The Basics Of How To Bait Fish

There are two main ways to get a fish to bite a hook hunger and anger! With bait fishing you’re going for hunger seeking to make sure that it looks appetising to fish is the name of the game. There are lots of different types of bait. Most people recognise the earthworm as one of the most common types of bait but there are thousands more. The best baits are always the ones found naturally in and around the areas where the fish feed. Some of the most common are minnows, maggots, crickets, mealworms, sand eels, squid and shrimp. Your local fishing shop should be your first stop when looking for bait. It is in the interest of the shopkeeper to sell the best bait for the fish you are after, so you keep coming back to the shop.

Click here for how to hook different types of bait.

Rigging/Tackle

let’s take a look at the type of rigging that is commonly used in bait fishing. The most important part of the rigging is the hook, normally a J hook. J Hooks tend to have three barbs the first Barb is close to the tip and two barbs around the back close to the eye. Below left is a standard J Hook, centre is a J Hook with a rubber shrimp fishing lure and the third picture is a treble hook often found on fishing spinner lures.

The second part to the rigging is this swivel. This swivels job is to allow the hook and fish to spin around the change direction without twisting and breaking the line. Below from top is a roller swivel, standard fishing swivel and last is a heavy brass fishing swivel.

Depending on the size of their bait you are using. You may require an additional weight to help sink it. There are several different types of weights you have split shot, egg, bell, pyramid and a lot more. Below from top you have a heavy deep sea fishing weight, meduim fishing wieght use in shallow sea also deep lakes and last is the very small split shot that is squeezed onto fine fishing line. Split shot is used in fresh water fishing such as carp or trout.