Best bait for all freshwater species

Baitfish are found throughout The world and make excellent bait for all freshwater species. In North America you can fish with a variety of different baitfish, what you use depends on what species you are fishing for, here are some examples. If you are fishing for larger gamefish use larger minnows, for example, if you are fishing for bass, pike,salmon, steelhead, muskie or even catfish you should use medium or large roaches or shiners, esspecialy gold shiners {Pictured}, these larger baitfish are just big enough to work wonders on these bigger species while the small and pesky fish such as bluegills are unable to get they're mouths around them. fathead minnows, rosy reds, madtoms, bluntnose minnows and even goldfish can be used for panfish, perch and bullheads. The larger fish will also eagerly bite on these esspecialy walleye and striped bass. An effective way to reel in lunkers is to use large fatheads, these plump minnows will ring the dinner bell for large gamefish and if a panfish bites it, that means it is probably a pretty big one! If you are fishing for monsters like pike, muskie, catfish and sturgeon a last resort is to use baitfish weaghing at least a pound like suckers, carp or drum and small bluegill will sometimes trigger a bite, they can be used eather live or chopped up. The key to fishing with batfish is the way you hook them {When hooking live baitfish, try to do it as humainly as possible} If you want it to swim around and flap in the water, hook them eather through the tail, mouth or back, when hooking through the tail or back, avoid the spine or you will cripple it. When using a dead minnow, you can hook it through the head or out the gill, then you can cast and slowly retreive for that will make it seem alive, this method is also effective when trolling. When using a freshly dead minnow, you can slit the belly with a knife, the blood will attract predetory fish.