MN river Sat eve

Had some good luck on the MN river sat eve.
Shamu and I got on the river around 5:00. fished out of the main current and backwaters. (the water is still in action stage). Caught 3 Channels. 3.5lb 5lb and 9lb. The 9 was released.
Fish were taken on crawler and cut drum fishing flooded areas in trees and log jams.
Did try live bait for Flatheads but its still a little early.
thanks
Larry

Just curious about using cut bait. What species are legal to use? I know they are rather picky about what can be used as bait and what cant. So I guess drum or sheephead as we call em are legal, what else can I use?

you are right about types of bait that you can and cant use.
Its probably best that you consult with your local regulations regarding the body of water that your fishing
thanks
Larry

Hey Chuckcat6 – What is legal for cut bait can be confusing in MN. I have studied this topic very thoroughly and I still go to the current MN Fishing Regulations quite often to clarify things. Here are a few considerations with the MN Fishing Regulation reference for you to follow:

The MN Fishing Regulations under general regulations on page 10 specifically states: “Using whole or parts of game fish, goldfish, or carp for bait is unlawful.” So that rules out a whole lot of bait that is very appealing. You cannot use sunfish, perch, etc., etc.

The Terminology listing on Page 4 helps to clarify what are legally considered minnows: “members of the minnow family, goldfish; bullheads, ciscoes, lake whitefish, goldeyes, and mooneyes, not over seven inches long, leeches, tadpole madtoms and stonecats.” We already know that goldfish are illegal from the general regulations but the rest of these fish are OK. They are legal to harvest and transport alive as long as they are under 7 inches long and “Be Careful Here” – they have not been harvested from “Infested Waters”.

On page 54 Rough Fish regulations are listed. Rough fish are defined as carp, buffalo, sucker, redhorse, freshwater drum (sheepshead), bowfin (dogfish), burbot (eelpout), cisco (tullibee), gar, mooneye, and bullhead. Other than carp, any of the rough fish are legal for cut bait. The trouble is you cannot harvest them in one body of water and transport alive to another body of water where you want to use them to fish. You could catch them in one body of water, kill them, and ice them down and transport them to another location and use them for cut bait – that would be OK. Page 12 of the regulations states: “Transporting or stocking live fish or fish eggs or transferring fish or fish eggs from one body of water to another is prohibited without a DNR permit.”

For most of us catfisherman the standard, easily obtained and effective cut bait is store bought suckers. They can get spendy so catching your own live bait is appealing. I have caught channels using cut bullheads, mooneye, shad, shiners, fatheads. It stands to reason that if the fish swims in that river system than it would be effective cut bait.

I hope this has helped clarify some things.

Excellent explanation Comanchero. I would not have been able to do justice as you mentioned there is a lot of info to keep in mind.
thanks
Larry

Excellent reply Comanchero!
I am not a cat fisherman, but I was surprised at what the regulations state for cut biat. I am assuming all livebait from a bait shop is legal tender for cats?

Yes, Steve. All livebait from a bait shop are legal to use as cut bait. When you have trouble finding suckers or bigger minnows to use, don’t overlook the effectiveness of your plain old fathead minnow for use as cutbait. Early in the spring they are especially effective. Just hook 2 or 3 on about a #2 size hook, pinch a couple fatheads in half to get the juices flowing downstream, and you have an effective cutbait presentation. The only problem with fatheads is that sheepshead love them to and you will find that the cats have a lot of competition to get to your fathead cutbait offering.

here is a pic of the 9lbr that was caught that night

That’s a good looking fish, Larry.

Nice fish! Got that timer thing down too I see.