Lure vs bait: the winner is...

[buzzbaiter]

From another topic:

Originally Posted by AndyS

Use all the live bait you want, out fish lures 1000 to 1.

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Your statement may be true for omnivores like catfish and carp but for predatory fish species, I think its a close call. For example, hellgrammites will attract smallies like flies to crap. No better bait around for them. I've tried for years to find a lure that'll catch them as consistently(since I don't like killing helgis just for s few bass and its illegal to collect them in some rivers) and have yet to find it. Small spinners seem to be the best as I've had some 50-60 bass days getting them albeit the sublegal sized ones. They'll hit buzzbaits but their mouths are a bit smaller than their largemouth brethren so hookups are less frequent.

If you use a fly popper or small jig or trout magnet for panfish, you can catch a ton or at least as many as worms.

Pickerel will slam spinners all day as long as there aren't too many weeds.

Spinners are like candy for trout and you can get a hundred or more rather easily especially if you hit some small stream full of little brookies or browns. Flies will also take quite a few.

Largemouth are the least consistent as I find there is no one lure or bait that takes them every time. One day buzzbaits work, next time they don't and senkos do then they don't so on and so forth.

Lures last longer, are easier to fish and less effort to acquire. Only negative is cost. I lost 4 buzzbaits the other day - 2 on sharp toothed pickerel and two on branches - so it was a costly day.

The winner is....

[Lard Almighty]

...Dynamite!

[AndyS]

..........and your point is ?

Lures last longer, are easier to fish and less effort to acquire. I bust my ass to use live bait. I have live bait pens, some days I spend 2 days catching live bait for an 8 hour fishing trip. I don't want easy. Fish don't get fat eating plastic and metal.
Lure makers WANT you to think that lures will out fish live bait. Over 75% of fish caught in the USA are caught on live bait.
You can debate live bait vs lures for the next 100 years.

[Eskimo]

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When I free up a little time to fish, I really only have a few hours before I either have to meet other obligations or it gets dark. The trip to the bait shop to buy minnows just uses too much time. Lures are much more convenient.

[ATH1089]

I personally catch more fish on lures. When I was younger, I really did not understand how to use them properly, and did not catch diddly. However, I made the decision to stop using live bait completely; I cannot justify to myself that my entertainment for a few hours is worth taking another life. YMMV, that is just how it is for me. It just worked out that I have better luck with my lures too.

[catfishonthelake]

This is a bit of pointless debate. I use artificials almost 100% of the time and I'll happily admit that live bait would probably outfish me most days. I just find it a little more sporting to go out and find a fish and try to get it to bite something fake instead of sitting around waiting while hanging a piece of food in front of it's face. And plus, I've maybe gut-hooked 3 fish on lures in my whole life where you can inadadverntly kill a dozen fish a day with live bait. The tiger I caught in the Raritan two weeks ago had a rusty hook hanging out of it's mouth, which I removed.

On a side note, this does not apply to me for catfish and carp, which in my mind are pretty much impossible to actually target with artificials.

[Skunk City]

My quick two cents about the topic. I use both regularly and do well. Conditions being optimal, I would chose lure fishing, but we live in the Northeast and conditions change.

1.) In cold temperatures, bait over lures in MOST cases. I can't really comment on this for vertical jigging, as I've only jigged with artificials in the colder months. For your typical Northern NJ fishing in the cold winter months, a slow moving shiner has been more successful for me than casting lures.

2.) I had a day in early March of this year where I absolutely killed it with the Pike in the river. Being the water temps were still hovering in the low 40's but on the upswing, I was equipped with a live bait set-up and a jerkbait setup, fished simultaneously. Out of the 11 Pike I landed that afternoon (lost a bunch more), 3 were on lures and 8 were on live shiners. While the numbers were on the live bait, the biggest fish (33"-36") were on the lures. I had a few days like that around the same time. Small sampling, yes, but something to think about.

[jimmythegreek]

I use both and very rarely run just live bait only. I use it mainly as a dead stick while working lures/jigs and other presentations. Usually aggressive larger fish come on lures with less fish caught, while larger numbers of average fish come on live bait. Alot of it depends on what you were shown growing up and who taught you to fish, I was brought up on live bait so its normal to me, while others never use it and dont want to bother with it

[Mike M]

This debate will never be solved. Everybody has their preferences. Different conditions call for different methods.
Personally I like to use bait. But there are times when artificials will out fish bait. You never know. Make sure you are ready for anything.

[Lard Almighty]

There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Sometimes only a delicately hooked shiner will do the trick. Sometimes fish will crash a plug that looks like a radioactive banana. For me, as long as something is putting a bend in the rod, I don't really care how it got there.