Live Bait vs. Plastic - Your Opinion?

[river rat316]

What do you think pros would do in say a walleye tournament.I bet they wouldnt have just plastics on board,but rather a mixture all forms of baits.I wouldnt limit myself to just one presentation,Ill use all forms.

Actually the PWT or whatever used to have a tourney where it was all artificial, no live bait allowed. I still catch alot of walleye on plastics and other "non walleye" baits.

[shizzy]

I use plastics mostly for the fact that I dont have to find a bait store everytime I want to go fishing. I tend to decide to go on the fly so its not always an option. its nice to pull out the jar of fake waxies and go.

[deadeye]

I always use whatever the fish want. Some days they turn their noses up a plastics but will destroy a minnow and vice versa. I guess I dont have a real preference either way but I do have to say plastics are easier to deal with.

When I went to Canada last summer it would have been a real pain to try and deal with live bait so the gulp alive was all I used. It really did work as well as the guys who did mess with live bait. I can say I didnt get as many hits, but when I did it was fish on. There was also the factor that 1 Gulp minnow caught 10-20 fish vs one or less with the live bait. I can count on 1 hand the times I had a fish take the Gulp minnow off the hook without being caught.

There have been many times here in MN that I didnt get a bite unless I had a live shinner or rainbow on the hook. So I guess I try to bring both unless the conditions dont allow it.

[carpmanjake]

it all depending on the species and the size i want.

if i want BIG largemouth bass. i will freeline 6-8" shiners.

if i want BIG crappies. 2-3" shiners

if i want big pike, i go to castaic swimbaits or other large swimbaits.

if i want big bluegills, i use both, minnows, and small crankbaits.

if i want numbers of largemouths i will go with artificials.

and if i want numbers of bluegills, waxies or little atom wedgies are the way to go

[Daze Off]

Only time live bait gets in the boat is if I am planning to fish for crappies or walleyes. Even then I will only use it if artificials don't seem to be producing for some reason.

[Sandmannd]

I just got into using plastics for eyes. They work great if that's what the fish are hitting on. I still will always carry live bait for eyes. But plastics are getting to be more and more a big part of my arsinal.

[DoubleLunger]

Agreed on the live bait for eyes. Just don't have the confidence in anything but live for old marble eyes.