Are you planning a fishing trip? That’s fine, but before you load up the truck and head for the water, you’ll probably need a lot more than a fishing license.
Choosing whether to go bait fishing or lure fishing is one of the important choices you’ll have to make.
Some people have a strong preference that they never change, but for others, choosing between a lure and a bait is influenced by factors such as the type of fish they want to catch and the time of year they’re fishing.
Artificial Lures or Natural Baits? – Weighing Their Pros and Cons
Natural Fishing Baits
Natural baits, or live bait, are among the most influential and active methods of sport angling. Natural fishing baits are successful because of their recognizable texture, odour, and colour, and they can be presented in various ways. They are usually most successful when obtained locally, outweighing any inconveniences associated with doing so.
The popular earthworm is a universal bait, as almost any freshwater species can devour one. Grubs and larvae and grasshoppers, crickets, bees, aquatic snails, tiny frogs, tadpoles, crayfish, and even ants make excellent bait. Many anglers assume that roe, or fish eggs, is the best bait. Here are their pros and cons of using live bait fishing:
Pros of Natural Fishing Baits
- Since fish are more drawn to the actual live prey you’re delivering; bait is very successful. They cling to your line with vigour, increasing your chances of landing a deep-hooked fish that is less likely to fall off. However, if you’re doing catch and release, a deep-hooked fish is a disadvantage.
- Natural fishing baits attract a wide variety of fish species, raising your chances of catching something.
- Live baits are often less expensive than lures in the long run. If you find your while out in nature, it’s yours.
- Bait draws fish from all around, so all you have to do is set up your rod and wait for something to strike.
- Bait that hasn’t been used can be returned to nature or frozen before your next outing.
- Learning about the fundamentals of bait will help you understand which fish prefer which prey.
Cons of Natural Bait Fishing
- Bait is more clumsy and smelly than lure fishing. If you’re catching your bait, expect to get your hands, clothes, and gear stinky and dirty.
- The bait needs special requirements for storage, such as refrigeration or circulating water.
- Natural bait is usually heavier to transport than artificial lures due to these storage considerations.
- Bait necessitates more regular trips to the bait store and careful preparation to ensure that you have plenty.
- Natural bait fishing leads to the overabundance of fish prey.
- The bait attracts any types of fish, including small ones or otherwise not the ones you were looking to catch.
- Bait raises the number of deeply hooked fish, which is only a disadvantage in catch and release fishing because it lowers the fish’s survival rate.
Artificial Fishing Lures
Some anglers tend to use artificial baits designed to look like prey or have characteristics that fish find appealing, such as colour, flash, or form. Artificial lures come in bewildering various sizes, shapes, techniques, and colours, ranging from huge, shiny silver spoon-like devices trolled for big lake fish to wispy dry flies, tiny feathers bundles and fur delicately cast to flighty trout.
Seasoned anglers usually hold several different artificial lure types to reach the top, subsurface, and bottom water column. You can get appealing baits to the fish regardless of where it is kept using specific lures for each zone and species. Crankbaits, plugs, poppers, spoons, jigs, spinners, and flies are among the numerous types of artificial lures available.
Pros of Artificial Lure Fishing
- Lures are a one-time purchase that can reuse.
- Lures don’t need special storage like soil or water tanks, reducing the weight of your tackle box substantially.
- Lures are not filthy or odorous.
- Lures are enjoyable to collect as well as to use because they are constantly engaging and rewarding.
- Larger catches and less unwanted fish on your line are often the results of using lures.
- By minimizing deep hooking, which leads to higher fish mortality rates in catch and releases fishing, lures can help improve the survival rate of fish.
- Anglers that use lures use less bait, which helps to keep bait species stocks from being overharvested.
Cons of Artificial Lure Fishing
- With so many different fishing lures types available, it can take some trial and error to figure out which ones are best for the fish you want to catch. As a result, your tackle box could become cluttered.
- No matter how much fun it is to catch lures, they can quickly add up if you aren’t careful, and they don’t all work.
- Lures may get tangled up in weeds, trees, and rocks. In addition, they would be ineffective in muddy waters or at night.
- Fishing lures perform well when they are cast in areas where there is a lot of fish. Since lures, unlike bait, do not attract fish from far and wide, you can have to wait a long time for a bite and travel around to various places.
- To effectively catch the fish you want, lures need to have the right combination of weight, hook sizes, and colours, so they’re not as simple as bait. In short, for newcomers, the sheer number of choices can be daunting.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to going fishing as quickly and efficiently as possible, the issue of whether artificial lures or live bait are better depends on the type of fish you’re after and the conditions you’re fishing in. At times, a lure is the best option, and at others, bait is the best option. Each system, however, has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, as stated above.
There can be no overall winner in the live bait versus artificial lure competition in the end. Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages, and each will win in some circumstances or on a given day. Anglers who want to be competitive will try to master both types of fishing.
Consult with the Sport Angler Experts
Come and see Niagara Fish Assassin before you go on your next fishing trip. We help aspiring sport anglers when it comes to using natural fishing bait and artificial fishing lure. Our team of experts will be delighted to speak with you about your fishing objectives and then assist you in achieving them. Please send us a message right now. We can assure you that, unlike the fish, we can bite.
