How to Chum & Bait Freshwater Fish
When you are ready to go freshwater fishing, how to chum and bait freshwater fish is important, if you hope to catch bass, catfish, crappie, carp or perch. Fishermen that have chummed in saltwater will find that chumming for freshwater fish is slightly different. To chum and bait any kind of freshwater fish, you have to put food they like in the water to create a feeding frenzy.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Corn, cornmeal or corn flakes
- Peanut butter
- White bread
- Burlap bag
- Empty bleach or detergent bottle with lid
- String
- Treble hooks
- Cheese food or spread
- Shad, fish guts or hot dogs, liver, worms or shrimp
Instructions
-
-
1
Mix the corn, cornmeal or corn flakes with the peanut butter to form a paste or course, dough-like mixture. Most freshwater fish want a balanced diet that contains proteins and grains such as corn.
-
2
Add pieces of the white bread to make the mixture bind better, make it stick better to your treble hooks and make a firm chum bait ball.
-
-
3
Add the cheese and the shad, fish guts or hot dogs, liver, worms, or shrimp. This will remind freshwater fish of the chemical balance that is released from their native food, dying bait fish. Any kind of blood or protein ingredient can be more appealing to freshwater fish if you don't have their natural food.
-
4
Set some aside some of the finished chum for baiting your treble hook and put a large ball of the prepared bait in the burlap bag. Use the string to tie it to the handle or top of the empty detergent or bleach bottle. This will allow you to float it in the area of water where you intend to fish. It doesn't take long to draw in a feeding frenzy, which is what you want in order to attract freshwater fish.
-
5
Start fishing after the feed bag has been in the water for half of an hour, as a feeding frenzy will be starting to form. You may see the bleach or detergent bottle bobbing wildly in the water as the fish suck the chum through the burlap.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Use some moist and chunky dog food pieces as a quick solution to the grain and protein requirements that freshwater fish crave. You can chum the fishing area by tossing handfuls of dog food into the water, baiting your treble hook with it or making a feed bag.
Certain freshwater fish have a favorite chum and bait. Perch like corn kernels; carp like peanut butter, white bread or corn based products; and catfish, bass or crappie have a diet that is high in protein, or fish blood and guts.
Shrimp, worms and hot dogs will attract any kind of freshwater fish, but bass, catfish and crappie tend to like shad pieces or whole minnows, which resemble their natural food source. You can always bait your hook with them, without the other ingredients and toss pieces of them into the water for chum.
Don't get hooked into the burlap bag when fishing close to the feed or chum bag.
