Over the years I can’t begin to tell you how many lures I have bought and used, but I can tell you NOTHING can out fish live bait, period. But the best live bait you can buy, many won’t use and that is a leech. I get the whole I won’t handle a leech thing, because I have MANY friends that will throw one on top of a tackle box or the table on my pontoon and try to hook them before I bait their hook for them, so if that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Here’s the thing. 90% of the Leeches you buy are NOT the blood suckers you may have encountered (LIKE ME) coming out of a lake with four or five sucking the life out of you. Most bait shops carry RIBBON LEECHES, and they DON’T bite or suck blood. Most bait shops sell one sizes, but leeches can come in four sizes. (PANFISH, REGULAR, LARGE & JUMBO) and I would say, the regular size can be used for panfish all the way up to Northern Pike. When fishing weeds or rocks with crawlers, crawlers can tear, but when using a Leech this will never happen if hooked properly. Ribbon Leeches have suction cups on both ends, but a lot of anglers that don’t know the skinny end of the leech is the head and the thick end is the tale. Here’s a few ways to hook leeches. When using a bobber, slip bobber, jigging or drifting, I hook mine just below that suction cup on the back (THICKER END). This way they stretch out and swim, other wise they will ball up. Now, for trolling some say, hook the leech near the head, because the leech is not really swimming, your pulling it. I still think hooking the leech in the tail when trolling still works, unless you’re trolling over 4 mph, but that’s just me. Another way to hook a leech if the bite is light, is threw the tail and back out the middle. One thing about using leeches is, if you keep them in cold clean water (IF THEY SLIM UP, FISH WON’T TAKE THEM) they can live for weeks with no food. Another thing is when fishing weeds or rocks with night crawlers, you might think you missed a bite or the fish stole your bait, when most of the time crawlers will tear and just come off, but this will never happen if you hook a leech properly AND you can catch a lot of fish using just one leech. So, maybe give leeches a try and you might be surprised how many fish you can catch, and you won’t lose any blood.