Grasshoppers for Catfish Bait?  You Bet!

Without a doubt, grasshoppers are one of the best natural catfish baits, whether used in the spring, fall, or in-between. If they occur naturally in your area, they’re great bait for catfish. There is a difference in grasshoppers. The best catfish bait grasshoppers are the big, 3" long yellow grasshoppers that are caught on either johnsongrass or alfalfa.

The hard part of using grasshoppers for catfish bait is that you have to catch them first. You can use the old "sneak up and grab technique", or my personal favorite, "pay the grandkids a nickle each for the ones they chase down" for you. It’s my favorite because I get some grasshoppers to fish with, and they get tired.

My grandpa taught me to hold one end of his minnow seine while he dragged the other end in a circle around me through the tall johnsongrass. The grasshoppers would cling to the net, and when grandpa saw a good number of grasshoppers on the net, he’d turn it and fold it over, trapping the grasshoppers inside.

He even rigged a curved length of hardware cloth attached to the bumper of his truck. It was curved in on itself across the short dimension rolled down in a "C" and the lower edge rolled up to form a open sided tube. The trap was open about 12" so that a grasshopper jumping up would be directed into the inside of the "C". He simply drove the truck through the fields and stopped often to scoop the grasshoppers into an old minnow bucket.

I’ve heard that one of the super bright new-fangled red LED headlights is the easiest way to gather grasshoppers for bait at night. The red light seems to blind them so that they are simply plucked off the grass stems like blackberries.

I always used the inside part of the old two-piece metal floating minnow bucket to contain grasshoppers. It has a spring latch that keeps the grasshoppers in. You gotta be fast to put them in or take them out unless you shine that red light on them.

My granddaughter simply puts them into a 2 liter soda bottle and shakes them out one at a time. Leftover grasshoppers can be frozen alive in a 2 liter bottle until next trip.

Fish the grasshoppers just like other baits… 1 to 3 feet deep in shallow water or on humps near a drop-off or creek channel. Be sure you don’t run out!