Why Artificial Lures are Better than Live Bait for Panfish

You actually can present more naturally without live bait and I proved it

Yep I said it. I can catch more on a jig than you can on your live bait. And I catch a lot more big ones than most. That’s largely because I hunt bigger fish and I have a good system now with jigs to cover water a lot faster than most people can with live bait. That’s why I end up catching hundreds of shellcrackers in a spring and hundreds of bluegills over 9 inches all year long. I’ve learned that presentation is usually way more important than scent.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a firm believer in scent for panfish. Shellcrackers more than any other fish. They are curious inspectors. They will nose up to baits for a while at times before biting. And that for sure is when scent matters. But today’s new jigs have the scent thing figured out easily with WAY less mess and hassle than live bait. So I’ll talk baits but more I’ll talk why I think artificial have more advantages for panfish than live bait does.

You don’t have to “live bait hope and pray” with the panfish lures I use.

WHY LIVE BAIT CATCHES FISH

I think the real reason live bait works so well is because it simply looks alive to the fish. It looks like something that might be good to eat. And I think when the come in close for inspection, it passes the inspection test.

Now having said that, I have had dozens of times where I was fishing a jig and the person with me was fishing live bait and I caught the fish 5 to 1 or sometimes 10 to 1 better than the other person.

I don’t necessarily think it’s because the fake thing looks better than the real thing. I think you have a lot more control of the fake thing to make it trigger a fish reaction than the live thing often does. I experiment a lot with how I present jigs. Sometimes under a float with a slow retrieve or twitches. Sometimes more aggressive pops. Sometimes no bobber with a slow retrieve. Sometimes with a lift and drop presentation. Sometimes with a shaking presentation.

That experimentation is what led me to the conclusion that lures are better than bait for panfish.

WHY ARTIFICIAL LURES ARE A BETTER CHOICE

What I often find is that how you present something is more important than how it looks. And you can drill down on the best way to present to a specific group of fish in a specific fishing situation. And then the bites come easy. It’s no different than finding a hot color after struggling with several other colors.

I think what the lure or “bait” does often trumps its color, profile or sometimes even it’s natural behavior.

I can also cover water faster and that has led me to finding a lot more big panfish the last two years. I finally figured out that big panfish were patternable, especially fish like red ears. And the more water you can cover and check, the more red ears you will catch. Yes you might land on a good hot bed in the spring. But those odds are very low. You are better off to fish a lot of good areas with a good presentation and cover water until you have fished a lot of good places efficiently to catch a lot more red ear. The days I’ve caught my limit of red ears this year, it has been on the days I’ve fished a lot of water.

Live bait tends to slow anglers down a lot, and hey, there is nothing wrong with just kicking back and waiting for that bobber to go down. I still love to see a bobber go under. But I get antsy and I don’t like to just sit and hope and pray a fish happens to stumble onto my live bait. I’d rather hunt good water and keep my lure moving and probing the next stretch in search of fish. Then when I catch one I will slow down and methodically cover the area with different retrieves and styles of jigs.

ADAPTING EASIER WITH ARTIFICIAL LURES

When you choose to fish live bait you get pretty one dimensional. Whereas with artificial lures, you can change your retrieves, colors, materials, actions and location in the water column very easily by controlling the presentation on the retrieve. I find that fluidity makes them far superior for catching much more fish and also bigger fish.

I’ve caught more than 100 big red ear this spring and I have not used live bait one time. I haven’t used it in years. I am not against it all. I just got tired of worm dirt, smelly hands and the hassle of keeping it fresh. And I also go tired of the limitations. I can adjust weight, size and materials of my jigs on the fly and get a bait to fall faster or sink slower. I can get it to dance and vibrate and undulate in very lively manners. And I can “trigger” more fish.

Most panfish don’t get triggered by live bait. You have all seen the underwater eats of panfish taking live bait. Where they just slowly inch up to the bait on the bottom or suspended under a float, and inspect it for a long time. Then maybe just nibble and barely take it in. Whereas, when I hop my jig, I will watch that big red ear or bull headed bluegill make a violent move to take the jig down.

And that to me is what makes fishing fun. I tricked the fish and got him to be aggressive towards my presentation. I didn’t wait on him. I drew him in with my presentation with something not alive. That is the whole game to me. And it will never get old to me catching big bluegills, coppernoses, red ears, red breasts, and big ole crappie on light line and small artificial lures.

If you have always been a live bait guy I encourage you to get a handful of good panfish baits and just see how it goes for you.