Fresh cut shad…they all eat that and you’re more likely to catch a bigger fish. Of course, if I don’t care about size (like if I’m taking my grandkids), I’ll take the stink bait route…lots of fish, but usually smaller (and that’s good for the kids).
I’ve always liked cut Sucker, but after this winter and doing some expierementing, I think my opinion may have changed to something new, I will let you know when I try it in open water…. Oh and then theres the shipment from the west coast that we have coming in the next month or so (I hope) that could really change my opinion of my favorite CC bait!
I like to use any kind of panfish (such as blue gills, green sunfish, crappies or white bass)or minnows (such as suckers or golden shiners)cut into bite sized chunks. The channel cats here love it.
Fresh cut anything. Now that its legal to harvest bait from the St Croix I start my cat trips fishing for bait. Suckers, sheepshead, mooneye, sunfish – I like to catch them and then keep them alive as long as possible and do fresh cut bait so I leave a good scent trail. I prefer to fillet them especially sheepshead fillets. I will also cut bullheads – I’ve had good luck with bullheads and I always have bullheads on hand for flatheads.
I like the convenience of the stink bait, Sudden Impact, Sonny’s Blood, cut bait(shad) and crawlers. I tried this new crawler infused with a fish attractant from [censored] Bait shop, it gives the worm an almost chart. color.
Live minnows early when the waters still a little cool. Bluegills during the spawn and when it gets warmer then I switch to stinkbait or cutup chubs or bluegills. Catfish around logjams or feeding areas and its always live bluegills.
I seem to remember a very similar thread last spring. Oh well; I like to let some suckers sit in a gallon ziploc bag in my front yard for a few days. Once they get soft, I mix them into my Sonny’s
Last year, I tried to stretch a batch leftover from the previous year by adding more sucker and corn mean, but I saw a big decrease in fish productivity.