Just a quick tip, if you want to fish punch bait on the bottom use at least a 2oz sinker and a leader over 2ft long. Put a cork float about 6-8 inches above the treble and the cork will keep you bait suspended about 8 inches off the bottom. Its how i fish cjs on the rivrr since the current takes the corks downriver too fast for cats to follow the scent trail.

First time fisher here with only a month or so under my belt and I can say that bait like Sudden Impact work great. My first time fishing last month on Hubbard with about 5 people to the left and 3 to the right of me in various groups and I was the only person catching anything.
One guy even came over to see what I was using, left and came back few minutes later with a Bass Pro bag with his own Sudden Impact.
Looking forward to try the CJ's Shad bait Friday night!!!!

If you draw cats into a baited hole or area, probably any bait will catch them. Some are better than others, but to expect them to come into the bait smell with no previous attraction (baited area) is a gamble unless you happen to be near them. I make my own bait and catch a lot of fish on it, but others do so too.
Like a lot of other fishing, you must do your homework - bait holes for cats, put down brush piles for crappie, don't fish for bream before the water temp. is at least 70 (usually mid-May and be prepared to cruise along the bank until you find them), and hope for the Luck of the Irish when it comes to bass. Ha!

I like using cj's because it stays on the hook for casting.

I know of another bait like that that doesn't smell.....

I have not noticed any real bad smells from CJs.

That Good Sir deserves to be the Fisherman's Quote of the year!!

X2

+3

I know we both fish the same lake, and I'm a true believer in Big Marv's punch bait.
I've used CJ's and Big Marv's side by side, and BM's beat CJ's hands down.
I end up mixing CJ's with the Big Marv's just to use it up so it makes a good filler for the BM's.
I'm going to give it a try again since you have success with it, and I've always respected your opinions. I would love to have another option because I've had times that I couldn't get bit with the BM's, but that hasn't happened very often. LOL!
Hey Stubby!....Give Calaveras and Brunig lakes a call and send them a shipment of your punchbaits. I gaurantee you'll get folks down here to use it!

Jimbo, big Marvs is good, and it was my go to bait, it works like many of the top popular baits work. I don't put much stock in "side by side" comparisons. The reason being, is many, many times I have fished two poles, or beside a buddy, using the same bait, and it seems one pole/person out catches the other, again this is with the same baits. So if it happens when using identical baits, then it can happen with anything. To many variables, it just not an exact test comparison. I've also found that some days CJs Monster bait gets the hits while other days the crawdad or shad flavor works best. That is another thing I like about CJs, varity.
I think most folks catch some fish on a bait, get confident in it, and it becomes their favorite bait. The things that to me separate the top baits is availability and pricing.

I agree with you parttime on the variables.
I've fished one day using cut shad and talapia, and I would catch cats on the shad and nothing on the talapia. Other days they wouldn't hit the shad, but only bit on the talapia, and somedays both, it just didn't seem to matter.
Was one actually better than the other, as the fish were there, but would only bite one or the other on some days? Again, variables!
Confidence has a lot to do with it, and you only get confident by catching fish on a certain bait. I have confidence in fresh shad, talapia, and BM's.
For me, not so much with the other baits, and they just don't get into the same class as my top three. Again, confidence! If I can't catch them on fresh shad, talapia, and even BM's then there is no use even trying anything else.
I'm probably going to try again to boost my confidence in those other baits, but when my top three continue to outfish them, it's hard to find that elusive confidence.
One thing about it, the availability of shad and talapia isn't an issue most of the time with a good cast net.

I've had good luck with crawfish and shad. Tried the monster and blood, not as good. Also, if you are rebaiting and have some wet residue left on the hook, clean it off first. That seems to help the reloads stay on better.

Ok I was wrong. I went to tawokoni today. we used 4 different kinds of punch baits. We caught over 100 channel cats. I was shocked. We only had 28 keepers but we caught fish all day long. We missed as many as we caught. We were getting bit so much we had to fish with 1 rod in hand. It was fun. So I guess Im gonna use punch bait again.

That right there is funny Dusty, glad you got into them cats.

People send me their baits all the time to try (test). I use CJ's only now, and I use all the flavors, and we catch fish. The record on my boat speaks a lot, not just numbers of fish caught...it tells you that you need the knowledge to know where fish should be a certain time of the year, then put the bait there...learn all you can about where to put your bait, then worry about which bait.

If you notice on my boat, we catch mostly channels, because I fish mostly where channels are, however, we have caught lots of blues (one day 48 blues and no channels) when I fish where blues are we catch blues, and some large ones, even up to 56#.

I am not saying do not try other baits, you need confidence in your bait. I tried plenty other baits and I settled on CJ's...You have to decide for yourself, like parttime said, available, reasonable, and I catch fish on it.

I will give you a hint to help. When you watch Charles Jones (CJ's) video, do not just notice how he baits the hook, do not just notice how he rigs his line...notice he fishes a lot around a rocky bank...structure...pay close attention to the details in his video. Very few baits are going to be productive if you just throw the bait out in the middle of the lake and let it settle to the bottom, you will catch fish, just not likely to catch very many.