Fishing bait you can get anywhere.

As has been mentioned in previous posts, I highly suggest live worms as the best possible bait for someone just starting fishing. They simply catch fish, and they are available at many locations (almost every Walmart will sell them as well as most sporting goods stores with a fishing section) and can even be dug up from the ground. However, I also recognize that sometimes you just can’t make it to one of those spots, or they may be out of worms, and maybe your soil is so dry that there are no worms to be found (my yard in these Texas summers is a ghost town). I’m going to offer up some other bait suggestions, many of which can be found just about anywhere, maybe even your own pantry.

Bugs.
Yes, those bugs. The ones you see crawling around outside. Grasshoppers and crickets especially, but cicadas and many other bugs you find around can also be used to catch fish. If you aren’t adverse to catching them, they can go on a hook and into a fish’s mouth just like a worm. However, not everyone has the means or the stomach to catch bugs for fishing so the rest of this list will be available at your local grocery store.

Hot Dogs
Good old cheap hotdogs can catch lots of fish. Big chunks in deeper water can catch catfish and smaller chunks on a hook and bobber can catch sunfish all day long. They aren’t the best at staying on the hook so you might find the fish outsmart you sometimes, but eventually you’ll get them.

Canned Corn
Canned sweet corn is a great way to catch sunfish in the ponds. It is cheap, it doesn’t make your hands stink, and if you don’t use the whole can, its not wasteful or littering to just dump the can out into the water as something will surely eat it (just be sure to throw the can away properly). Corn is also a great bait to catch carp and even sometimes catfish will surprise you.

Bread
Plain white bread can catch sunfish, but keeping it on the hook can be a significant challenge. I suggest balling it up tight and then hooking it, maybe even getting it a bit wet to make sure its really caked onto the hook well. Just keep the ball small enough that a fish will want to eat it whole so the hook can get them. Its not ideal, but it will work when nothing else is available.

Chicken
Chicken livers are a classic catfish bait, but they are smelly, messy, and very soft so they don’t stay on the hook well. There are ways around that using cheese cloth, sewing thread or pantyhose, but my suggestion is to just buy chicken breast. Its easier to hook and pretty darn close to the same effectiveness as livers. You can cut it small for sunfish or throw a big chunk out for catfish. If you want to take your chicken bait game to the next level, throw some garlic powder and strawberry jello powder in a bag with your cut chicken the night before you are going fishing. It really works!

Cheese
I will call this one a bait of last resort. I have not personally had any luck using cheese as bait but I know others swear it works. I would lean towards medium softness cheese like a mild cheddar or even an American cheese or Velveeta so it can stay on the hook and provide a good scent into the water.

You should now be equipped to go out and catch a fish or two, even if you don’t have any worms. Enjoy! and tight lines!