaked in water. Another source of water would be a small piece of fruit. This supplies both food and water. Again you must be careful not to let it spoil.

The most common way of fishing with crickets is with a float or bobber. I use a #8 or #10 live bait hook. Add a split shot about 6 inches above the hook. Use as little weight as possible. This will make the cricket fall through the water at a more natural weight. Insert the hook right behind the head of the cricket and let the barb of the hook exit the middle of the back. A pencil style float is a good choice for panfish. Start with the bait set a 3 feet below the surface. If you do not start getting strikes within a few minutes, raise or lower the bait until you start getting strikes.



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[baitdrowner]

Do you have a picture of a cricket on a hook? I've often thought about using them as bait. I can buy a dozen or two from the local pet shop cheaper than worms, but I wasn't sure how to hook 'em. Don't trout like crickets? Do they need to stay alive to be useful as bait? Seems like stabbing them through the back would "kill them dead". By the way, your tips are awesome, keep it up, I'm learning a great deal.
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[daymere]

take a long thin wire cricket hook and take cricket put hook under head and tread onto hook they are a very good bait for a load of different fish,
[ol] [li]Hook insects like grasshoppers or crickets by sliding the hook under its collar, located just behind its head. Try not to hook the insect too deeply. [/li][/ol] [center][/center] [center][size 5]The Hooks[/size][/center] [center]The hook should always have a long shank. Long shank hooks will help you to retrieve the hook more easily. For bream (right) use something like a #6 Aberdeen cricket hook. For Crappie (left) use a 1/0 Aberdeen Light Wire gold hook[/center]
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[jimcro55]

More specifically, you need a wire mesh top to your bucket with very small openings. If the openings are too large, the crickets will find a way to escape, or another animal will find its way in, and take your bait and RUN!

JC

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