Best live bait for largemouth bass

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

I do not use live bait now days, but back in the day we used to. The only largemouth bass I caught on live bait was on the medaka and they were only fingerlings. I tried dojo once, since it is the best smallmouth bass live bait but did not catch on that mainly because practically everything in lake wilson eats dojos. Something else would eat them before the bass had a chance to find them. Just for fun, what is the best live bait for largemouth bass?

[Stan Wright]

Back in the '60s and '70s the guys loved to use Puntat.
The guys would sit on a point and cast the puntat out into deep water.
They also fished underwater ridges and islands.

There were lots of crawdads in the lake back then and I've seen some huge bass caught with them. Lots of bass we caught had the pinchers of those big red crawdads sticking out of their gullet.

[tucmaster]

I concur with Stan. Back in the day, a big, live puntat (chinese catfish, the same kind you see live at the local farmers markets and in Chinatown) free-lined off a point almost guaranteed you a good-sized bucketmouth.

Nowdays, the bass population in the lake isn't what it used to be, so I haven't tried live-baiting specifically for largemouths in years. Occasionally, I'll catch one up to 2 lbs. or so while live-baiting liberty mollies ("medaka") for tucunare.

Speaking of live bait - Saltydog, you still out there?

Tucmaster out!