# using cut sun perch for bait



## retired10

how do you cut it up Do you scale it first and cut it up or do you fillet it and cut it up 
retired10


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## olsteve

Scale, gut, and rinse in fresh water. Apply salt, pepper, and cornmeal then drop into hot grease. Flip after 4 minutes and repeat until golden brown then drain. Next eat and go to bed.
Saves a lot of time and effort.


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## Jeff G

Scale and cut . Heads are good with the guts hanging out . Seems like scaled and filleted would get the scent out better and would be good that way for drifting . Some old pros that taught me a few tricks would just cut them in half not scaling or doing anything really unique to them . They always catch cprs and lots of 40 pounders and occasional 50 or 60 pounders doing it that way . You may want to experiment but I think you are on the right track . We have caught fish doing it all these way . Fresh seems to work best . 
I like to use game shears (scissors) to do it than a knife. Good luck!


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## Sunbeam

The theory is that scaling them or any bait fish releases oils in pores under the scales. Seems like a fine line but I do it mostly to keep from getting a scale impaled on the hook point.
Regardless of how you do it as Jeff said, "Fresh is best."


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## texasGG

Cut sun perch are an excellent bait for blue cat. The very best way to use them is to keep them alive until you actually use them. All you squimisch people close your eyes for a few sentences. Get the live perch out and scale it .... alive .... wait a minute or two, then filet it. The live fish will release pheromones, a secreted or excreted type of chemical that triggers a response, in this case a bite. The smell indicates an injured fish and will draw the blue cats to it like bee's to honey. There you have it, GG's first tip for the New Year.


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## tbone2374

*Yes Sir*



texasGG said:


> Cut sun perch are an excellent bait for blue cat. The very best way to use them is to keep them alive until you actually use them. All you squimisch people close your eyes for a few sentences. Get the live perch out and scale it .... alive .... wait a minute or two, then filet it. The live fish will release pheromones, a secreted or excreted type of chemical that triggers a response, in this case a bite. The smell indicates an injured fish and will draw the blue cats to it like bee's to honey. There you have it, GG's first tip for the New Year.


 ************ We know about that, don't we? Happy New Year, Garry!


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## Kevin70

Do yellow bass work for catfish? I have heard of people using Gaspergoo and buffalo fish (and of course sunfish). I don't think I have heard anyone mention yellow bass. They aren't sportfish, so it should be legal to cut them up as bait.


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## Dgeddings

Ive had 0 luck with sunfish as bait but great luck with smallmouth buffalo and shad. I have used very small mud cats as bait for flatheads during pre spawn and spawn though when their live works great


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## texasGG

Can't use Yellow Bass for bait, they are a game fish.


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## wshniwasfshn

I have always just used them whole on trotlines. Every single hook had a catfish on it every time


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## TranTheMan

texasGG said:


> Cut sun perch are an excellent bait for blue cat. The very best way to use them is to keep them alive until you actually use them. All you squimisch people close your eyes for a few sentences. Get the live perch out and scale it .... alive .... wait a minute or two, then filet it.


Sushi bars in Tokyo call this "live" option on their menus. The runs of the mill tuna, salmon are merely "fresh"! I did not try the live-option.


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## John3:16

Ok Texas GG here is one for the new year for you. Again I will ask the squeamish to look the other way. When fishing live bait I will gouge their eyes out just before they go over the side. This will cause the release of the pheromone and causes them to send out vibrations different from the other fish signaling they are injured and nervous. This is like ringing the triangle dinner bell to all predator fish.


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## Sunbeam

Does anyone have PETA's phone number?


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## Richgoose

not on this forum !

I can say that I have caught black bass while using cut perch, never a cat but i don't catfish much.


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## Jeff G

John3:16 , I can see some non profit group now in a fancy boat chasing us down on Conroe and soaking us with water hoses while we try to bait our jugs !!! LOL


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## Danny O

I always kiss the perch before baiting the trot line. The epidermal cells transferred from the female lips to the perch always attract big cats...and various other species of fish and mammal!!


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## shadslinger

You all are gross! Kissing fish, cutting them up alive, just to get the fear chemicals flowing.

Why not just tell them if they don't catch a fish you will send them hunting with Dick Chaney.


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## Sunbeam

If blue gill (perch/bream) weighed 5 pounds I would be cutting up blue cats to catch them.
Pet Spoon I know all about those epidermal cells. I spent a large part of a fortune and years of my youth trying to OD on them.


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## shadslinger

I did a little cat fishing today with cut drum and big fat cut warmouth that we caught while crappie fishing yesterday(caught 30 nice keeper crappie with Kerry and Donna who booked a trip with us).
I did not kiss any fish, or terrorize them in any way before using them for bait, well they were dead anyway.
The big one on the bow was 37" long(about 22 pounds and CPRed).

The fish in the cooler are all smaller than the two beside each other on the bow of the boat, the biggest in the cooler was about 10 pounds.

Fishing was great and I released a _plethora_ of catfish besides the ones I kept. 
I probably caught between 25 to 30 fish by myself.
I caught them steady for about 4 hours, and now,....I am about to fall over I am so tired.
What a great way to get wore out!


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## Gofish2day

Nice cats Shadslinger. You think the fat one has eggs??


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## shadslinger

I bet she is full of eggs, and she will get to lay them in a nest that a mean old daddy blue cat will guard. 
I caught some of them today too, daddy blues that just got off of a nest, they have big heads and shrunken bodies from not eating while they guard the nest of eggs.
I released a lot of 10pound+ fish today, most had very big belly's that are most likely full of eggs.
I catch blue cats with eggs all year long on Livingston.
It seems the conditions are right for them all of the time with the huge shad base they have to eat.


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## pipeliner345

olsteve said:


> Scale, gut, and rinse in fresh water. Apply salt, pepper, and cornmeal then drop into hot grease. Flip after 4 minutes and repeat until golden brown then drain. Next eat and go to bed.
> Saves a lot of time and effort.


LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats right!!!!!!


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## joshdebo

I cut sunfish into three pieces. head, skinny middle section and the tail... gl


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## shadslinger

Sometimes I use what I call a "Redfish" cut with small perch that I will bait whole. 
When I surf fish for bull reds sometimes I trim all fins, dorsal, tail, pectoral, etc... ,+ a couple of slices down the body, from the whiting or small bait fish just where the fin meets the body, this lets them leak a lot of scent out and keeps the fins from blocking a hook set


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## slippindrag

shadslinger said:


> I did a little cat fishing today with cut drum and big fat cut warmouth
> Fishing was great and I released a _plethora_ of catfish besides the ones I kept.
> I probably caught between 25 to 30 fish by myself.
> I caught them steady for about 4 hours, and now,....I am about to fall over I am so tired.
> What a great way to get wore out!


Shadslinger, You said it, what a way to get wore out. Sounds like you guys wore them blues out too.


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## dignlevel

I usually take a 3 or 4 finger bream, scale it live, fillet off the sides with the rib bones and then cut off the head. I fish with the head on a 8/0 hook and the fillets as well. Normally the bigger fish will go after the heads..Not sure why but they do like the heads some days and some days the fillets.


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## BigCat63

Wow... I have been fishing in Oklahoma for the past 15 years, and caught a bunch of big Blues, But i have "NEVER" kissed a bait, nor have gouged out their eyes and put the fear of death in them.. but hey, if it works I'm game...


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## Fishon21

*SS,TEXASGG,JOHN3:16*

SS iv'e alway's said it is a lot of work having fun , texasgg , john3:16
thanks for the tips we need all the help we can get .

Terry:clover:


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## shadslinger

Terry, I have worked harder at having fun than I have ever worked at a job!


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## Fishon21

shadslinger said:


> Terry, I have worked harder at having fun than I have ever worked at a job!


amen brother


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