I caught some sheephead under 7″ or, ehem, near 7 inches while goofing around on the river. My question is can you use sheephead as bait and has anyone tried? What kind of luck have you had with them. I haven’t had much luck lately catching the bullies, but no problem with the SH. I assume it’s because I had been fishing early in the day for bullies.
There ar eno stupid questions….right? 
As long as they are lively I don’t think a catfish would care. I don’t think the 7 inch rule applies to sheephead, but you might want to check out the regs to see for sure.
I haven’t caught any flatheads using live sheepheads as bait but the only night I ever tried it I had one heck of a fast run.
I set the hook and whatever it was, pulled away fast and broke 80lb test. 
They will work if you can keep em lively…they don’t seem to be very durable. Give me good old bulletproof bullheads. But MH is right there isn’t a flathead out there that wouldn’t eat one plopped in front of it.
Jason.
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broke 80lb test
YOU are so silly!
Whoops, I meant 8 lb test. 
…..i have used drum as cutbiat and had poor luck..but i havent used drum enough to make a strong statement if they work or not.
match whats on the river basically….i bet u cant go wrong since they are so available. i have been thinking about using small Shorthead RH since they seem to be everywhere and somewhat tough. the trick is getting enough to use them every time you go out. then i could determine if they work or not. drum are everywhere………….. possibly TOO abundant???????????? thats my concern. especially early in the season (may) when they are in the shallows.
sheephead are legal bait.. I have never tried them, I have heard of people using them on occasion.. I cant remember what ever happened for results?
As for the 7″ limit like bullheads.. I dont see where in the regs that applies to anything bt bullheads.. but the regulations dont seem very specific?
I wouldnt be afraid to put one on the line longer than 7″.. then again, it wouldnt hurt my feelings to use the fish in your avatar pic either for bait.
*Fisher Dave* <– is not a LMB fan.
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I haven’t had much luck lately catching the bullies
Have you tried Nokomis for bullies?
Try lake Hiawatha the bullies are everywhere!!
Used drum last night on the Minnesota, both fresh cut and alive but no fish. A guy next to me was using cut drum and caught a 3lb flat. I’ve used cut drum before with very limited success, lots of nibbles and an occasional channel cat, but no flatheads. I only use it in a pinch, when nothing else is handy.
I’ve used sheephead with some success but they don’t seem to have the appeal that bluegills or bulls have. That said, I wouldn’t hesitate to use them if I didn’t have other bait. Don’t bother cutting them, they’re lousy cutbait – catch mooneye or redhorse for that. They’ll stay alive if you get them back out right away – they’re not great in a bait tank. They’re also very tasty eating fish if you clean them right and don’t overcook them.
Thank you for the info my catfish brethren. It sounds like unless your desperate, there are too many other better options. I was suprised to hear that they are hard to keep lively.
I always thought Hiawatha was surrounded by the golf course? what’s the easiest way back there?
Anyone going to be in town tonight doing some fishing? I won’t be going out of town until at least Saturday evening.
As for FisherDave, I said it in the other post but cat fry make excellent bass bait…or so I heard 
Before everyone gets too upset, no I would never use a cat for bait. They are number 2 on my favorite fish list now above pike, but still below bass. Of course I have been fishing my whole life for bass and the cats are recent and growing on me.
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no I would never use a cat for bait
But you thought about it! That’s just as bad! 
Is there any resrictions on using critters for bait? Dark 30 always has some 12/0 hooks on hand and I am sure he would borrow me one… I would be willing to bet it would latch into a collar and fling a Pug out there quite nicely.. I think my flathead rod has just the right amount of backbone to get it out there pretty good.
where was that you saw that big flattie on the surface Brian? I think I just figured out a surface bait!
Ok.. I think I better get back on track before this one gets out of hand and someone gets offended.
Dave you know better than to insult a man’s dog! Even if it is a pug. I am going to have to train him to attack you when you are bent over netting a cat for someone. When you fall in then we’ll see if you’d make good cat bait! Oh wait, maybe I’ll wait until I get my own extended net before I do that. Never mind.
Dogs? 
I was thinking some neighborhood brats that keep throwing rocks on my roof. 
I have halibut hooks that would work.
Brats and Dogs? Mmmmmmmm, I am starting to get hungry. 
I had to read your posts a couple of times! Actually, halibut on the grill sounds good right now.
OK, my 2 cents worth and, I know there is alot more smarts here than I have 
If I have to fish with sheepies, it is because I want to just drink the beer in the cooler for a night out 
Sheephead suck both cut or live for cats.
Hey did I read this right some Nob admitted to liking green carp… here in the sacred catfish form and Mealy worm (aka. Brink) was the only one to jump to the defence of the holiest of holy. (Catfish) What is up wit dat!
Shame on all of you.
Pugsli I have heard that there is a whole form of green carp fishermen around here somewhere if you look you can find a way to talk to people of that ilk. (I do not know why you would want to)
We are more fun
See ya
Bowfin
Terry, someones got watch out for this forum when your playing drop the soap with your friends… 
2005 standings
20 for Bowfin….1 for me
Hey Friend(Mealy worm),
Glad to here you finally found your “soap”
and No thanks I do not need another picture of you in the tub to prove you found it.
Hey did you and Gapenhumper (gaterhumper)ever share that vintage bottle of Boones Farm strawberry snapple you have saving for when you catch your first legal 13.2689 inch green carp (zander)of the season? Well dude pop off the top off it was a full moon and Gater was in the mood to “shag Baby, Yeah”
See ya now go back to the ice house with Landscarp.
See ya
Bowfin
Strawberry snapple?
It was either “Strawberry Hill” or “Stepping Out”. I can’t recall which! 
Mealy’s in the mooood for Love>
Live it up baby, yeah
See ya
Bowfin
Hmmmm I did spend the night with eye guide watching the fire works on the ‘sippi…
But love never entered my mind…must have been the way he clonked…
You guys are just plain sick, if this is what happens when the cat bite drops off, well, I’ll go back to musky fishing or even dog fishing. That slime has done fried your brains.
Whaddya mean when it drops off!
Thanks again for the fun evening Brian! And for the care package you dropped off! I owe you big time!
Too bad we couldn’t get the kittys feeling the patriotic spirit last night! Based on the clonking responses, I would have thought that numerous explosions on or near the water , and bright flashes of light would have turned them on.
Tuck
No…No…Chris! I thank YOU! You’re always enlightening in one way, shape or form…with a great positive attitude to boot.
Man this picture has and ugly looking cat in it…but the fish is pretty! 
Ps My last cat of the night came on the way home…It ran….I tryed to keep the brakes from screaming like a clicker…. and heard the POP…when he was under my truck…
All kidding aside, the darn thing ran out in front of me…out of instinct I hit the brakes hard…but it was impossable to miss…I really didn’t know it was a cat until after I hit it… 
(Anyone know how to get acceleration marks off of asphalt?)
Thanks again for the good time…next time we’ll have to try the “other” theater of operations! 
Great! With the background in the picture, now EVERYONE will know where we were! I told you we should have stayed out of the dark spot!
Thank God for GPS, huh? Man, that was some soup on the way back! Next weekend if you are up to it, I would like to try the other “Field of Dreams” I spoke of. Maybe we can bring two boats, and cover some water, or gang up on them in one. Tell Mrs. Brian K she is welcome too! (I will bring the Wilson Bat Repeller along. )
A little more fuel for the beaver debate, the fish we did land was at the “Spot of the Beaver!”
PS, Don’t forget you have suckers in your livelwell!
Thanks again!
Tuck
I got to catch the fireworks on the sippi last night too.. it was slow for a while with all the commotion on the river.. I guess it was the day for all the pleasure-craft to be out.
We had a few runs, and a couple fish lost by about 11:30 pm, and a friend that stepped in a hole trying to get his big fish out of a snag, I think he broke his foot… this was all that happened until 11:30pm and then it was dead until…
1 am .. my clicker took off which resulted in a 27… Immediately following Ralph lost a decent fish at shore. Shortly after that my clicker went off again and it was a 10.. when I was fighting that fish Ralph’s reel started screaming.. I thought he hooked a boat going by.. nope, it was a fish.. snapped 40 lb test on the hookset(your knot choice sucks Ralph). After that was over.. wouldnt you guess… my clicker started taking off again in a big hurry.. I grabbed the rod and asked Ralph if he wanted it.. he said he didnt know how to work my reel, so I engaged the spool and set the hook and said “just reel it in”.. that was a 33 and Ralph’s personal best by far.
I just realized I missed another run before that 33 on my rod.. only a minute before.
I know there were a couple more runs, but I couldnt pay attention to everything anymore.. My line wouldnt last 5 minutes it seemed once I got it in the water with a decent bait… once the decent bait was gone, the fishing was done. We tried a couple industrial size pieces of cut sucker and that only resulted in a couple nibbles.
It was a good night at a new spot… and a good way to start the 4th of July.
I will add some pictures in a while.
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