I took the grandkids out fishing yesterday afternoon and we caught a ton of fish and had a great time. My grandson, Tony, caught a beautiful 15″ sucker that went right in the livewell to become some evening cut bait. When I took him out of the livewell to cut him up it seemed like an excellent time to make a quick post on how to prepare a large sucker for cut bait. Most people use the medium / large bait store bought suckers for their cut bait and aren’t quite sure how to make bait from a river caught large sucker. I’ll try to use some photos to show the process:
#1: I like the 15″ to 18″ suckers that can be easily caught on the St Croix. We were just using a simple plain hook and split shot rig with a piece of nightcrawler for bait.
#2: Run the fillet knife down one side of the bait and make your standard fillet. You will end up with one standard fillet and then the other half of the fish which will be pretty thick and still have the backbone attached. I do not skin the fillet – I leave the scales and everything attached to fillet.
#3: Cut up the thinner fillet into strips about 1″ wide and about 3″ long. I don’t remove the scales (some people do but I don’t think it matters). Cutting up the fillet with the scales still on can be a chore with a knife. I use a Cabela’s Game Shears which makes the whole process effortless. This picture shows what that fillet looks like when it has been cut up:
#4: Now you need to deal with the rest of the fish. Cut off the head and the tail and discard in the trash. You will have a very thick and heavy fillet. This is where the game shears is worth its weight in gold. It will cut through that thick fillet, the backbone and all the other bones to make some great cut bait chunks. I leave as much of the gut attached to the chunks as I can. You want lots of blood and juices attached to the pieces as possible. Here is a picture of the final product:
#5: Put it on the hook and you are ready to go. Be careful that the point of the hook has not picked up any of the thick scales from the sucker. I normally fish a piece of cut bait like this for about 15 – 20 minutes and then put on a fresh piece so that there is a good scent trail going into the water.
#6: Get set for a fierce strike. I fish my cut bait on circle hooks and set the rods in rod holders. The channel cats will hammer this bait and hook themselves. You will have a tussle just trying to get the rod out of the holder:
I hope this post has helped you catch and make good cut bait.
Good Luck –
Steve