Hellgrammites: best live bait in Kentucky?

July 14, 2008 by admin · Comments Off

Above left: By turning rocks with you feet just upstream of a seine with poles, it’s possible to net hellgrammites with only one person. Hellgrammites and crawfish, both of which will show up in seine nets in many Kentucky streams, also make great trout bait. Above right, Hellgrammites, which are dobson flies in their larvae stage, make excellent bait for various fish species in streams.

Grampus, Go-Devils, Conniption Bugs, Hellgrammites…. Call ‘em what you want. Fish think the larvae of dobson flies are candy, so I simply call them great bait.

Hellgrammites, to use the proper common name, abound in cool-water streams through much of Kentucky. Fierce-looking critters, with oodles of legs, big pincers at one end and a hook at the other, they inhabit rocky runs in cool, clear streams, spending most of their time tucked under rocks.

Hellgrammites may stay hidden under rocks because virtually everything that swims will eat them, which I’ve witnessed every time I’ve used hellgrammites for bait ina cool-water stream. Smallmouth bass typically are the official sought-after species, but somehow the rock bass, largemouths, channel catfish, bluegills, longear sunfish and other fish never get that message (which I don’t mind at all).

My brother-in-law, Jerry Perry of Danville, grew up in Frankfort, fishing Elkhorn Creek and other streams in Franklin County. Perry is strictly a stream fisherman, and he fishes almost exclusively with hellgrammites (plus the occasional soft-shell crawfish that shows up in his seine). He catches his bait upon arrival and then wades up through the creek, drifting hellgrammites thorugh promising-looking runs.

Share kentuckyfishing.com content!