Fishing with live bait from a boat, bank, or pier is a time-honored tradition and an effective way to catch fish.
Especially for new anglers, it’s probably their first experience on the water and their initial chance to get hooked on the sport.
We love the idea of more people taking up fishing, and we’d like to help make your first trips to catch fish more productive.
To that end, we’ll explain “still fishing” and teach you everything you need to know about it in an easy-to-follow guide to get you up to speed quickly.
So if you want to learn more about still fishing, keep reading!
Table of Contents (clickable)
What is Still Fishing?
The easiest definition of still fishing is a comparison. When you fish a lure, you’re generally moving it through the water, either by reeling it toward you or with motions of your rod – or both.
In still fishing, by contrast, your bait remains still and you’re not retrieving it or moving your rod. Instead, you’re letting your live bait do all the work for you.
Now, don’t be fooled: still fishing with live bait can be incredibly effective, so you’re at no disadvantage at all if you choose this simple technique.
How to Still Fish With Live Bait
We’ve written quite a bit about live bait and bobber choice, and if you want a more advanced tutorial, check out these articles:
Catching Spring Slabs: Best Crappie Corks, Floats, and Bobbers Reviewed
Types of Fishing Bait – Everything You Need to Know
If you’re a new angler, it’s best if we start with the basics.
The easiest and probably most productive way to catch fish with live bait is to use a bobber or float. The idea is to suspend your bait – on a hook – to the depth where the fish are feeding.
This technique is most common when fishing panfish like sunfish, bluegill, crappie, and trout, and since nearly every lake and pond in America contains at least one of the species, there’s a good chance you’re interested in knowing how this is done.
Tackle selection
For panfish, an ultralight or light rod is perfect. You’re looking for supreme sensitivity, enough power to fight small fish and still enjoy the thrill of the catch, and plenty of whip-like action to allow good casting.
We’ve reviewed this kind of rod before, highlighting what you want – and don’t want – in a rod of this kind.
One of our favorites is the St. Croix Premier Ultralight. At 6-feet, it’s got the length you need for longer casts, and plenty of fight for fish that are bigger than you think.
I’ve caught 3- to 4-pound bass on an ultralight, and this rod can more than take the biggest panfish out there.
If the St. Croix is a bit pricey for you, don’t worry! Bass Pro’s Micro Lite has you covered. I own and fish this rod, and it’s definitely a case of getting a lot more than you pay for!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hr-lzkMrQI&t=128s
I’d pair either of these rods with a small reel like the size 20 Pflueger President and never look back. If you wanted something a little more premium, I can’t recommend the Shimano Vanford VF500F highly enough.
It’s quite possibly the best spinning reel for freshwater ever available.
Line selection
You’ll definitely want to run light monofilament for this application, and nothing beats Stren Original in 4- to 6-pound test.
It ties securely, holds fast, and can take a beating from rocks, stumps, pilings, and submerged trees.
Hook selection
Panfish have small mouths, and you need to size the hook with that in mind (with the exception of crappie).
For bluegill, sunfish, and trout, I like to use a #6 to a #10 hook, choosing baitholder styles when I’m planning on fishing with nightcrawlers. Eagle Claw’s 186 is just perfect, and there’s no reason that you can’t use it with crickets and leeches, as well.
Those rearward-facing barbs catch nightcrawlers and really hold them in place.
Crappie have small mouths, too, but very delicate “lips.” To prevent them from tearing out, you need to size up your hook, choosing something in the neighborhood of #4 to #1.
Bobber/float selection
A standard red and white bobber will work fine, but they can be a challenge to cast.
Because they can’t be reeled in, you’re left with a length of line between the bobber and your hook that you sling during the cast. That’s not necessarily a big deal, but accuracy and distance are going to suffer.
We’ve all used them, and I promise you’ll catch plenty of fish with a red and white bobber!
But a better design is the slip float.
Slip floats like the Thill are designed to slide along your line, allowing much more accurate casting than the traditional bobber.
They’re very easy to set up, and we’ll explain that in the next section.
How to set up your rig
Start with a properly loaded spool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGN6watduXE&t=38s&ab_channel=USAngler
Then, if using a slip float, slide a silicon stop or the included stop knot onto your line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQIqe9RVFwM&t=134s&ab_channel=DominateFishing
Slide the flat onto your line.
Now it’s time to attach your hook. Using the Uni Knot, attach your hook to the end of your line.
Adjust the float stop or knot to allow your hook to hang the desired distance below your float.
You may need to add a few pieces of split shot to get your baited hook to sink properly, but don’t add too much!
Live bait selection
Four types of live bait are the most common with this technique, though there are other options.
Crickets
Insects are natural prey items for many species, and as any experienced angler will tell you, crickets are extremely effective as live bait. Everything from bluegill to perch will take a cricket, and bass have been known to hit them as well.
They often attract a strike immediately:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liNZoNB3hw0&ab_channel=TyPigPatrol
But don’t take our word for it. James T. Davis at Texas A&M reports that “Crickets generally are considered one of the most effective baits for both sunfish and catfish. They are especially effective for big bluegill in the summer and late fall.”
You can find crickets at your local bait sore, and you should arrive with a Frabill Cricket Cage Tube in hand.
This clever device lets you keep your crickets in one place, and the conical end has a stopper that allows you to shake a single cricket into your hand at a time.
Crickets are easy to rig, and they last a long time.
My favorite technique is simple.
Hold the cricket firmly but gently – you don’t want to smash it or injure it any more than necessary. Slide the point of your hook under the exoskeleton below the head, running it as shallowly as you can. Push the point back through the hard shell on the back, and push the cricket gently into place on the bend of your hook.
There are other effective ways to rig crickets, though, so watch this video for some alternatives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIqCb3UuNqk&ab_channel=AKFProduction
Wax worms
Tiny wax worms are the larval stage of the wax moth (Galleria mellonella), and though they’re small, they have a scent and appearance that drives panfish wild. Probably the live bait of choice for trout, they’re no slouch on panfish of other kinds, either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeIxXprXMig&ab_channel=AnglersEscape
Waxworms can be found at your local bait shop, though they’re something of a regional choice.
They’re also easy to rig.
Using the same hook as you would for crickets, simply pierce the waxworm mid-body and feed it onto the hook, exposing the point. You’ll end up with both ends of the wax worm wriggling, and that’s a surefire recipe for a strike!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K9BU1GL-10&ab_channel=Sportsmen%27sDirect
Nightcrawlers
Nightcrawlers vie with crickets and minnows for the title of “most popular live bait.” Available in your backyard as well as in almost every bait shop, they’re easy to come by and amazingly effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Ya1mrBn9g&ab_channel=RiverCertified
As I mentioned above, I recommend a baitholder hook with nightcrawlers, and the #6 Eagle Claw baitholder is just perfect for a wide range of panfish.
Rigging nightcrawlers is pretty simple, but many people get it wrong. What you don’t want is a lot of hook exposed, as in the examples below:
Don’t do this!
To rig your worm correctly, start with the head of the worm and run the hook straight into the top, feeding the worm’s body onto the hook as you slip it around the bend toward the shank.
You’ll notice that those upward-facing barbs let you slide that worm’s head up toward the eye – and that’s something you want to do.
Keep feeding that worm upward until you’ve got the head snug against the eye, or even over it a touch.
When you’ve got the right amount of worm on your shank, pass the point out of the worm’s body and let the rest dangle free.
This is a properly hooked worm.
A bit of worm trailing from your hook is perfect.
Now, if you’re using tiny worms, the process just starts with a pass of the hook into the body below the head and then continues as above. You’ll have some head running off to one side, too, and that’s just fine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPfgNno_1nM&ab_channel=ThundermistLures
Minnows
Minnows are ideal live bait because they’re a natural prey item, and while they’re alive and kicking, their frantic swimming brings fish running. As the bait of choice for crappie, minnows can be effective on other species as well, including smallmouth and largemouth bass, catfish, and walleye.
Two species of minnow are commonly available: the fathead and the golden shiner.
If you can find fatheads, that’s the way to go. They can take more abuse than golden shiners, tolerating heat, low oxygen, and being pierced by a hook better than other options.
Of course, you can always catch your own minnows by baiting a trap like the one offered by Frabill. That’s economical and effective, since you’re catching local prey.
But never catch minnows in one body of water and transport them to another – that’s how you introduce invasive species!
Instead, use them where you catch them.
Rigging minnows is an art, and there’s more than one way to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG3-Tmb0yZ0&ab_channel=RichardGeneTheFishingMachine
- Tail hooking – To tail hook a minnow, run the point through the minnow’s tail between the dorsal and tail fins. You’re looking for the spot where there’s plenty of meat to secure your hook, but no delicate organs to pierce.
Your minnow will be alive and kicking for quite a while rigged like this, and it’ll be encouraged to swim away from the hook, causing erratic motions and lots of action.
Keep in mind, however, that crappie and other fish take minnows head first to avoid their spines. You’ll need to pause after the strike, give the fish a chance to really take your hook, and only then move to set it.
That pause is essential, and if you wait just a heartbeat, you’ll lock them up tight!
- Dorsal hooking – To dorsal hook a minnow, run the point through the flesh just under the fin along its back. You want to bury your hook through the meat below the fin, not in the fin itself.
If you do this right, your hook will be held fast but miss the minnow’s organs, keeping it alive and kicking.
Thin wire Aberdeen hooks are great for this technique, as thicker options can kill your minnows quickly with dorsal hooking.
- Lip hooking – To lip hook a minnow, pass the point under the lower jaw and out through the upper jaw forward of the minnow’s eyes.
Don’t do this!
You want to miss the minnow’s brain – you’re just looking for mouth tissue here.
If you do hit the brain or eyes, you’ll end up with a dead minnow, and that’s not ideal when you’re looking for live bait!
This technique is great for encouraging erratic action, but it isn’t as secure as the options above. That can lead to trouble in rivers, where the current can pull your minnow free.
It can also impair your minnow’s breathing, shortening its life on your hook.
But it places the hook right where it can do the most good, and a lip-hooked minnow is simply great for attracting bites.
- Snout hooking – An alternative to lip hooking is snout hooking, where you pass the point in through the minnow’s open mouth and up and out the upper lip forward of the eyes.
Like lip hooking, this isn’t as secure as meatier options, but it does put the hook right where you want it. And unlike lip hooking, the minnow is free to open its mouth and gulp oxygen-rich water, keeping it swimming longer.
- Trick hooking – If you end up with a mess of dead minnows, don’t worry.
To trick hook a dead minnow, pass your hook’s point into its mouth and push it through behind its gill plate or head.
I don’t recommend this technique with live minnows, as it will kill them very quickly. But when all you’ve got is dead minnows, or you really need a secure hold in a hard current, the trick hook gets the job done.
For a closer look at some of these techniques, check out this video:
Final Thoughts
Still fishing with live bait isn’t just for beginners. Experienced anglers chase crappie and sunfish, trout and bluegill with live bait, sharp hooks, and slip floats every summer.
We hope that you’ve learned something from this article today and that you’re more confident rigging and fishing with live bait and floats.
As always, we’re here to answer any questions you might have, so please leave a comment below.
Source: usangler.com