Griz, minnows and nightcrawlers. Fathead minnows or shiners, it doesn't seem to matter. Half a nightcrawler dangling on a #6 hook sometimes outfishes the minnows, but most trips the minnows are preferred. Raystown Lake has a huge food base of landlocked gizzard shad and alewife and every predator in the lake is targeting it as a primary food source. I think that's why the minnows are such good perch bait.
I fished with hellgramites in the Susquehanna River for smallmouth bass when I was younger. It was (is?) the best bait for them. On days when plugs, jigs, minnows or crayfish couldn't buy a bite, a hellgramite on a light wire hook would always come through. My grandfather used to say that the only smallie that won't eat a hellgramite is a dead one!
