Cut bait for catfish: which fish, how to cut it, and how to rig it

Snowball's Bait Tonic StankZapp

Fresh cut bait is the most popular way to catch blue and channel catfish. Which baitfish work best, how to cut them so they put scent in the water, the rigs the state agencies recommend, and the one catfish cut bait won't catch.

Which fish make the best cut bait

Oily baitfish are the standard. Missouri's MDC names cut gizzard shad and skipjack herring as the usual cut baits for blue catfish. Maryland DNR calls fresh cut bait the most popular bait for blue catfish and lists menhaden, gizzard shad, white perch, bluegill, eel, or a selection from the fish market. For channel catfish, North Carolina's NCWRC lists cut fish alongside chicken livers, cheese, shrimp and crayfish.

The freshest bait is the best bait. New York DEC suggests catching your own on the water you're fishing -- panfish, perch or suckers on worms or small jigs -- where your state allows using them as bait; check your state wildlife agency's rules first.

How to cut it

Cut the fresh fish into chunks or strips. New York DEC adds two tricks to put more scent in the water: make numerous small slits in the meat, and remove some of the skin or scales. Leave enough skin on each piece to hold the hook.

Keep your bait cool and out of the sun until you use it, and put a fresh piece on when the one on the hook has washed out. A bait enhancer brushed or sprayed on a piece can add scent when your bait is not as fresh as you'd like.

Rigs

The basic bottom rig, from New York DEC: an egg sinker, a plastic bead to protect the knot, a barrel swivel, a 12- to 18-inch mono leader, and a stout hook from size 2 to 1/0. Use a sinker heavy enough to keep the bait on the bottom -- heavier in current -- and in snaggy spots tie the leader a few pounds lighter than the main line so a snag costs you only the hook.

Maryland DNR describes the rigs blue catfish anglers use: a three-way swivel with the sinker hanging about 5 inches off the bottom and a J-hook; a slit 2-inch cork float on the leader to lift the bait slightly off the bottom; or a rattle ahead of a circle hook, with the barrel swivel about 24 inches from the float and hook. From a boat, egg sinkers are common; from the bank, a bank or pyramid sinker may be needed to hold bottom in river current. Some anglers chum with ground menhaden in a weighted chum pot on the bottom.

Circle hooks are worth learning: let the fish take the bait and tighten up rather than setting the hook hard.

Where to fish it

For blue catfish, MDC reports that juglines drifted over deeper sand flats often produce very good catches, and suggests fishing a variety of depths with cut or live fish. Rod-and-reel anglers can do the same thing by drifting or slowly dragging cut bait across flats and channel edges with a weight designed to slide over the bottom.

For the very biggest blues -- 60 pounds and up -- Maryland DNR notes anglers often switch to live bait.

The one catfish it won't catch: flatheads

Flathead catfish are different. South Carolina's SCDNR notes that flatheads eat mostly other fish and, unlike other catfish, are reluctant to take decaying bait; MDC says only live or freshly killed bait works well for them. NCWRC lists shad, panfish, bullheads and crawfish as flathead baits and says flatheads are rarely caught on chicken livers or stinkbaits. If you're after flatheads, fish live bait.

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