Bait for Traveling Angler

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Matt Miller
Matt Miller's picture
Bait for Traveling Angler
<p>I travel quite a bit for work and usually bring a fishing rod or two to fish during my down time. Sometimes I&#39;ll have an extra day or two. But others I am kind of stuck at a hotel or conference facility, but will fish at a nearby pond, canal or pier. In these instances, it can be really hard to find bait, as I don&#39;t have a car, may be in a downtown area, etc.</p> <p>Does anyone have a good traveling bait to use?</p> <p>I usually improvise -- I save items from meals, or bring some white bread. I have used Gulp products with mixed results. And I often have flies or lures. But sometimes and for some species, it&#39;s hard to beat worms or live bait, and finding live bait when you are in a town 2,000 miles from home, without a car, is challenging. And spending time tracking down bait would mean I wouldn&#39;t have time to fish.</p> <p>Anyhow, if there are good products that you like, let me know -- either for freshwater or saltwater pier fishing. Thanks.</p>
Casey Shanaberger
Casey Shanaberger's picture
White Bread

White Bread has always been a preferred bait of mine for traveling. When available, you can find a field or park and try to find some grasshoppers if you get desperate. Canned corn always works well too, and will keep for a long time as long as it's closed.

"I swear if you catch another drum"

waxworm2
I always keep a couple small

I always keep a couple small continers of crawlers in the back of my fridge at home, ready to pop into one of those small, soft-sided insulated lunch/sandwich bags found at most big box retailers (Target, Walmart), or grocery and drug stores. Just put a small bag of frozen peas in a zip-close baggie in the lunch bag with a standard small container (dozen or two) of crawlers or waxies wrapped in a few paper towels, and toss into your overnight bag. Will keep this way for 6-8 hours unopened. Once at your destination lodging, pop the lunchbag in the minifridge, and/or refreeze the frozen veggies. If there's no minifridge, just add ice to the zip baggie. Hope this helps.

Deftik
Deftik's picture
I always call local walmarts

I always call local walmarts and buy every single thing of worms in stock.

kernel j
Got a shovel?  Believe it or

Got a shovel?  Believe it or not, worms don't come from China like most Walmart products...they actually come from Canadacheeky  Seriously, a small spade or similar will get you plenty of dirt dwelling critters to impale.  Don't overlook the waters you fish in for bait, turn a few rocks and you've often got a ton of larvae at your discretion.  Logs, bricks, and landscape timbers often have some treasures under them for angling use. 

 

Bacon fat, while annoyingly greasy and rather hunger provoking in an angler, can actually be pretty effective bait on hooks or jigheads.  Most anything will eat it.  This is an amorphous art, but in general you want the thin stuff that behaves like marabou swishing about in the water.  Think "stringy edges", not the thick part.  You kinda sew it on a hook by impaling and re-impaling until it is secure.  Trim a bit if you like, it always look ridiculous, but it may surprise you on appeal to fish.

philaroman
philaroman's picture
tiny dry-fly hooks will get

tiny dry-fly hooks will get you baitfish -- I won't bother w/ the endless list of things that are inadequate as primary bait, yet work like a charm for bait collection...  a small bright  bead above the hook speeds up the process

P.E.T.A. sucks!!!  Plants are living things, too -- they're just easier to catch!

RoughFish
RoughFish's picture
Check out mummy worms on

Check out mummy worms on tenkarabum, marukyu isome are another great synthetic bait too. Can’t beat bread and corn in my opinion though.

Goldenfishberg
Goldenfishberg's picture
Pocket mulch!

Hey Matt, you can get yourself a real sturdy pair of Cargo pants and dedicate one of the pockets to bait holdin'! Throw some leaves in there maybe some moss and a handfull of redworms, your body temperature is most likey the same as mine considering we are both human mamals so they should stay wigglely and alive for a good solid day or so. I wouldn't sleep in your pocket mulch pants (i've made this mistake) Red worms are very hearty and should keep well in your moist pocket mico-environment. Down south (florida, NC, SC etc) they have some worms they call "jumpers or wigglers" these worms cannot be killed and are imortal in my experience but the price is still quite affordable to the everyman. 

Ya just Can't catch um from the couch.