04-13-2019, 06:14 PM
I've done many tests on Cutler reservoir, the Bear river, and the Snake river in many different places and in many different conditions fishing sucker side by side with carp, chubs, redside shiners, and worms. The most consistent cutbait I have found after many years of doing this is the sucker meat. All of the others catch channel cats too obviously, but for me the sucker does consistently better than the others most times. There are days when for some reason the carp or chubs works better, but not often. Actually, if I were to reverse the rankings and go least effective bait/cutbait for channel cats to most effective it would be....
Least to most effective
1-Red side shiners
2-worms (most effective for mudcats and carp!)
3- shrimp
4-carp
5-whole or cut chubs (good 2nd choice bait)
6- cut, fresh sucker....best in my opinion.
Any of these work well for channel cats, but I try to be most efficient with my fishing time. If I don't have sucker then I'm confident with the others to produce a fish or three.
I have tried dip baits, punch baits, stink baits, liver, etc. and it seems to be good for SMALL channel cats, but very ineffective for large channel cats. Large channel cats are top level predators and want fresh meat. I've caught them with big mice and baby ducks in their stomachs and once at Newton reservoir I found one that was 29" washed up on shore in the process of dying with a 9" crappie stuck in its throat! I have noticed my catch rates decrease when using funky cutbait.
Just remember that even a blind squirrel will occasionally find a nut, but I don't want to hamstring my fishing opportunities fishing with blind squirrels....if you get my drift, haha!
Mike
[signature]
Least to most effective
1-Red side shiners
2-worms (most effective for mudcats and carp!)
3- shrimp
4-carp
5-whole or cut chubs (good 2nd choice bait)
6- cut, fresh sucker....best in my opinion.
Any of these work well for channel cats, but I try to be most efficient with my fishing time. If I don't have sucker then I'm confident with the others to produce a fish or three.
I have tried dip baits, punch baits, stink baits, liver, etc. and it seems to be good for SMALL channel cats, but very ineffective for large channel cats. Large channel cats are top level predators and want fresh meat. I've caught them with big mice and baby ducks in their stomachs and once at Newton reservoir I found one that was 29" washed up on shore in the process of dying with a 9" crappie stuck in its throat! I have noticed my catch rates decrease when using funky cutbait.
Just remember that even a blind squirrel will occasionally find a nut, but I don't want to hamstring my fishing opportunities fishing with blind squirrels....if you get my drift, haha!
Mike
[signature]