BIG CUTBAIT

[Dennis Steele]

I have been picking up quite a few flats on cutbait in the last couple weeks while fishing channel cats.

I do on occasion use big hunks of cutbait for flatheads early season but not all that often come summer. Usually the bait is like half a 10 to 12" sucker.

I am tempted to try very large hunks of cutbait for some BIG fish.

I am talking about a 1lb to a 2lb hunk of bait.

I figure that a hunk that size would attract big flatheads and am hoping that the "peckers" will leave it alone.

Anyone try really big hunks of cutbait?

[Cat Hunter]

Holy dump what size hook you using for a pound of bait? Sound like your fishin with salt water gear.

[Wiskers]

Funny you mentioned this Dennis... I seen a fella on the shore the other day casting out a huge chunk of bait... I thought he was crazy but after watching him, he pulled in some huge cats... I got closer and could see that he was putting on 1/2 a sucker that was about a 2 pounder when he started..

Note to self, get some big suckers and give it a go.. what could it hurt....

Sure missed you up here this summer.......

[Guest]

Dennis..

We have been hitting the majority of our fish lately on cut.. We have used baits of all shapes and sizes, and some moster size (6 oz?) pieces of bait once I moved to a larger hook(lost another huge fish, thats another story). The only fish I have seen take a live bait lately was Blacksportsman hooked into a good fish last night on a big Golden Shiner*.

The end result is I have not been getting anything on the industrial size bait.. A chunk of choice cut bait about an inch in diameter, and 2" long has been the top producer. Smaller baits have put some huge fish on shore/boat this year also.. baits as small as the head of a 4" sucker landed a 37# fish.

Bigger isnt always better.. Bigger for me lately has seemed to be the reason why I am watching others catch big fish while I get nothing.

[Steve Foss]

Dennis, I've tried baits up to half of a 2-lb goldeye (the front half), so that's about a pound of bait. The 2-lbers left it alone, and I got a couple runs from what must have been bigger fish. Caught one 10-lber, which didn't seem to have any trouble getting that bait in its big ole wide mouth.

[Mr Special]

Should the cutbait be fresh or would frozen and thawed out be ok also?

Thanks

[Guest]

Mr Special..

Right now.. you will have the best luck using a chunk of meat cut off a living fish.. the fresher, the better. We have had some luck on thawed.. but the fresh stands out.

I dont mean a fillet.. I mean a fish head, or a complete mid section from a fish with guts and all.. the more scent, the better.. if you dont get a bite for an extended period of time and the bait looks water logged.. put a fresh piece on.

If you want to hook up to fish one of these nights, dig up my email, or get in contact with Dennis or Dark30.. they have my number somewhere.

[Mr Special]

Kewl,

Thanks for the invite also. I'm leaving town for the weekend but I'll give ya a buzz when I get back.

Later

[honky kong]

hey dennis nice to see you guys at st. peter last weekend. we've been trying some fist sized chunks of suckers and caught a few nice channels but no flatties yet. how comparable is that to what you've been trying?

[Dennis Steele]

I haven't tried anything too big yet.

Gotta get some BIG bait first!

The flats I had been catching have all come on smaller pieces while channel cat fishing. Maybee a 1" chunk.

This weekend I'm taking the crawlers with to catch some "under utilized" species and "utilize" them.

[honky kong]

sounds good. i'm hoping to get out on monday. my usual partner is goose hunting all weekend so i got a few days off from the river. got a bunch of dead suckers from hermie's in st. peter and gonna try some spots in the afternoon monday. hopefully we'll hook into some bigguns.