Cut Bait vs Perch

[Chiefgriz]

I have had no luck with the perch traps so far this year. The cats havent taken anything I've put on the lines yet which is not the norm for this time of year. Perch are so expensive that its not feasible to buy bait. After reading some of the topics concerning cut-bait, I decided to give it a try. The only fish I can get for cut bait easily is carp. Shallow water and a rifle fixed me right up this evening. I was able to bait about 80 hooks with it. Is carp just as good as the next fish for cut bait or am I wasting my time with it?

[TScottO]

I don’t really know to be honest. The few times I’ve used cut bait we were in a pinch. We went bream fishing during the day. The bream we caught that were too big to put on a hook we used as cut bait. We caught a few on them but it wasn’t spectacular.

I know the feeling about the price of bait. Trotline size gold fish are running 30 cents a pop here and all of the crawfish holes are drying up. Catobble (sp) worms are not out on our trees as of yet either. I may revert to chicken hearts and let them sit in the sun for a few days to get tainted. I prefer live bait and tabbys but with chicken hearts we catch mainly blues and channels along with the eels.

If you find cut bait that works real well, please share.

Take Care,
Scott

[Chiefgriz]

I will let you know if I have any luck tonight. I won't say it doesnt work until the fish start biting on proven bait. Perch are costing $5/dozen. I bought 2 dozen a couple of days ago to check if fish were biting yet. All the bait was still on at 1:00 am. Thats not a good sign. With water release coming down the river in a couple of days from the dam, fishing should pick up. I will try the cut-bait again at that time to give it a fair shot of working.

[John]

Carp is good cut bait. I use perch when I set lines because if I don't have a good live bait on, I just wind up feeding the turtles.

I catch my perch on ultralite, with Berkley Power Wigglers and a 64th oz jig head. The wigglers look like little rubber maggots.

Are there any shad in your area, they are great cut bait.

[upnorth]

we use goldeye for cut bait here on the red river. a really oily fish, so the smell stays with the bait longer.

[jvs]

Some people up here use cut up Chubs, a little wild bait stealer that is common around here.  I have no idea if Chubs are everywhere or not.  Stinky Shrimp or Chicken Livers seems to work sometimes also.

[Lost Okie]

I have good luck with deer liver, chicken livers and fish livers that I have sprinkled with brown sugar (let sit for about 2 hours, toughens them up) & Shrimp.  When I used carp, I filleted, left skin on, cut up into chunks, put in mason jar and set in hot sun for several hours (don't forget cloths pin for nose).  Caught 4 on rod and reel yesterday, 3 2-lb and 1 8-lb