I HEARD THAT A CUT PIECE OF DRUM MAKES A GOOD BAIT ON A HOOK. IF THIS IS TRUE, THEN WHAT PART OF THE DRUM, AND HOW BIG OF A PIECE?

I heard that was a preferred bait of gar. There's a guy that targets them on another website that swears by that bait. He uses the head, but again that's gar.

One of the yellow cats favorite food. If you can find them 6 to 8" long. Put them on whole and alive.

I have been thinking about buying whole tilapia at the store and seeing if that would make a good cut bait. I have heard in lakes where they live they are well entrenched in the food chain.

We've tried the store bought talipia before and didn't get any bites on it but it was in a lake that didn't have any in it. It might just work where the talipia are.

I think the tilapia thing would depend on what other baitfish are in the lake. Calaveras has lots of tilapia, but also lots of gizzard shad. I think cut gizzard shad would outfish cut tilapia for cats.

I've had better luck with talapia at Calaveras than shad.

I have a friend that "Juggs" and he uses cut drum and cut carp.
He scales them, leaves the hide on and then cuts in strips about 2"X3" and hangs on a circle hook. Does pretty good on both, although the carp seems to last better.

Of course I fish with a pole.

cut buffalo, carp, drum, shad...any or all of the above will work. fresh is the key. we use shad first, but i like carp buffalo if the bite isn't real hot, cuz it stays on the hook forever. i dont understand the scaling the chunks though..i like the scales and fish slime. bluecats dont scale thier meals before they eat it. sounds like extra work for nothing.

fins the fish and put something fresh and fishy down there an ol blue will eat it.

I believe it's supposed to expose more oils and adds a little scent.

hmm...maybe so, but i will never know. cut carp is my goto bluecat bait in the winter when i cant find any shad, and i never scale it. and still manage to usually catch more than i want to clean...usually. sometimes i cant catch any even with Dupont spinners!! :-)