Best bait

What's the best bait for blues?

Gizzard Shad



Perch, carp, and buffalo are also good...

Hands down, it's cut infant Mediterranean Monk Seal, marinated for 2 weeks in a 50/50 solution of White Rhino Tears and Snow Owl blood.

If you're fresh out of the above, gizzard shad is a close second.

Gizzard shad by far.

I thought it was spotted owl blood!!!! LOL

Depends on the day of the week(moon phase), time of year, water temperature, night temperature, running water or still, shad spawn, catfish spawn, and above all where you place the bait is somewhat more important than what bait you are using. If you are not fishing where the fish are, nothing works not even dynamite

You can have the perch, carp, and buff I'll take a couple 5 gallon buckets of those!!!!

I am pretty sure the spotted owl and the snow owl are the same thing. When I have as in Aggieland I had a Business Statistics professor who had a plush spotted owl that he swore was his teaching assistant. So I learned a lot about spotted owls...just not too much about statistics.

Where can you get shad? I know a cast net and getting them yourself, but I kinda wanna skip the cast net

The cast net is your best option. Some bait stores sell frozen shad, but you will not be as successful. Cut Monk Seal, marinated in White Rhino Tears and Owl blood would be your next logical choice.

Castnets pay for themselves in a few trips.

Cut perch work just good as cut gizzard shad? I'm fresh out of white rhino tears and monk seals

I watched a few youtube videos on throwing a cast net, practiced for 10 minutes in the driveway and the next time on the water I had plenty of bait!!!

Not as good but will work, along with carp, buffalo etc.

Would strongly suggest, if you plan to keep chasing blues, invest in a quality net and buy a spare while you're at it. Watch where you throw it.

Never really hunted for blues, found a bunch the other day stacked up waiting for the spawn, so this weekend I was gonna go try and catch a few. there anyone sells giant gizzard shad like that? Just might have to go buy a cast net and give it a shot.

You will have a hard time finding anyone who sells em live b/c they are so hard to keep alive. Buy the net - it's worth it.

I have fished with bluegill just as much as I have with gizzard shad and I would say this... gizzards will get more bites but rips off the hook ALOT easier. Bluegill stay on the hook so if you get a little bite you don't have to rebait and recast. This probably isn't as big of deal fishing from a boat but fishing from shore its more of an issue.

If you know anyone that bowfishes, tell them to shoot you a carp or two. Keep it on ice until you use it. It takes a 1"X1" piece to catch several fish because it stays on the hook better than most baits. I fillet it but leave the skin on and then cut a small piece off when I need it. Just make sure that you hook it through the skin and it'll stay on the hook better. My last outing we caught 50 blues on two small carp under 5 lbs each.

Just me talking here, but dont let anybody convince you that you HAVE to have shad or other fish for bait! chunks of raw chicken breast is all I ever use, and I catch PLENTY of blue cats. no need to marinate it in any secret sauce either. and for those who say it will only catch little ones...I beg to differ! I have won several tournaments, and caught countless blue cats from 20-40lbs on it...biggest so far is 61lbs.

good luck!

I have been using chicken breast lately, and I've been having success. I like being able to get it ready to go before hand so I can just grab it and go when I've got a few hours to fish. Shad are free if you can find them though. There's a lot to be said for that.

Shad are free, usually easy to get, and they're the main food source of the fish I'm targeting....gonna be hard pressed to convince me anything is better for blue cat.

Will black rhino tears work with sea lions?

Works well with baby sea lions, but don't try it with a bait clicker. They are strong swimmers.

I always carry my cast net when i fish. I usually can catch plenty of shad off the boat ramps or dock. They usually aren't as big as what u can get from a boat but they work. Another thing I do is hit up neighborhood ponds with a trout hook and some worms. You can catch a bucket full of perch in no time. Take your leftover bait and salt it down an freeze it for next trip!

Do you put the hook through the shad twice? That helps keep them on the hook quite a bit. If you're not sure what I mean, CatfishEdge has a video showing one way to do it.

One other comment: I've found that using fresh shad in the 4" to 5" range you will not catch nearly as many dinks.

Big shad chunks shouldnt come off if you hook it in the nose if the head piece or hook the other chunks in the tough skin on the ribs.

if you're using circle hook don't hook bait through twice, just hook once at top third of your cut bait, for shad hook just below the dorsal fin bone, NEVER hook anywhere on the rib bones area. Head is in at under jaw out between nostrils.

Big gizzard shad, buf or carp, good fresh, but night crawlers beat all frozen baits, that's been my experience from the bank.

I try to carry at least two different baits. Sometimes they will hit only on one bait and not the other so I always try to carry at least two. Usually fresh caught shad and cut carp/perch or sometimes cut bait and shrimp if the shad are hard to catch like they can sometimes be in early spring/late winter from the bank.

do thay have river chubs here or is the water to warm we use to use them al the time for musky pike they are really soft fish and sensitive to changers in the water i wonder how they would work being oily as they are they don't get big

do thay have river chubs here or is the water to warm we use to use them al the time for musky pike they are really soft fish and sensitive to changers in the water i wonder how they would work being oily as they are they don't get big

I hit a squirrel in the road once, stopped and picked it up and it made great cut bait that day.

My best favorite bait in this order is
Smallmouth Buffalo
Tie but slightly favor all species of Sunfish over Gizzard Shad... they're not perch even though texans and okies call them perch. This is what I brought with me to texas for those tournaments in 08

Largemouth buffalo is next after gizzard shad. Then all other nantural baits are next like grasshoppers worms and other things but only use them in certain conditions like after floods.

you can Buy Gizzard shad at H-mart in Carrollton, 3-4 in a package, and they are fairly fresh, I have used them before as cut bait and did good.