Sour cut bait

[catchinon]

I cut some white bass into sections for catfish bait a few days ago. What's left is now a little sour and so I discarded it. But I got to wondering if it still might be good bait. What about it?
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[a_bow_nut]

I usually do better with fresh bait. Tried shrimp a couple of times that was a little old along with fresh and the fresh did better every time.
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[catchinon]

I agree with fresh bait being better. However, I tried some oldish shrimp last evening and the bullheads and whities wouldn't leave it alone. That's why I asked.
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[ratnest]

It can be frozen to keep it for a longer period, but as mentioned already, fresh is better.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Never say "never"...or "always"...in matters of fishing. Most of us who fish for catfish in Utah Lake have found that fresh bait...minnows, white bass or carp meat...will catch more and bigger cats than "unnatural" baits. However, there are plenty of folks who swear by stink baits and "unnatural baits" like chicken parts, hot dogs and other stuff not normally found on the fishes' menu.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Much of a catfish's diet depends on available food resources, water quality, activity levels and the amount of competition for food in their environment. When there is plenty of natural food, fish might be harder to coax into biting on bait. But when competitive fish populations are up and food resources are scarce the fish will expand their diet to include a lot of things they would normally pass up.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]There are very few things that have NOT caught catfish at one time or another. But at least in Utah Lake the healthy cat population has definitely shown a preference for fresher and more natural food.
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[DevinJ]

Dont mean to steal your thread, but I had a similar question to cut bait. I had some sucker meat that I didn't use all of so I just threw it back in the freezer and thought I wonder if it will still work or be good for fishing being refrozen? I was using it for trout species and wonder if they are more sensitive to something like this?
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[catchinon]

I have seen posts that say refreezing baitfish is not a good idea, or at least not ideal. The best baitfish is caught one moment and on the hook the next, but once-frozen is just about as good, according to those who know.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]There can be exceptions...to the refreezing thing. I have refrozen and reused large chubs a few times, and the cats did not seem to mind. In fact, I had a guy pester me for some chubs on one trip and I gave him the extra package of chubs I had refrozen and brought along "just in case". You guessed it. The "recycled" chubs outproduced the first timers.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]I think I have proven to myself that carp meat is one those things that is best fresh, still good if not frozen too long and not nearly as good if it has been in the freezer too long or has gone a bit "sour".
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[#0000FF]If white bass is quickly frozen while fresh, it is almost as good as fresh on a first trip. And if it is refrozen after being properly chilled on the first trip and refrozen in water, it will still catch fish. But with the ready availability (usually) of fresh white bass it is unnecessarily frugal (cheap) to refreeze any that is left over after a trip.
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