Thread: Using a raccoon for bream bait

I've been cleaning up the camp after a long deer season and getting in firewood for next year---Sunday was rainy, but warm so I went over to where I had dumped the carcass of a big, stinky hog I killed the last of January and if any of you are looking for some fresh bream bait, you can get it by the gallon from under that hog's hide. It looks like he's moving around. Some of those maggots are as big as the end of my finger.

Reminded me of a story about a fellow who had repeated and resounding success catching bream when nobody else could. He said he used a dead raccoon for bait---just hang the body from a limb over the water and as the body rotted, the maggots would fall into the water and attract all the bream from two acres around. I never did go to his house for a fish fry. He said a raccoon worked best, but, y'know, I never did see a cat around his house.

I just caught a coon that was attacking my bird feeder and thought about the hard to catch bream in my pond, but decided it wasn't worth the effort, especially since I'll be back on the coast and fishing for sheepies before the raccoon gets really ripe.

Oh, well, at least it's a fish story even if it is about fresh water. This nasty weather and the possibility of another late spring like last year is making me crazy just a little in my head.

You need to get out of the woods before we have to put you in the Nervous Hospital

What Fin said. It been pretty quiet around the pier without them mouses runnin around and the freezer is pretty empty. At least if you're on deck and not catching, the rest of us might...
We need you back here, come home Mr. Wire...

Them big maggots are great ice fishing bait. Flyguy might want a gallon to take back to Minnisota with him.

I know where he can sure get as big a mouthful as he wants (Gotta keep 'em warm).

They probably work as well as red wasp larvae. In that case, getting the bait is more of an adventure than catching the fish. Ah, the good old days---I'd run out of crickets and there I'd be, wrapped head to toe in an old quilt with a stick poking out the top as I tried to knock wasp nests from under the eaves of somebody's barn or corn crib. The most exciting time was when one of the wasps would make it under the quilt and I'd have to deal with it without letting any more underneath----dang shame there was no video or youtube back then. I quickly learned to leave the guinea wasps alone; they're too small, quick and agile, and they hurt just as much as a red wasp.

Oops, the medicine dude is motioning me over to his window---got some different colored pills.

Originally Posted by Haywire

I know where he can sure get as big a mouthful as he wants (Gotta keep 'em warm).

They probably work as well as red wasp larvae. In that case, getting the bait is more of an adventure than catching the fish. Ah, the good old days---I'd run out of crickets and there I'd be, wrapped head to toe in an old quilt with a stick poking out the top as I tried to knock wasp nests from under the eaves of somebody's barn or corn crib. The most exciting time was when one of the wasps would make it under the quilt and I'd have to deal with it without letting any more underneath----dang shame there was no video or youtube back then. I quickly learned to leave the guinea wasps alone; they're too small, quick and agile, and they hurt just as much as a red wasp.

Oops, the medicine dude is motioning me over to his window---got some different colored pills.

Where do you live Mr. Wire, I will stop by on the way home if I can get my bride to get rid of the tobacco she has in her mouth, so she can refill with it maggots. Thanks for the generous offer it is appreciated. Got to go fishing now, we got blown off the Ft. Morgan area yesterday, it was not a wise choice, dumb Yankees!!!!

Originally Posted by Haywire

I've been cleaning up the camp after a long deer season and getting in firewood for next year---Sunday was rainy, but warm so I went over to where I had dumped the carcass of a big, stinky hog I killed the last of January and if any of you are looking for some fresh bream bait, you can get it by the gallon from under that hog's hide. It looks like he's moving around. Some of those maggots are as big as the end of my finger.

Reminded me of a story about a fellow who had repeated and resounding success catching bream when nobody else could. He said he used a dead raccoon for bait---just hang the body from a limb over the water and as the body rotted, the maggots would fall into the water and attract all the bream from two acres around. I never did go to his house for a fish fry. He said a raccoon worked best, but, y'know, I never did see a cat around his house.

I just caught a coon that was attacking my bird feeder and thought about the hard to catch bream in my pond, but decided it wasn't worth the effort, especially since I'll be back on the coast and fishing for sheepies before the raccoon gets really ripe.

Oh, well, at least it's a fish story even if it is about fresh water. This nasty weather and the possibility of another late spring like last year is making me crazy just a little in my head.

I know a guy up here who stops and picks up roadkill just for that purpose.

I think there's more basis in fact about using raccoons/roadkill than in the story I heard back in the fifties from an old man who paddled boats for the sportsmen in the river swamp lakes. He said that in late August, when the muscadines (he called them bullices) got ripe, the big catfish in the lakes would find where the vines hung down into the water and grab the vines to shake off the ripe fruit. I never caught a catfish with a muscadine in its belly, but I honest-to-goodness did see something shaking a vine from under the water about fifty yards up the lake from where we were. Old Aberdeen said, "Yassuh, that there's one uv 'em ashakin' right now." I have no more evidence one way or the other, except that when we got to the spot, I shook off a few muscadines into the boat for my own enjoyment. Yes, I did put one on a hook and soak it without results.

Originally Posted by Haywire

... Yes, I did put one on a hook and soak it without results.

But did you lick it first ;-) lol

I was young and didn't know I was supposed to---besides, they tasted so good, I couldn't have gotten past the lick without taking a bite, and then it's all over.