Hunting for insects for bait

[courty]

For some reason, I get a greater pleasure from catching fish with bait I have found rather than bought. Maybe this is part of the hunter gatherer hard-wiring in my genes, or just the credit crunch, but I'd love to hear what experiences and successes other people have had in this area.
I fish mainly for trout, either brown on my local river, but mainly of late on a local reservoir stocked with rainbow trout.
Recently I used what I believe were caddis larvae carefully removed from their casing (4 inch from the float) which trout seem to love, but they appear to have all hatched now. I tried some similar larvae that were green and so fragile they didn't hook well, although in their brown chrysalis stage they were a bit successful, but weren't as strong as maggot casters. Any one know what they are? There are caterpillars that grow in nettles (look for the shrivelled leaves on nettles that are folded in half) but they are a bit too small really.
I tried some white eggs under a weed in sand (I believe they are snails eggs, got bites but missed them, maybe they come off the hook too easily). Bought some (yes, I bought these, just as an experiment) black crickets from a pet shop and some days the trout loved them, other days they were totally ignored. Saw one trout rise eagerly, only to drop away at the last moment. Tried the green crickets as well, they look similar to local crickets only bigger, but they jump out of the bait box and have been less successful than the black ones, they both float on the surface with a bubble float).
Worms don't seem too productive, but I'm not a big ledger fan, so this maybe my method that's wrong.
I found a very large maggot-like larva under a rock near a pond when I was younger, it promptly turned round and nipped me with large brown pincers I hadn't noticed. Dropped it and ran away screaming, can't blame it. Any ideas what this was?
Centipedes are good on some days but they are hard to catch, probably due to all those legs.
What do you think? Is it seasonal, or do conditions dictate what fish will naturally find? And catching the insects can be as much fun as fishing, in an off-shoot sort of way.
And is surface presenting them the best way (with bubble flot 18 inches away, no weights near the hook, sometimes a bit of cork to counter the hook weight(16))?
tried leeches but only caught perch. Tried little transparent blobs with what appeared to be small eggs inside from under rocks in the water with no luck at all. What are they?
Any suggestions or ideas greatfully received to all these queries.

[geejayy]

interesting ideas courty,
i've not heard of anyone else lately gathering baits in such a way other than lobworms.
i used to read storys of collecting and useing slugs to ledger for chub.
and a story recounted by an old keepering comrade about a waterkeeper who enduced the trout to rise by catching a capful of mayflys one afternoon and dropping them on the water to spark the fish into life.
speaking of fly fishing , both mayfly and daddy longlegs used to be caught and used many years ago for dapping with a long rod and 'blow' line but with modern fly lines and immitation flys i doubt if it gets done much now.
i wouldn't even know if you can still get blow line for dapping.

with the ease and avalliability of getting 1/2 pint of maggots these days i doubt if many actively search for insects as bait.

as to the big bug that nipped you, i'd guess at a beetle larva , years ago there i can remember the matchmen
useing waspgrubs as bait , but it was a brave guy who collected them , probably assisted by a tin of cymag.

gord.

[FuerteStuart]

Have to say I agree 110% with finding your own bait.

I love nothing more than goin out before sunrise and picking up some crabs in the rock pools (only the little ones about 1"). But i do find that specialist bait often leads to only catching the same fish.
Here the crabs will only catch you Viejas and samas (snappers and parrot fish) but Prawn wil catch you those and a tonne more.
I only wish I could catch my own prawns!!

I wonder what i could catch with cockroach?? hmmm

[courty]

Cockroaches! Now there's a thought, they'd wriggle for ages and make an enticing bait. Do they bite, though? In all honesty, as long as the bait doesn't nip me everytime I put it on, I'd probably try it.
I had a wasp nest in the shed last year, but couldn't get near it without getting stung, so I used ant killer powder to kill the wasps before destroying the nest. I didn't want to use the gorgeous looking grubs for fishing because the instructions made it clear that it was lethal to fish.
Geejayy's tale about the old bloke with the mayflies is interesting, though I'm not sure how you'd catch them and get them onto the surface without them flying away. I've also heard about daddy long legs and similar being good baits to drag across the water. I've tried a spider without success, although the guy fly fishing at the next swim claimed he was getting bites on a "spider fly."
Searching for bait on the seashore in Fuertestuart's neighbourhood sounds as much fun as fishing, I suppose there are all sorts of possibilities.
I've noticed that when I catch a variety of insects and put them into one box, the variety is a bit less when I open it at lake side. I guess we are all in the food chain somewhere along the line.
Thanks for the replies guys,
Courty

[geejayy]

courty,
mayfly-next morning after a good hatch youll find them resting under leaves on the trees n bushes along side the river, they're waiting for the sun to warm them up b4 late afternoon when they should take to the air, dance then head for the water to spawn then fall as spent.

[joe0709]

Never caught my own bait apart from worms

I do a lot of lure fishing and have been having a look around this site that sells predator gear (they also try and test all of there lures etc. with pics too :O) and they have these floating plastic crickets for sale, apparently they are brilliant twitched on the surface in the summer months.

[courty]

Hi joe0709,
do you have a link to the site with the plastic crickets please?
Courty

[joe0709]

Originally Posted by courty

Hi joe0709,
do you have a link to the site with the plastic crickets please?
Courty

http://www.sovereignsuperbaits.co.uk...ml#Cockroaches

[BoldBear]

I once caught some nice Roach in a Moat near Gosport on Woodlice that I found under bits of wood and logs, the roach went mad on them and were pushing each other out of the way in their eagerness to get them. I was only using them because I had run out of maggots.

I have just finished reading 'The Best of Richard Walkers Coarse Fishing' and in it he too mentions that he and his father used to catch fish on them and that there were two different types of woodlice; the ones that rolled into a ball when disturbed and the other type which looked just like water lice, he too used to look under logs for them.
BB

[Rossthedon]

a little tip for fishing with live insects, never actuallt hook the insect, instead use a dab of superglue and stick em on. years ago there used to be hooks with little clips on them for holding insects for dapping etc..
if anyone could find these i'd be intterested to know where!

i was fishing worms for perch at a trout water (bait for pike) and had run out of worms, i found a large daddy grub (leatherjacket) and on my first cast hit a nice blue! you will find leatherjackets at this time of year in the soil as you would worms, maybee this was a fluke but definately worth a try!