# Weird Bream Baits



## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Over the years, I have used, or seen used, some kinda weird baits for bream - ranging from biscuit dough, white bread, bacon, wasp larvae, wood sawyers, grasshoppers, etc. One day I saw a man with a cricket cage full of cockroaches! And he was catching some big hump-nosed bluegills!

When I was a kid, my Pop stopped at a ditch on the way to the lake and started cutting weeds and piling them in the truck. He was cutting what he called "bloodweed" and said it was gonna be bait.

Huh?

When we got to the lake, he said he only cut the ones with a hole in the stem, and when we needed a bait he would split the stem and find a little white grub and put it on a hook. 

Years later, a friend that ran the fishing concession at one of Alabama's state lakes called me and said some bank fishermen were slaying the bream using "bloodweed". He said that he saw the weeds stacked beside the fishermen and wanted to know how you fished with a weed...


I was wondering if you fellas had other weird, secret baits you wanted to share.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Well, I guess I 'bout covered it. :001_huh:


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## Donut slayer (Jan 16, 2009)

I gots a secret bait, but ifin I told ya I'd have to shoot ya.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Donut slayer said:


> I gots a secret bait, but ifin I told ya I'd have to shoot ya.


I was afraid of that.


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## Donut slayer (Jan 16, 2009)

Bodupp said:


> I was afraid of that.


LOL, naw I use earthworms(reds) and crickets. I've heard, havent tried it yet, but small pieces of slim jims worked. Apparently the grease from the slim jims leave a oil slick and smell the gills just cant refuse. I heard it on the web so you know its gotta be true.


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## hjorgan (Sep 30, 2007)

The wasp larva hold the prestige of danger and effectiveness. It's making the bait that has terrible potential consequences.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

hjorgan said:


> The wasp larva hold the prestige of danger and effectiveness. It's making the bait that has terrible potential consequences.


Never heard of the bloodweed trick, but as a kid I used wasp larva that my granddaddy harvested. Granddad would wrap newspaper on the end of a stick and light it up and burn the nest quickly and run until things settled down. Then he would just get the nest and pick out the larva.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Interesting. .. I have used just about everything over the years, but the blood weed thing is a new one for me. Here's one you didn't mention, I like to use small crawfish when I can find them, shellcracker kryptonite.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Best watch out with Blood Weed....sometimes it's laced and you might get a 9 to the skull. You don't mess w/ bangers dope!

Heard of folks using maggots and larvae before but blood weed is a new un to me too!


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

I love small minnows for big bluegill and red bellies, we call them cracker minnows..but usually it's earthworms or crickets for me when fishing live bait.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

fishwalton said:


> Never heard of the bloodweed trick, but as a kid I used wasp larva that my granddaddy harvested. Granddad would wrap newspaper on the end of a stick and light it up and burn the nest quickly and run until things settled down. Then he would just get the nest and pick out the larva.


I have never used wasp larvae in all my years, probably because I always weighed the risk vs reward thing. At least now I know how to get it, thanks to your Granddad. :notworthy:

But it still sounds like something to challenge your "deckhand" with. (Oh, go on, you big sissy! You wanna go fishing or not?") :no:


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

jcoss15 said:


> I love small minnows for big bluegill and red bellies, we call them cracker minnows..but usually it's earthworms or crickets for me when fishing live bait.


I forgot about little minnows, and they DO work! When I was a kid, we would walk the banks of the river and use a boat paddle to slap topminnows (look like guppies) up on the bank and keep them in a paper cup.

And don't forget Zeigler's hot dogs - the one's with the red dye. Caught many bream on them. Probably same effect as the Slim Jims.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Jason said:


> Best watch out with Blood Weed....sometimes it's laced and you might get a 9 to the skull. You don't mess w/ bangers dope!
> 
> Heard of folks using maggots and larvae before but blood weed is a new un to me too!


I have heard of - but never tried - hanging fish guts/heads in an onion sack from a limb over the river and come back in a few days and fish around it. Maggots would fall in the river and chum up the 'gills. Of course you want to anchor upwind.


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## Geezer (Mar 30, 2014)

Bodupp said:


> One day I saw a man with a cricket cage full of cockroaches! And he was catching some big hump-nosed bluegills!


If it will catch fish, I will use just about anything, no matter how bad it stinks. But, there are a few things that I will not handle & cockroaches are at the top of the list.


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

Bodupp said:


> I have heard of - but never tried - hanging fish guts/heads in an onion sack from a limb over the river and come back in a few days and fish around it. Maggots would fall in the river and chum up the 'gills. Of course you want to anchor upwind.


 I have seen that also, where people have caught a big mudfish, run a low hanging limb through its gills right over the water and come back and fish it a couple days later, gross but effective I guess.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Geezer said:


> If it will catch fish, I will use just about anything, no matter how bad it stinks. But, there are a few things that I will not handle & cockroaches are at the top of the list.


I'm with you on that, but if the guy at the other end of the boat is outfishing me...

Actually, the guy I saw with the cockroaches appeared to be from "the 'hood", and I'm guessing he had an abundant supply of bait. Hard to argue with the stringer of bream he had.


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## Gator McKlusky (Oct 8, 2013)

Meal Worms are easy to keep and raise. I have caught bream back in the day on them.


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## stauty trout (Jul 19, 2012)

Never head of anybody else using bacon before but I've caught a many of bream on raw bacon back in the day... had a pond close to the house and they loved it


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## hjorgan (Sep 30, 2007)

Mealworms are a bait I used as a kid. Grandad raised them in an old washing machine drum out back. Killer bream bait.

The little crawfish are great bait, but we used to use the bigger crawfish tails. Worked good on crackers and pretty much all other fish. Drum loved them.


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## KingCrab (Apr 29, 2012)

Omg, Bream eat sabiki rigs.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

hjorgan said:


> Mealworms are a bait I used as a kid. Grandad raised them in an old washing machine drum out back. Killer bream bait.
> 
> The little crawfish are great bait, but we used to use the bigger crawfish tails. Worked good on crackers and pretty much all other fish. Drum loved them.


My Granddad raised those, too. Fed them bran meal and potato peels. He would send us kids out to the barn to get some, and there would be beetles running everywhere. First biology lesson - grubs turn into beetles.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

KingCrab said:


> Omg, Bream eat sabiki rigs.



Never heard of using a sabiki for bream before, but why not? they look like a fly and bream bite the heck out of them at time.


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## bamagator (Mar 31, 2009)

Best bream I ever caught was on a 6" texas riged plastic worm in electric red color.


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## Salt4Lifer (Jun 1, 2013)

Growing up in Indiana, the #1 bait for me was always bee moths (larvae)

Then in the winter thru the ice, you have other smaller larvae that also worked great like spikes and mousies. Haven't seen anything like them down here though


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## KingCrab (Apr 29, 2012)

fishwalton said:


> Never heard of using a sabiki for bream before, but why not? they look like a fly and bream bite the heck out of them at time.


its great for small bream to use for bait.:thumbsup:


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Bodupp said:


> I have heard of - but never tried - hanging fish guts/heads in an onion sack from a limb over the river and come back in a few days and fish around it. Maggots would fall in the river and chum up the 'gills. Of course you want to anchor upwind.


OK - I've tried that........................................with a dead dog.
Now yall don't go flippin' out on me, it really wasn't my idea and I realized I was hanging out with the wrong crowd pretty quick. The poor hound had already give up the ghost when we came across him on the Hwy. No sack, just a couple pieces of rope. I really hope his owner didn't decide to go fishing to ease the pain of losing his dog and come upon that overhanging limb. Plan was to come back in a week since he was already deceased for a few days, but I upgraded my friends and missed out on the return trip - God forgive me!


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

My past being the exception - this is a great subject - have any of yall ever heard of fishing for ant lions? Most people say yeah but im not talking about doodle bugs that make the cone shaped ant traps in dry sand. We called these ant lions and they live in what looks like ant holes in the dirt. 
Im gonna start a new thread and run out and make a quick video before dark - You younger guys need to know how to do this when there aint no good bait around


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## hjorgan (Sep 30, 2007)

*Ant Lions are now endangered...*

Total allowed catch was estimated at 1.45 ounces across the Gulf region and has been theoretically reached. All ant lions caught must be returned to the hole, and the hole must be vented if filled in during the catch. This despite a 1/32" minimum length and a limit of 2 ant lions per catcher per day. Boat captains and crew are not allowed to retain a limit of ant lions while on a charter.



Try'n Hard said:


> My past being the exception - this is a great subject - have any of yall ever heard of fishing for ant lions? Most people say yeah but im not talking about doodle bugs that make the cone shaped ant traps in dry sand. We called these ant lions and they live in what looks like ant holes in the dirt.
> Im gonna start a new thread and run out and make a quick video before dark - You younger guys need to know how to do this when there aint no good bait around


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Posted the how to catch an ant lion thread and live fishing video in the general section. Y'all check it out


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Try'n Hard said:


> Posted the how to catch an ant lion thread and live fishing video in the general section. Y'all check it out


That was a new one for me, and at my age, I thought I had seen it all.

:notworthy:


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Salt4Lifer said:


> Growing up in Indiana, the #1 bait for me was always bee moths (larvae)
> 
> Then in the winter thru the ice, you have other smaller larvae that also worked great like spikes and mousies. Haven't seen anything like them down here though


Those grubs look like the ones that come from bloodweed.


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## firespan1 (Sep 7, 2011)

*one more cast*

If ya run out of bait, a good ol' crusty booger works just fine!


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

firespan1 said:


> If ya run out of bait, a good ol' crusty booger works just fine!


Dang. Imagine reaching in the bait bucket during a hot bream bite.

Or how about a Youtube video of a short bus full of window-lickers making bait?

Bait my hook for me?

Snot workin' for me.

This has opened up a whole new can of worms. (Ahem) :whistling:


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## off route II (Sep 28, 2007)

Bodupp said:


> Well, I guess I 'bout covered it. :001_huh:


 I can't believe nobody mentioned Catawba worms, in the spring we would find a Catawba tree and they would be on the bottom of the big leaves. they were green, about a inch or so long, about as big around as a pencil. you would pinch them in half and we always thought you couldn't get any better bait than that. they are the larvae of some kind of moth.


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## Geezer (Mar 30, 2014)

Catalpa worms have long been a great bream bait & they are as good or better for channel cats. I try to always have some of them on hand, either fresh or frozen


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