Cat Tip of the Day: Cut Bait / Cut Bullhead

[SteveD]

About this time of year we start getting questions on how to cut up bait for catfishing. I dusted off an old Cat Tip of the Day from a few years back and will post it here to help some of the rookies make some good cut bait.

Cut bait is exactly what the name implies. You take a legal bait fish (sucker, bullhead, sheepshead, etc) and just literally chunk it up and put it on a hook for bait. Cutting bait up releases the blood and body juices into the water and leaves a scent trail right to your bait. Catfish feed by scent and they can pick up the scent trail from a piece of juicy cut bait from a long ways away. Cut bait works on a lot of other fish too and you will be surprised what you catch on cut bait.

A lot of people don’t like bullheads for cut bait but I have had good luck with it. Live bullheads are my preferred bait for flatheads and I trap and catch my own bullheads and keep them in a 100 gallon bait tank at home. I always have 75 to 100 bullheads on hand so I’m ready to go fishing at any time. My traps catch a lot of small bullheads (4" to 5") and I keep them all to use as cut bait.

It is easy to make cut bait from bullheads and all you need is a good scissors or game shears. Snip off the head and then the tail and you have a perfect piece of cut bait. Attached is a series of photos that shows where I cut and what the end product looks like. On my small bullheads I only make 2 cuts with a scissors. The first cut is just behind the head

and the second cut is just in front of the tail.

You will end up with a nice chunk of fish with an opening into the gut. This chunk of bullhead will leave a good scent trail in the water. It takes all of 30 seconds to make a perfect piece of cut bait.

With a scissors this is a quick and easy way to come up with fresh cut bait. I try to cut bait as I need it to keep it as fresh as possible – I want the blood and juices to be fresh and leave a good scent trail.

Suckers are the most widely used bait for cut bait because they are readily available at any bait store. Medium or large suckers work very good. When I use large suckers I will run the fillet knife down one side just to open up the fish. I then cut the fillets into chunks or strips about 1 1/2" wide and about 4" long. I also like to use the heads for bait so don't toss out the heads, they work good. There is another Cat Tip of the Day in the tips section on the Catfish forum titled "Cut Bait Tutorial" that shows how to cut up a large sucker. It is pretty simple and easy and a large river caught sucker makes the best cut bait you can find.

Just take a chunk of that cut bait and hook it on a large hook. Leave yourself plenty of hook showing and make sure you haven't embedded any scales from the cut bait on your hook's point. Don't worry about a fish seeing the hook - cats are not hook shy and will just hammer this bait. I use circle hooks when fishing cut bait and just place the rod in a rod holder and wait for the fish to just nail the bait and hook himself.

The scissors in the cut bait photos are my Cabela’s game shears. They will cut up anything. The last photo is a picture of the Power Scissors which I highly recommend for making cut bait – well worth the $2 investment. You can usually find them at Menards near the tin snips aisle. I've got several pair of Power Scissors in the boat and in my Cat Box.

[Scott K]

Thanks Steve! Great tip!

[Carp-fisher]

Thanks for the tips Steve. I think I'm going to fish with cut bait alot more this year...my two biggest flatheads came on cutbait last year as well as the largest flat I saw posted on the picture thread (49"--bassboy).

[DTro]

Cut bait seems to work much better post spawn for the flatties. A big chunk tossed out at the head of a deep hole from July-August works well.

One the biggest flats I've caught was on cut bait.

[HossFisher]

Every time i've used Cut Chubs vs. Cut Suckers it always seems like the creek chubs outfish suckers 3 to 1. Just wanted to throw that in there because that could be another very good alternative. Your right Ben, my two biggest flats along with the Hog all came on cut bait last year. I know know if it helps or not but I always like to add the head back onto the bait just to add some bulk to the presentation and if you hook it throw the skull it helps it stay on the hook better.

[Carp-fisher]

Thats an interesting observation on the sucker vs. chub action. I had all my action on shad, but those aren't really available until late in the summer. I know of a pond up in Plymouth thats full of 7 to 9" golden shiners--I catch a bunch of them every spring while fishing for bluegills. I bet they would make great cutbait too...

[DTro]

If I had a gun to my head and was told I had to catch a cat the MN river, and had my choice of bait, it would always be cut creek chub. I love em.

[demetrius]

what type of traps do you use to catch your bullheads?

[SteveD]

what type of traps do you use to catch your bullheads?

I've got several different kind. Any standard minnow trap will work. You can increase the hole size to 1 1/2 inches which is the legal hole size allowed by MN fishing regulations. You can find several different kind of traps at Fleet Farm and they are not that expensive. Here is a photo:

[demetrius]

thanks, I have several of those, what do you bait with?

[SteveD]

If you have a productive spot you don't even need bait. I've been surprised how many I've got on an empty trap. One of the best baits is some old cut bait you may have left over from a night of catfishing. A few hunks of cut sucker or cut sheepshead will lure them right in. I've also used dog food in the trap if I have some available.

[walleyeslayer18]

If I had a gun to my head and was told I had to catch a cat the MN river, and had my choice of bait, it would always be cut creek chub. I love em.

Haha that's awesome! i love the way you put that! So let's just say i havent gotten any hits in awhile, How often should you put a new peice of cut bait on?!

[Scott K]

20-30 minutes

[walleyeslayer18]

Thank you i appreciate the help!

[nsnutter]

We used some cut bullhead last night with success ... thanks for the tip Steve! Never thought about cutting bullies up before I saw this thread

On a side note ...Say, walleye ... you're from NP? I'm in NP as well amigo graduated 05 how bout yourself