It seems that wherever fishermen are, there will always be a debate as to which is better for consistently catching fish – lures or bait.
My brother and I used to fish together very frequently when we were younger. He was a bait fisherman much more so than I. We found a great little freshwater fishing stream close to our house which was crammed full of catfish. We enjoyed fishing there and would even get up early on Sunday mornings, before Sunday School, and go fishing for an hour or more.
He would use a bobber and live worms and I would use my secret spinner (the one I used to catch that mysterious fish in my last post!) Being true Americans, we would always be competing to see who could catch the most fish! It was always very close. Some days he would win, other days I would. We would always catch more than 1 too – never kept them – strictly catch and release.
No one I talked to ever used a spinner to catch catfish and they all looked at me as if I was a little crazy for even thinking about it! 😉 In our area, catfish were considered bait only fish! But trust me, my spinner was deadly for catfishing! I would cast it out, let it sink to the bottom and then slowly reel it in, twitching it every once in a while. The catfish loved it!
So which was better? Our conclusion was that neither was better. It came down to a preference on the fisherman’s part. I still prefer lures over bait. But I’ll use bait when I don’t have what I consider to be an appropriate lure for the type of fish I’m after.
How about you? Which do you prefer, lure or bait? Leave a comment and let me know?
Catch you later!
I’ve always liked using bait, but lately been using the lures, they are just as effective and cleaner!
I fished for years in Hawaii for all the available big game fish that state has to offer and I found that the vast majority of our success came from artificial. We would occasionally use live bait for Marlin when conditions were optimal and we again used bait for Mahi Mahi but by and large: Plastic is Fantastic
This is good share i like it so much. Thank you.
Neither is better. It depends. A few years back, I was up in Northern Canada fishing for Northern Pike and all the fish were hooked with a Red Devil spoon artificial lure but other lures and worms didn’t work for some reason. I would prefer lure since is easier.
I just started fishing. I throw the squid intestines (that I dont eat) and fish with lure.
There is no skill in throwing an artificial bait, most fish can tell the difference between artificials and real food, therefore catching fish on an artificial bait has a massive element of luck about it, fortuitously throwing the lure at the right time in the right place to create the element of surprise. Live baits will, and always has outfished artificial baits.
I really enjoy your post. I am a full on angler so this posts are really interesting to me. Cheers.