Fishing Forum

[size 3][font "Times New Roman"] What is the Strangest Things Used on a fish hook. I have seen people ( Especial Woman are daring ) put all sorts of things on hooks to catch everything from white bass to striper. What works for you? and, what fish did you catch. This should be very interesting to read.[/font][/size]
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Welcome to bigfishtackle.com Fawn! That's a good question and you should get some interesting responses.

For me, i've used a lot of different things for bait for many different species.

I once filled a stringer with panfish using some old bacon fat that was carved off prior to cooking. I was really surprised how well it works, but they seem to like the salty white offering.

I've caught catfish off of a bar of Ivory Soap. Just sliced off a piece and tossed in out into a channel cat hole. Sure enough, he took a bite and caught the barb end of my fishing hook. LOL, never would have thought that one. What struck me to try it is that I had heard that old timey trot liners used plain old ivory soap for bait with great success. I'm still skeptical though, but it did work.

I caught a black sea bass off a piece of bologne. We were parked off the reef and weren't catching a thing. I was eatting a bologne sandwhich and drinking a beer and figured what the hell, nothing else was working. So I threaded on a piece of bologne and dropped it on down. Sure enough, a small sea bass decided a bologne sandwhich sounded pretty good and chomped down on my offering. Pretty nifty. LOL []
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I have caught carp off of popcorn.
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Thanks for the great response. I am seeking information for an article I plan on writing for a local Magazine. What inspired this question was the lack of bites after fishing for white bass. We (being my husband and myself) are starting our fishing season now that deer hunting is over. We have a small creek shooting off the Cumberland River. We had great bites at first and fished well . But we had usual weather for January ( 74) .[/size][/font]
[size 3][font "Times New Roman"] The next day a cold front came through sent tornados through. Now the river that is governed by an upstream dam, is up and down muddy and rough. We haven’t caught a thing since then and its been 4 days. [/font][/size]
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I think you'll find that targeting fish during this time of year is challenging anywhere. When the tempurature is constantly up and down, the fish go into a state of shock as their bodies are in a constant mode of adjusting to the changes. I think you'd find the fishing to improve if you had a pretty steady run of weather, rather it be warm or cold. But, i'm the same hypothetical boat you're in. Usually, I take this time of year to do my rod and reel maintenance, fix upgrade the boats, and plan out the next years fishing and set goals. Me and cold weather just don't get along too well.
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I lived in ID for 6 years and hatcheries are commonplace all over. Every hatchery had a creek running into and from it. They were usually full of trout and some good ones too. A friend and i ran out of worms on one trip and ended up using skittles to catch them. They worked great!
Another time on the same creek i ran out of bait and lures so i tied a 1/2" washer right tight to the hook and used it as a spinner of sorts. I must say i was pleasantly surprised to catch 4 trout using this set up.
Another time here in UT, we ran out of wax worms fishing for perch through the ice and a person in our party being a showoff put on a half of a cigarette butt and immediately began catching perch. We all smoked about it and tied one on. Caught fish the rest of the day.[cool]
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When you run out of bait when fishing perch just grab one that is laying on the ice and pluck it's eye out and stick it on the hook. So long as you keep catching them you'll never run out of bait. Works great !!!

I've use alpo dog food for carp. They also seemed to like my peanut butter powerbar.

I've caught lots of bluegills off the dock using leftover turkey meat from Thanksgiving. Uncooked bacon works good too.
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I've once tied an old spark-plug to a hook and caught a pike on it...
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very good question....i think the strangest would have to be bubble gum that my grandmother used after running out of the good ole fashion worm. not only once has it worked but many times after that!!!
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I have used the cigarrette butts, bubble gum, gummy worms, gummy bears, rubber bands of different colors and even small pieces of paper towels.

There are so many things that fish will hit on just to investigate.[cool]
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I caught tons of gills and sunnys as a boy with raw hotdog pieces.
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Bare hook -- jigged up and down. Fish will bite those when they're hungry.

Also along those lines, on the Outer Banks (NC) where the bluefish have the feeding frenzies in the surf, you can take anything and put a hook on it and catch fish. One tackle store there used to have a coke can on display. They had rigged the coke can with a hook and the bluefish ripped it up.
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ive used lots of random crap
the strangest would hav to be a old condom i found on the ground i used pliars to hook it on all sides of the opening on a teblehook casted it out and reeled it in like a crankbait
caught two lmb 1 6lb and a 2lb
also i cast it out an it sunk jus perfect so there was a airbubble and i lest it there an caught a 31lb carp
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[quote Dubie]I've once tied an old spark-plug to a hook and caught a pike on it...[/quote] Made me laugh out loud!

For my answer, I used a tiny Leopard Frog that I clubbed and caught a snake! That was just today :p That snake scared me.....
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