Ever fished with the black yard Crickets? Tried them long ago in a couple different farm ponds.....not a SINGLE taker....Strange it is!

When I was younger we never bought bait. It was up to me and my brother to dig worms, catch grasshoppers and crickets or find mealworms, catawba worms or the most dangerous bait of wasp larvae. Black crickets were at the low end of the bait spectrum. It is weird that the most available cricket (black) was the least preferred bait.

The Cricket box in the bait store has a " special " smell.

Never had any luck with them either. Grasshoppers are hell on bass and big bluegill though.

We caught a pile of fish with Georgia (striped) grasshoppers when I was little. Used the big ones for catfish.

I can tell you one grasshopper you won’t catch anything on. Those big orange and black ones that are in west Alabama. I think they are lubber grasshoppers.

Black Crickets have never worked for me. There are these Black Grasshoppers that will be all in Tensas River swimming and nothing will touch them.

I've tried the black crickets before with zero success. Also the black lubbers and orange/red-yellow ones. Not a damned thing hits them. Must be some kind of toxic pheromone or something.

The big greenish ones, I've caught fish on after pulling off their spikey turkey legs.

Amen!

Me too, couldn't even get a bump on those black crickets. The little brown bait shop crickets are magic for bream.

I tried some of the camel crickets from inside the pump house once. Once. They are about as good as the black ones.

🫣

That’s odd. I’ve caught a ton of fish on black yard crickets.
Every time I cut grass and/or weedeat along the lake behind my house, the fish (bass & bream) follow me and eat every black cricket that hits the water.
Did it just this afternoon as a matter of fact.

Neither on those weird crickets that live in basements. Those with the roundish bodies and long legs. Big ones.

Cave crickets

I was younger I had old sheets of tin spread in the pasture behind the house for them . I had real good luck with them ever thing bit them

The black crickets were all we had when I was growing up and it was my job to catch them. Grasshoppers went into the cage too, though I eventually learned that chasing them down wasn't an efficient use of my time. There was also a grove of water oaks not far from my house where you could find a bunch of night crawlers in a hurry, and the sink ditch beside my grandmother's house had red worms that we could dig up. And the creek was full of minnows that I could catch for a trot line. Catawba worms were a top choice for bait when available. Of course, the best bait in the summer was willow grubs, but I had to have someone to take me to the river to get those.

There was no store bought bait around, but we wouldn't have bought it if it was. Just took a little work to get it together. Fish were easier to catch back then because they weren't pressured anywhere. Ray Scott was still selling insurance, and people just fished for the fun of it and to get something to eat. Those who wanted to beat somebody played golf.

I've wanted to get some catalpa trees to plant and see if I can get the worms to come play ball.

poorcountrypreacher ,,, that's was us . We never bought any kind of bait.

Id take a few sheets of old tin spread them and have crickets. We'd had places to find worms . We'd had a place to get all the crawfish and minions we needed . Bait was never a problem.

I always dug for worms and used nuts from bolts as sinkers. No joke. That's what you did in the country when you don't have anything but line. Bamboo or a good limb