cat fish baits

[charlie fisher]

I moved here from Colorado and had some luck there using smelt for catfish bait. I have not seen any posts here of using smelt? What do think? Would I be better off using other baits?

[Brad B]

Smelt would wwork but most of the cat guys here use cut suckers for the channel cats and whole bullheads for the flat heads(bullheads need to be less then 7" to be legal, this will change soon if the new law passes).

By the way welcome to minnesota.

[Brad B]

Some people will use smelt in the winter for northerns when fishing with tip ups.

[Larry FlatCaster]

They are starting to enforce an old law regarding Smelt as Bait with the spread of VHS into the great lakes....

No more smelt for bait.

Smelt... Illegal bait

[Gordie]

WOW thanks for the update LFC and That could PO alot of pike ice fishermen.

Its a good thing to control the spread of this VHS but what if the smelt come from a differnt lake of river other than the great lakes.

On another note that guy in the pic with that dip net is smelting to extreme if you ask me I've done it but not like that looks like hes got a wet/dry diveing suit on

[DTro]

A lot more reading about smelt here too:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb..._as_bait#UNREAD

[Brad B]

I was not aware of the lake superior issue. I read dtro's post and found it interesting and helpful. It doesn't really affect me since I just use suckers from a bait shop.

[mrklean]

hmm thats probably gonna make some people mad