Last weekend I caught a carp at Lake Tawakani. I kept the fish so I can use it as a cut bait for this coming Saturday to catch some blues or channel cats at Lake Tawakani.

I took all the fish scales out. Cut all the meat along with the skin and kept all the guts, belly parts and bloody parts in a zip lock bag along with the fish meat. Now it�s sitting in my fridge. I didn�t not freeze it.

I was wondering if this cut bait will work as good as I would have used it same day?

Or if I freeze it and want to use it later in a month or so. Will that still work?

Never used carp for cut bait. Heard it works well. For me anytime I use a fish for cut bait I keep it whole until I'm going to fish with it then cut it up. For carp I would use my vacuum sealer and put in a bag long enough to fit the entire fish in then vacuum seal it. Keep from freezing it if you're going to use within the next 5 days or so (again as long as it's sealed good). If not freeze it. Make sure it's air tight before you do.

My .02 cents.

WOW. What a great idea !! Vacuum seal !! I never thought about it.. You are right next time I will keep it whole untill I am going to fish with it and then cut it up.

Thanks much for the advice !!

I know it works real well at Richland Chambers for catfish.

Carp is like candy to the kitty's!! Lots of oil in the meat so it is self attracting. Can't go wrong!

thanks much !!

'Candy to the kitty' lol

yes very true that the carp meat has alot of oil in it

thanks much for the feedbacks

Yes that will work fine. As long as you didn't freeze it. I have used carp for years. I just went to Tawakoni last monday. I limited out on Carp. They were all eaters. No real big fish. I was using maybe a 1 inch by 1 inch squares.

Nice !! Yea mine is cut about 1" each. I am going to use 7/0 Circle hooks on Santee Cooper rig. Do you think size 8/0 would be better or 7 is big enough ?

Park with only 1" cubes I'm guessing you're going for eating sized? If so 7/0 is plenty big. For eaters I'd use a 5/0 circle hook with bait that size.

Oh ok I see.. Make sense.

Thanks !!

I caught one on my trot line couple weeks a ago and cut him up and didn�t end up using him that trip. I froze the meat and used it next trip it caught fish and held on the hook pretty good

Many of you know this but I just learned it this year. First carp are excellent cat bait. Secondly, if you just grab the scales starting at the tail and run your fingernails under the scales going towards the head the scales come off extremely easy. I don't know of any other fish where there scales come off like this and would have never tried it if someone didn't tell me. Once you take off the scales you can cube it up with the skin on and it will not come off the hook.

I do not target catfish but I do know a lot of catfish anglers who use carp as bait and they get super good results. Some of them also freeze their cut bait and seem to do well with it as well.

Fresh is best as always. Having said that filet and Frozen with the guts and head produce the same results as fresh. No worries about freezing it just let it thaw out completely before you put it on the hook or it will be very soft and fly off your hook. Leave the skin on no scales. Buffalo works a bit better than carp in some situations.