When I was growing up my family grew crickets commercially and sold them over a large area. Our cricket buckets weren't the ones you buy at the bait shops, they were 5 gallon buckets with screen wire stapled over large holes cut in the sides. When we went fishing the way we found the big ones was to literally toss a handful of bugs on the water. If the big ones didn't start popping them pretty quickly we moved on to a different spot. I always had a rig ready with a hook and no weight. When we tossed the crickets in I'd toss my line in the bunch. Never failed to get me hooked up, that topwater action was a blast.
Lake placid and mcqueeney on the Guadalupe River have a lot. Canyon lake has some but seems a lot smaller. My favorite is placid and under 90 bridge you could catch a pb
As a teen, a friend and I spent a few years culling a stunted pond full of small bluegill. We would catch hundreds of small ones a day and pitch them in the woods for the raccons. Although earth worms were a bait of choice we were literally at times catching them off bare hooks About five years later we were landing much larger ones, including some hybrids. We also noticed an increase in the bass population. Somehow as kids and from reading countless fishing magazines we had an intuition what needed to be done to turn that pond around. It took a few years but absolutely worked.
Something I learned to use for brim and sunfish several years ago is using a tiny piece of one of my old bass worms and put it on a small hook. I forgot my red worms and needed to catch some brim for catfish bait. And now I rarely ever buy live worms to catch brim as long as the sun's out cause that worked so well. No sinker tiny little hook and little piece of any color rubber worm, it works like a charm
Bought a flat bottom at an auction like 10 years ago and just now getting around to using it. No idea where the receipt is from the auction so I guess we will see how it goes.
