Whether you like fishing with live bait, cut bait, or artificial baits, some days it might pay off to have a mix of baits to fish with as water temperatures rise or weather conditions change during the day. Some days, the fish might catch on to what you are throwing, and changing it up can extend your bite in an area before you leave to find another productive spot.
I like to use both artificial and live baits. One advantage I had growing up was that I started off as a bass fisherman, using 90% artificials and usually nightcrawlers for the other 10%. This allowed me to really hone my skills with hard and soft plastic baits on largemouth bass.
I started using the same lures in saltwater with great success, along with using live shrimp. Then I was introduced to creek chubs, pinfish, and scaled sardines, which was a whole other world of fishing and techniques. Just as artificials have techniques to catch more fish, so does live bait, and so does how to present them.
The good thing is that you can use both to catch more fish. For example, if you are fishing a new area, you can fan cast a topwater lure to search for fish. This is especially helpful on the flats when looking for reds and trout. A topwater lure will cast very far and cover a lot of area. It is also loud to help attract fish from a distance to strike the lure. Once you start getting strikes in an area, you can live chum scaled sardines in that area to really fire up the bite and switch to live bait. Now, this tactic can also be used in reverse: if you really like catching fish on artificial baits but they just aren’t biting, you can live chum to fire them up and continue using artificial baits.
Now, if you are an artificial enthusiast, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment when you fool a fish and catch him purely on an artificial bait without any outside help, but I am just trying to show techniques to catch more fish. So go out and don’t be afraid to mix it up, you might be surprised with the success you have!
Good luck,
Capt. George