Live Bait - Crawlers

By: Steve Cegielski, Operations Manager
When it comes to live bait, minnows, crawlers, and leeches all have their place. Minnows are hard to keep alive, and don’t stay on the hook. Leeches can’t be taken across the Canadian border and are very expensive. So that leaves crawlers as the bait of choice for late summer Canadian fishing trips.

Of course each lakes fish tend to prefer one over the other, but usually crawlers will be the most consistent during late summer bite.

You can buy crawlers in large quanities (500 crawlers to a flat) in the states and transport at a low cost. A flat of crawlers cost about $50-60.00 dollars. You must use artificial bedding to transport across the border. Crawlers are easy to keep alive….cool damp environment is the key.

I’ll use whole crawlers to back troll using two hook crawler harnesses seems to work the best. Some guys will even enject the crawler with air to give buoyancy.

When it comes to jigging I prefer to cut crawlers in half and insert the hook into the crawler just like a twister tail. Let the remainder of the crawler dangle like a twister tail. I’ve found a whole crawler allows the walleye to short bite and steal the bait.

I once witnessed a guy caught 8 walleyes on the same half crawler…hard to keep crawler meat on the hook that long…..hungry walleyes.