Has anyone ever tried....

[MN Shutterbug]

freeze dried mealworms, crickets or shrimp for pannies? A few years ago I bought 500 live mealworms and they worked great on sunfish. But, be the end of the season they were starting to turn black and didn't smell none too good. I'm thinking the dried ones might be just as effective and no hassle. They certainly are cheap enough. At less than 1/2 cent per mealworm, you could afford to have a lot of them stolen off your hook.

[MN Shutterbug]

After some research, I'm told that live mealworms are much more effective. I guess I'll just have to feed them.

[Greg Clusiau]

Crickets work very well for sunnies. That was the bait of choice while doing a tv show on Lake Fork, Texas a few years back. It was my first time using them. I was surprised at how fast they can run across the boat deck, after I tipped the container over. LOL They can really go.

[MN Shutterbug]

Crickets work very well for sunnies. I was surprised at how fast they can run across the boat deck, after I tipped the container over. LOL They can really go.

That's a good reason for me to stick with the mealworms. I'm getting too old to chase bugs.

[mainbutter]

There are a number of resources online about raising your own mealworms. Since they are a larval stage of a beetle, if taken care of they will go through their metamorphosis and become adults, which you can then use to reproduce more bait. Even if you don't do this completely, some of those resources may help you keep the larvae alive longer.

[Wayne Ek]

Shutterbug, what about plastics or gulp. With the large selection of both gill and crappie plastics available I rarely even bother with live bait. Even hard water has me using plastics more and more. Just a thought.