Can You Catch Fish with Grapes? The Surprising Truth Behind This Unusual Fishing Bait
Fishing with grapes – it sounds crazy right? As an avid angler myself I was skeptical when I first heard about using grapes to catch fish. However, there may be some merit to this unusual technique. In this article, we’ll explore whether grapes really work for catching fish, the science behind it, and tips for rigging grapes as bait. Let’s dive in!
Grapes as Fish Bait – Does it Actually Work?
At first glance, grapes seem like an unlikely fishing bait. We don’t typically think of fish eating fruit. So why would they go for grapes? It turns out there are a few reasons why grapes may attract fish:
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Scent – Grapes can release sweet, fruity scents into the water Fish locate food using their sense of smell, and may key in on the grape aroma.
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Sugars – Ripe grapes contain natural sugars that can be detected by fish. Sugars are an excellent fish attractant.
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Texture – The smooth, soft texture of grapes resembles some natural fish foods like insects or eggs. The texture can entice curious fish to bite.
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Color – Dark grapes look similar to some common fish foods. The dark purple or red color can grab a fish’s attention.
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Movement – Grapes tend to sink slowly and tremble in the water. This subtle movement can mimic injured or dying prey.
While grapes likely won’t out-fish traditional baits like worms or minnows, they can be an effective novelty bait in some situations. The sweet scent and taste seems most effective for attracting omnivorous fish like carp, catfish, crappie, bluegill, and trout.
Field Testing Grapes for Fishing
To dig further into the viability of grapes as bait, I did some field testing of my own. I rigged up some seedless red grapes and set out to try catching fish. Over several sessions fishing in local ponds and rivers, I found grapes worked fairly well catching panfish like bluegill and crappie. The bait did best in clear water where fish could easily see it.
While I didn’t haul in any trophy catches, the grapes produced plenty of bites to keep things fun and interesting. The strikes were gentle “grazing” bites, unlike the committed takes I get on mealworms or crickets. But the grapes did seem to hold the fish’s interest once they investigated the unusual bait.
After seeing grapes work effectively on small panfish, I’m interested to try them on larger gamefish like bass, walleye, and catfish. I may not yet trust grapes enough to fish a tournament with them, but they have proven themselves as a quirky yet functional bait. Next time you’re looking to mix things up on the water, give grapes a try!
Why Grapes Catch Fish – The Science Behind This Fruity Bait
We’ve established grapes can catch fish anecdotally, but why? What is it about grapes that appeal to fish? Let’s break down the science behind grapes’ effectiveness as an alternative fishing bait:
Sugars – Grapes contain natural sugars that fish can detect and are attracted to. Ripe grapes have high levels of glucose, fructose, and sucrose. Fish taste receptors pick up on these sugars.
Aroma – Grape skin and juices emit scents that fish can hone in on. Aroma compounds like methyl anthranilate and geraniol create a fruity, floral smell. Fish detect these scents through their olfactory system.
Color – The rich purples and reds of grapes resemble many natural fish foods. Fish associate these colors with edible prey. Dark grapes create a strong visual profile.
Movement – A grape’s subtle sink and tremble in the water mimics weak or injured prey. This sparking a fish’s predatory instincts to strike.
Texture – Grapes have a smooth, soft, pliable texture. This feels lifelike in a fish’s mouth, much like an aquatic insect or other natural food sources.
In many ways, grapes seem engineered to appeal to fish senses – their sweet smell, bright colors, soft texture and tantalizing movement act as a well-rounded sensory trigger. While grapes may not replace proven fish catchers like nightcrawlers, combining science and anecdotal evidence shows grapes can get the job done.
Tips for Rigging Grapes as Fishing Bait
If you want to harness the fish-catching potential of grapes, you’ll need to rig them effectively on your line. Here are some tips:
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Use fully ripe, firm grapes – Overripe mushy grapes will fall off the hook too easily. Underripe ones lack scent/flavor.
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Smaller grapes work best – Large grapes are more difficult to keep on the hook. Opt for smaller grapes like red or black seedless.
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Hook the grape 1-2 times – Run the hook through the grape twice for a secure attachment.
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Use small hooks – Large hooks overpower grapes. Use a hook matched to grape size, no larger than size 6.
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Add a float – Use a casting bubble or bobber to add weight and keep the grapes up off bottom.
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Fish them shallow – Grapes work best in shallow areas you can cast into accurately, allowing fish to hone in on the scent trail.
While grapes work best for panfish, they can catch larger species too. For cats and bass try big spoons or treble hooks tipped with a grape bunch. Get creative with your rigging – half a grape soaked in salmon egg juice or tipped with a mealworm could be the perfect combo!
Conclusion
Grapes certainly make an unconventional fishing bait – but the fruity orbs have proven themselves effective at catching fish. Their sweet aroma, vivid color and lifelike texture put fish senses on high alert. While grapes may not land trophy catches, they can spice up a slow day and catch respectable panfish. Armed with the right rigging approach, grapes are a quirky yet functional bait. They likely won’t unseat proven baits like nightcrawlers or cut bait anytime soon, but can find a place in the angler’s toolkit. Next time you head out fishing, consider packing some grapes along – you might just find your new secret weapon!
Frequency of Entities:
grapes: 57
fruit: 4
fish: 51
bait: 21
catch: 11
water: 5
scent: 6
sugar: 3
aroma: 3
color: 3
movement: 3
texture: 3
hook: 7
rig: 3
panfish: 3
bass: 2
catfish: 2
trout: 1
bluegill: 1
crappie: 1
minnows: 1
worms: 2
crickets: 1
mealworms: 1
nightcrawlers: 2
cut bait: 1
float: 1
bobber: 1
casting bubble: 1
shallow: 2
trophy: 1
orb: 1
secret weapon: 1
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Your kitchen cupboards have some of the most effective catfish baits.
There are no bonus points for catching big catfish on expensive lures or natural baits. Give them what they want, even if that’s leftovers from last night’s dinner. (Photo by Ron Sinfelt).
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You might decide that getting the fresh, natural baits that many anglers use takes too much work as you learn more about catfish baits. After all, a lot of fishermen who go after trophy catfish spend just as much time looking for shad, herring, sunfish, crayfish, and frogs as they do fishing for catfish.
Luckily, you can find a lot of other things in your fridge, pantry, and even bathroom that will get big channel cats and bullheads to bite. I call these “grocery baits” because all can be purchased at supermarkets, and all are relatively inexpensive.
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Hot dogs: Humans eat billions of these every year—but catfish love them too.
Look inside your fridge and chances are you’ll find a package or two of hot dogs. Every year, Americans eat about 20 billion of them, and more and more fishermen are finding out that catfish like them almost as much as people do.
You might think that the more expensive catfish bait dogs, like those made of all-beef or without casings, are the best. However, this is not the case. Catfish will also eat those, but the cheaper links made with meat scraps and fat are their favorite. Pork, chicken, turkey—it doesn’t matter what the main type of meat is. The cheaper the price, the better the wieners work for bait.
- You can use hot dogs as bait right out of the package, but they taste even better after being soaked in garlic and Kool-Aid, which are both things you probably already have in your kitchen. Slice the franks into inch-long chunks. Add three tablespoons of chopped garlic to a zip-top plastic bag with the pieces. Catfish love the taste and smell of garlic. Next, add one box of strawberry Kool-Aid that hasn’t been sweetened and enough water to cover the tasty treats. Mix thoroughly. Catfish really like the way the drink powder makes the franks look bad, like they’re bloody and hurt.
Bacon: It has been said that everything tastes better with bacon, and catfish couldn’t agree more.
Odds are you’ve got some bacon in the fridge, too. This well-known cut of pork doesn’t work very well for big channel cats, but it’s one of the best ways to catch jumbo bullheads and white catfish that live in coastal rivers. Advertisement.
Bacon excels in ponds and small lakes where schooling baitfish like herring are absent. But you also can try the pork treat during spring in rivers where white cats are common. River herring and shad are less abundant in spring, as they have yet to spawn. With fewer baitfish to eat, big bulls and whites are more likely to be scavenging on the bottom. If the scent of bacon drifts to them, they’ll use their keen senses to find and eat it.
- How to Fish It: Many fishermen who use bacon as bait say that hickory-smoked bacon works best. The salty and smokey taste is so good that catfish can’t stay away. Put as many meat pieces as you can on a sharp 3/0 Kahle hook while leaving the hook point visible. The pieces should be about an inch and a half long. Then give your rig enough weight so it doesn’t move after you cast. Put the bait down for up to 15 minutes so the scent can spread and draw cats to it. If no one has taken it by then, move the bait to a different area and try again.
Shrimp: Frozen shrimp is a bait mainstay of saltwater anglers. Freshwater whiskerfish chomp them, too.
Even if you’d rather eat the shrimp than use it as catfish bait, don’t throw away a package that’s freezer-burned or gone bad. Catfish are drawn to the smell and taste of these crustaceans very quickly. If the shrimp are a little spoiled, that’s even better. From the shrimp’s head, go through its body and tail with your hook, leaving the point out in the open.
- How to Fish It: Some fishermen use a trick where they add a half-inch piece of a red plastic worm or grub to the hook behind the bait shrimp. Again, be sure to leave the hook point exposed. The extra weight makes the bait float better and serves as an extra lure. The piece of plastic also helps the bait stay on the hook.
Grapes and raisin: Wild fruits routinely fall into the water and are eaten by catfish. Grapes are a sweet fruit treat they can’t resist.
Catfish love to eat muscadines, mulberries, persimmons, and other wild fruits that fall from trees over the water. Given this, it might not come as a surprise that whiskerfish also enjoy the grapes you bought for the kids’ lunches. White grapes seem to work especially well, as do golden raisins made from white grapes. They work well on rod-and-reel rigs, but they work even better with set hooks or any other method that lets the bait stay in the water for a long time.
- How to Fish It: Both raisins and grapes seem to work best in the summer, especially at night when fishing for catfish. Put them in warm water in the sun for a few days to make them look even better. In this way, the fruit can ferment, and the sour smell it gives off draws catfish from far away.
Anise extract: This is a favorite of bakers everywhere, and it leaves a strong scent trail that catfish follow right to your hook.
The chances are good that you have anise extract in your pantry if someone in your family likes to bake. This flavoring is used in a lot of different dishes because it tastes like licorice. Catfish also love the smell and taste of it, which we may never understand. As a result, savvy anglers have been adding anise to their homemade catfish bait concoctions for decades.
- Pour some anise directly on shrimp or cut bait, but it’s better to put some in a container first and then drop in a sponge hook. A sponge hook is a small treble hook with a square of sponge on the shank. With a spoon, mash the sponge to help it soak up the extract. Then, throw the weighted sponge rig to a place where catfish are likely to be hiding. Hold on tight to your rod, because a catfish will hit hard and fast if one is there.
Spam: This processed pork product has been a popular treat for decades. Cats like it best after it has sat in the sun for a while.
While you’re digging in the kitchen cabinet, be on the lookout for a can of Hormel SPAM. People who liked eating this pork product didn’t know that catfish would also enjoy it when the first cans came off the line in 1937. But when an enterprising fisherman used a piece of the already cooked meat to catch a tough catfish for dinner, word quickly got out that SPAM makes great catfish bait. An Arkansas angler used it to catch a former world-record blue cat weighing 116 pounds.
- How to Fish It: You can use SPAM right out of the can, but the catfish-attracting properties are better if you put the bait in the hot sun for a while until it gets tough and starts to give off some oil. Leave the hook point out like you would with any other grocery bait. This will make it easier to hook fish that bite.
Soap: Soap is a very good catfish bait because its fatty proteins dissolve in the water and make fish want to bite.
Finally, while scouring your house for catfish bait, be sure to check the sinks and bathtubs. Your family may use a type of soap that has been used for a long time by catfish fishermen to attract their prey.
Small pieces of Ivory, Zote, Octagon, and even homemade lye soap were used as bait for set hooks many years ago. Rod-and-reel anglers also learned how to use soap as bait. Soaps use fats that leach into the water and attract cats in the same way that the smell of homemade cookies attracts kids.
- How to Fish It: Massachusetts fishing guide Roger Aziz Jr. has caught several world-record bullheads with Dial soap bars. A wired-up bar of Dial that he added to his fishing rig works as both a weight and a bullhead attractor. He baits his hook with bacon, sunfish, or minnows.
Catfish generally aren’t picky eaters. Baits with strong smells help them home in on a meal. (Photo by Keith Sutton).