• Grubs are an effective freshwater bait.caterpillar image by Alexander Reitter from Fotolia.com
  
  Freshwater anglers rely on a mixed bag of baits to attract fish. Anglers may select a suitable bait for one species but opt for another type to entice a bite when pursuing a different kind of fish. The fish species found in North America’s freshwater biomes have diverse diets. Some, such as pike and bass, are highly predatory, catching and eating many forms of aquatic life; others, such as bluegill, settle for insects and worms.
  
  

Worms

• The night crawler, a large earthworm, is an effective bait for nearly every major species of freshwater fish. Anglers use night crawlers to catch fish such as trout, bass, bluegill, perch and crappie. Large species, such as carp and suckers, will often take a night crawler when one is discovered on the bottom of their river or lake. Anglers present night crawlers in a variety of ways; some fish them on hooks beneath fishing floats, while others rig them to stay close to the bottom with weights called split shots and sinkers.
  
  Other smaller worms, such as red worms, are popular bait options as well.
  
  

Minnows

• The minnow family has more than 230 members just in North America, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. While some, such as carp, grow to sizes too large to be bait, others are perfect for this purpose. Minnow species that anglers will rig on a hook as bait include bluntnose minnows, golden shiners, mud minnows, white suckers, common shiners, hornyhead chubs, fathead minnows and creek chubs. Anglers can utilize minnows as bait in open water or while ice fishing, particularly when angling for fish such as pike, pickerel, crappie, perch, bass, lake trout and walleye.
  
  

Leeches

• The Learning How To Fish website states that leeches—specifically, ribbon leeches—are a tried-and-true bait for fish such as walleye. Although squeamish anglers may avoid them, due to their reputations as bloodsuckers, leeches are easy to store; they can remain alive for long periods in water with no food. Unlike minnows, leeches are not very sensitive to changes in water temperature—a circumstance that can quickly kill minnows in storage containers.
  
  Leeches, available in colors such as brown, black or mixes of both, give anglers a choice of fishing methods. Some people rig them much like worms, beneath floats; other anglers troll them behind a moving boat.
  
  

Insects

• Insects and their larvae are a natural food for freshwater fish of all types. Bugs are excellent bait, as long as anglers know how to use them. Crickets, grasshoppers, dragonflies and caterpillars will catch fish such as trout and bluegill, according to the Take Me Fishing website. Larval stages of various insects, such as grubs and mealworms, are valuable freshwater baits. Such baits are available from tackle shops and bait shops; anglers often use them on small lures called jigs. Ice fishermen will frequently place a grub or mealworm on the tip of a small lure and then let it drop down through the cold water, to where hungry fish such as crappie and bluegill are waiting.