The Sturgeon Question of the Weekend…

What bait worked the best for you?

Shad!

I’ll have a report up soon for the midnight opener, and a update report for last night/this early morning later today sometime.

In my opinion, it really does not matter much. They are bottom feeding and find their food by smell. I have had just about equal success with cut sucker, shad, nightcrawlers. I prefer cut sucker because it is easier to deal with; not as messy and stinky as shad, doesn’t get bothered by other fish like crawlers will.

I do prefer to use “fresh” cut medium suckers and I fillet them. I run a fillet knife down the side one time. I’ll get 4 pieces of bait off each medium sucker (2 fillets, one tail piece and the head). I use the tail piece when bait gets low and then I hook it on a piece of used fillet to help add scent to the fillet piece. I save the heads and if I run out of fillets then I use the heads. I crush the heads a little to help get juices flowing. I keep my cut bait on ice to keep it is fresh as possible. I change baits about every 15 to 20 minutes – if it hasn’t been touched by then it is time for fresh bait or almost time to move.

Sucker is just a confidence bait for me. I have had good success with it. I am going to experiment with adding scent this year. I’ve got some of the Berkley liquid scent bottles. I’m going to put liquid scent in a cup and put it in a cup holder near by rod. Just going to dip my cut bait in the scent before I cast it out. I’ll do one rod in straight cut bait and one rod in juiced up cut bait and see if that makes any difference. If you are fishing with me – you don’t want to drink out of the cup near my rods. That could be a real surprise.

Steve, if you get a chance, could you post a few pics of your sucker set up? I think most folks think of cut sucker as chunks…maybe it’s just me.

PS I’ll remember to bring my own cup.

Just about everything worked for us last night. We had crawlers only, shad only, and shad crawler combo. We caught fish on all presentations and the biggest two came on a combo.

We finished the night with nearly 60 fish. Two over 40, a bunch of high 30’s (a lot of 39’s) and the rest smaller.

The worst should be over for boat traffic, it was crazy out there during the day yesterday. What a beautiful night though.

The only bait that seemed to underproduce was the cut sheepshead.

Just like ice fishing, sometimes there’s a guy who doesn’t seem to catch much even using the same bait/presentation as the guys that are smoking them. That guy was me last night I don’t understand how some guys can catch 4x the fish as the next when the baits are no more than 3 feet apart straight down off the side of the boat. But I’m not whining. Ed and Darren definitely had the hot sticks last night, with Darren catching up, then Ed getting a 1-2 fish lead, then Darren tieing it up again, like 4 different times.

Unbelieveble action, compared to sturgeon excursion. Much smaller fish, for sure. But hey, when you put about 65 fish in the boat (A couple flatheads, a channel cat, a few sheepsheads to round out the action a bit), there’s certainly no room for complaints!

Thanks for going, guys. Was a good time. I was impressed by the number of boats out there! Great scenery, great company, and great fishing! What a day!

Quote:

---

The only bait that seemed to underproduce was the cut sheepshead.

---

Has anyone ever had any luck using Sheepies as bait? I have tried a few times because it is such an easy fresh bait to catch and use. But I NEVER have gotten bit with it.

Quote:

---

Has anyone ever had any luck using Sheepies as bait?

---

I had some fantastic luck with it last year. Fresh sheepshead, fillet it, and cut the fillets into 3-4 pieces, depending upon how big they are. Worked well for me several times.