How I Caught Fish using Only Cigarette Butts as a Lure

This is a true story of how I caught my limit of rainbow trout using nothing but cigarette butts that I found on the bank.

This happened when I was younger. My parents dropped my younger brothers and me off at a local lake (Birch Lake, Alaska). Being the fishing crazed kids that we were, we started fishing immediately. Fishing was pretty steady but not great at first. Within the first hour we caught maybe 10 trout among us 5 guys. After that the fishing started heating up.

The fish were in a feeding frenzy. Every cast produced a fish (or at least a few bites). Then I hooked a good sized trout. I was fighting it for a little and then… SNAP! My line broke. That was the only lure I had and I lost it. Quickly, I ran to the tackle box to see what else I could use. I found nothing but a few jig heads, hooks, and a giant fishing line tangle. What should I do? The fishing was so good and I had nothing to fish with. I finally realized that I could just tie on a jig head and find/catch something for bait. I started to look for bait but nothing could be found. No bugs, no worms, no minnows…

I was all bummed out watching my brothers catching fish while I was standing there like an idiot. I looked on the ground and noticed that it was littered with cigarette butts. “Hmmmmm… I wonder if the fish like cigarettes?” I said out loud. I put the cigarette on the jig head and cast it out. As soon as my NEW lure hit the water I had a fish on. I thought I got lucky the first time so I cast again. And… BAM, I had another fish. I started catching more fish than my brothers until they also started using cigarette butts for bait. “Looks like the fish are addicted to tobacco” We laughed. I never thought I’d say this but, we caught well over 100 fish that day all thanks to cigarette butts.

So… If you ever go fishing at Birch Lake, remember to try cigarette butts as bait. There are a lot of fish that seem to be addicted to them.