New Bait Shortage

The Covit Virus is being used as an excuse for nearly everything that is going wrong in our lives lately. The freshwater bait supply is the latest area effected. The bait being delivered as Bass bait is no longer golden shiners by they are small carp. These small fish are much larger than the normal shiners but they do indeed work. There are three tips t hat I can provide when using this bait. First, try to get the smallest fish available. Some sellers will allow you to pick out your own fish and I do that and try to get the smallest ones available. Second, when hooking the bait on your line, use the front-most area of the mouth, The head on these fish are large and tough and if you push the hook through the head you will get a lot of break-aways because the hook does not set in the fish. The very front of the top and bottom lip is strong enough to hold the fish and still let the business end of the hook be exposed enough to hold the retrieved fish. The third tip is for a very slow troll or still fishing with this bait, you can try hooking the bait fish through the tail. This fish is very active when in the water and the tail hooking increases the swimming movement of the bait. I have had good luck with this hooking technique.