Mooneye Steaks

I was back in SE Minnesota this week, and did a night of mudcat fishing from shore in the Winona area after a day of fishing from my boat for walleye. The walleye were not biting, but the mooneye were.

I have heard of people having great results with fresh cut mooneye for cats, but when I have tried it in the past I got nothing but turtles. None the less, I kept one mooneye for cut bait. In the past I just threw bait-bound mooneye on a stringer, but this time I wrapped it in a plastic grocery bag and tossed him in my cooler with ice as soon as I caught it.

After dark, I set up on one of my flathead shore spots, and put out live suckers. Nothing. So I tossed out a rig with fresh, cold, mooneye steak, just to see what would happen. Within five minutes I had a run, which I assumed would be a gar. Instead, it was a 25″ channel cat. While my (baitshop) sucker was largely ignored, I got runs non-stop for the first couple hours on mooneye steaks. Then things quieted down, although I did get a mudcat on a sucker. I missed most of the mooneye strikes, which I suspect were either gar or turtle. I did land several more 20″ish channel cat on mooneye meat.

Anyhow, I am convinced that mooneye steaks work very well at least some of the time after dark for channel cat. I wonder if chilling the mooneye right away after catching it made a difference, since I never had any results with them in the past when I let them lay in the sun before slicing them up.

Hey Vikefan,

I use mooneye every spring for channels. Suckers are hard to find before the opener in Mpls/St. Paul, so I ask the regulars at Everts to save them for me. I generally get about 4-5 of them in the freezer by the time the end of March rolls around.

The only problem I’ve had is with a re frozen one. They get very mushy and won’t stay on the hook.

As far as the gar go…I’m surprised that your live sucker didn’t get hit…then dropped if there were any in the area. A few years back while fishing slack water eddie…I was getting a screaming run after screaming run. Suckers were always marked up on thier sides. Finally someone told me it was gar. The next night I went back and using a spot light saw many of them swimming just under the surface.
Until this year, I’ve never had a gar touch my cut bait…they’ve always nailed the live sucker.

Now turtles on the other hand…

Almost forgot…up on the Great Red River of the North, Golden Eye, a cousin to the Moon Eye is a prefered bait. Fresh Golden Eye.

Sounds like you had a good time!

Mooneye always go on ice immediatly when I catch one. You can’t keep one alive on a stringer and as soon as one dies in warm water it is mush.
You did the right thing getting it on ice. I bet you will find yourself liking mooneye for cut bait more now

I’ve also caught nice flats on cut mooneye, 23 pounder this year and a 35 last year – considering my cut rig isn’t as stout as my flathead rigs this made for some amazing fights. If you’re catching mooneye where you’re catting and happen to get a smallish one, throw it on your flathead rig alive. You can’t keep them alive in a bait tank, but they stay kicking a long time on the hook and never stop struggling. Almost every one I’ve ever used that way has been hit.