Quick Guide to Bait and Lures for Fishing in Ontario

The following is an alphabetical list of recommended baits / lures for fishing for specific kinds of fish in Ontario.

Bass, Largemouth - plastic worms, top-water lures, shallow-running crankbaits, weedless spoons, as well as buzz- and spinnerbaits. Leeches, worms, minnows, and juicy night crawlers.

Bass, Smallmouth - Leeches, minnows, worms, and juicy night crawlers, also particularly fond of crayfish, especially soft-shells that have just moulted. Lures are curly-tailed jigs, crankbaits, shallow-diving spinnerbaits, in-line spinners, streamer flies, or crayfish imitations.

Carp (various species) - Worms, corn, dough-balls.

Catfish, Channel - Minnows, worms, cut-fish, and strong-smelling meats such as liver.

Drum, Freshwater - See lures and baits for smallmouth bass and walleye. They like the same things.

Muskie - large surface or diving lures, spoons, and bucktail spinners. They also like live bait such as suckers, chubs, and frogs.

Panfish (various smaller species) - small live minnows, spinners, panfish jigs, mini-crankbaits, and streamer flies.

Perch, Lake or Yellow - Worms or small minnows.

Pike, Northern - large spoons, noisy surface or diving lures, or bucktail spinners. Livebait is shiners, frogs, minnows, and large chubs.

Salmon, Atlantic - Spinners and spoons.

Salmon, Chinook - spoons, streamer flies, wobbling plugs, spinners, and cut-bait such as worms.

Sturgeon - Crayfish, fresh water clams, salmon eggs or carcasses, shad and other small fish.

Trout, Brook - Worms, minnows, leeches, and insects. Small to mid-sized spoons, worm-tipped spinners, minnow-imitating crankbaits, small jigs, and artificial flies.

Trout, Brown - Spinners, crankbaits, jerk baits, spoons, soft plastic ball baits, flies.

Trout, Lake - spinners, spoons, plugs, streamers and wet flies. The best live bait is large minnows.

Trout, Rainbow - Worms. Any long and wiggly lures also work well.

Walleye - spinners, spoons, deep-running crankbaits, minnows, night crawlers, crayfish, or leeches.

Whitefish - small spoons or some other type of small lure to reach the bottom of the water. Popular natural bait includes salmon eggs, wigglers, maggots, and waxworms.

White Bass - small jigs and spinners or worms

Imitation Minnow Lures

Long Wiggly Lures, substitute for worms

Tip for Finding Worms - Go turn on the sprinkler on your lawn, wait 30 minutes and then collect all the worms who came to the surface. You can also do this after a rainstorm.



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