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Live Bait Super Choice To Catch Lunker Bass

The largemouth bass loves to eat live and swimming baits and the variety of prey they will feed on range from small mammals and birds o small water fleas. The diversity of live baits and the fact that bass love to eat means you are going to be in for a good time regardless if you are fishing for bass during the day or bass fishing at night.

Way back in the 19 hundreds the main live baits that were used for largemouth bass were frogs and shiners. If you look at some of the old timers pictures that hang around you can see these anglers had some incredible catches. These two live bait choices still work very well today. In today’s bass fishing world the choices of live and swimming baits for bass has grown considerably, and the methods have advanced also.

Since those days the fishing tackle that is available to fish live baits or artificial baits for large mouth bass has improved drastically. You can fish during the day or you can go bass fishing at night using some amazing fishing tackle because of the advances in tackle.

The majority of bass anglers fish with artificial baits but even the pro’s will occasionally switch to live baits to get bass to move out of tight cover, especially when a tough cold fronts or other adverse weather moves in. These weather conditions tend to keep the largemouth bass sticking very tight in cover.

There are a group of bass fisherman like my self, who fish for bass primarily with live baits. I like to go bass fishing at night and I always have good luck with some type of a live bait selection. My Favorite is the old reliable shiner, and if shiners are native to the waters you intend to go bass fishing at night there is no better live bait. Creek chubs are also a great alternate to shiners.

A key point to remember about bass fishing day or night is that the largemouth bass will attack their prey and swallow it whole. This action happens very quick so you need to be ready to set the hook fast. Even when your bass fishing at night the largemouth will attack your live baits, That is why it is so important to keep your baits fresh and lively.

Fishing For Largemouth Bass With Shiners
Shiners are still one of the best live baits to take fish when your bass fishing at night or fishing during the day. There a few special rigging methods for shiners or other bait fish that work well under different fishing circumstances. There are many trophy bass that are taken with live bait because they avoid any artificial baits, which why they have probably grown so big in the first place. You still need to understand bass patterns and work your live baits but the potential is there.

If plan still fishing using a underwater fishing light when you are bass fishing at night one bass rigging method that works well at night when your fishing shiners or creek chubs is what is called the quick strike rig. You can fish a quick strike rig with a float or free line. I prefer to use a lighted slip bobber so I know where my live bait is located at all times. The quick strike rig consists of two treble hooks attached to a line about 3 to 5 inches apart, one hooked at the dorsal fin, and the other hooked in the meat just above the tail. The leader with the two hooks connects to a barrel swivel approximately 18 inches up the line.

Another hooking method for using shiners or creek chubs as live bait is called the floating cover rig. The float rig works great if you are fishing floating cover and you want your shiner to swim underneath the edges of the floating cover. The slip bobber will drift to the edge of the cover and stop, but the shiner will swim the line below the slip bobber under the cover. If you go bass fishing at night, clip a small led light on top of your bobber so you can see approximately where your live baits are swimming too.

To make a floating cover rig, First slide your slip bobber up the line. Next tie a 24 inch piece of floating braid line or use a fly line to your monofilament line. Next tie a barrel swivel on the end of floating leader. Then tie a 12 inch mono leader to the other side of the barrel swivel. The hook size needs to be weed less and the size needs to match the size of shiners you are using. For example a large shiner typically would need a size 5/0 or 6/0 hook, where a small shiner typically would use a 1/0 hook size. If the shiner stays up on top and wont submerge below the cover use a small split shot. You will want to hook your live bait right behind the dorsal fin.

If you do not have any floating braid or fly line you can use plain mono line with no sinkers. You will want to hook your shiner or creek chub on the belly side about right behind the vent. Make sure the barb of the hook is pointing down.

Another way to get your shiner or creek chub close to the bass is by drifting. To make drifting shiner rig slide a slip bobber up the line first, then the bobber stop. Tie a weed less hook on the end of your line. If you plan to go bass fishing at night clip an led on the slip bobber.