Sucker Size for cut bait?

Gonna give the cut bait bite a whirl this weekend in addition to sudden impact. Sounds like suckers might work so I’m curious what size is best? Can these just be bought at everts, 4 seasons, and such or do you guys prefer catching your own? Also, are they fished on a circle hook or treble? I apologize again for the stupid questions but this is like learning to fish for the first time for me. Catfishing is a whole new world.

Buy any size suckers you can find, should be able to get them at almost any bait shop. Just cut them up into appropriate sizes for the hooks you are using. Some say fresher is better, others use frozen stuff with no worries. I like to step on the head piece before I use it to get the juices flowing.

I would steer you away from trebles if using cut bait. Use circles if you want, or regular octopus J hooks so you have to set the hook. Trebles just don’t seem to go well with hooking up a big piece of bait (I never use them for anything).

Best of luck and report back!

I’m with Dougie.

The only other tip I could think of is don’t spend the big bucks on big suckers. For cut bait. Not needed for cut. But if they have a big dead one…take it off their hands!

A sucker head is worthless unless it’s been crushed. LOL!

I personally like them to be 10-13″ . Then you. Seem to be able to get them nice 1″x1″ squares. Strap a 6/0 circle and your good to go.
My favorite part of the sucker by far is the head. All of my biggest channels have come off the head. and the head can also produce some flatheads too.

My mystery is solved. My last channel was about 8 lbs and I cut open its stomach to see what I could find. Inside was the skull of a big sucker! Don’t know if it robbed a hook or came across the skull naturally but now it makes sense! I will report how my trip goes. Thanks for the help guys.

Most of my biggest channels have come on sucker fillets… generally filleted
from just behind the gill plates to the tail, then cut into pieces 1-2 inches long. Put that on a 0/3 or 0/4 hook and you’re good to go.

There are several ways to cut suckers into cut bait…

Fillets
Chunks (just slice thru the body every inch or so)
Heads
Gut tubes (cut off just behind the head and just before the anal fin)
Scored tails (take the tail section and score the skin so the juices can escape)

I know Katmando swears by heads, I’ve never caught a fish on a head once in the years I’ve been cat fishing. Another body won’t do anything but the gut tube. I find the fillets are the hottest ticket on the water.

Just experiment and find what works best for you. I can’t explain why the same thing doesn’t work for everyone, but it just seems to be that way.

And yeah, skip the trebs unless you’re goign to use a long fillet and put a treble out at the end as a stinger.

I like to use 9 inch musky suckers. I buy a few and get a few dead ones from the freezer. I have the bait shop trained to save them for me. I pay 6 bucks for two live ones and get the others for free. Couple weeks ago I got 5 nice big ones all on the same sucker head. I think Doug is getting those fiddlers because he isn’t using big enough cut bait. I float mine over the weeds with a bobber.

Thanks Kev! I KNEW I was doing something wrong! Used big chunks of cutbait last weekend, ended up with a turtle. Go me.

Yeeee that sounds like some Live Action Turtle Man.

“There is a sucker born every minute”

PT Barnum.