In my continued quest to learn this blue cat game, I seem to be learning the hard way!

Question: Do I need "fresh" - as in caught that day or fresh frozen and defrosted as you are using them shad? Or can I keep some on ice but not frozen for a few days?

Reason I ask, is that I fished several hours over the last three days, and had very poor results. I was using frozen shad that I had caught earlier this summer and froze. I let them defrost, and kept them in zip lock bags in the cooler over the weekend, but they were not the prettiest things. Were looking pretty rotten and getting soft by the end of it. I also had some strawberry jello chicken breast, and that did not produce much either. What few I caught, were all small.

I fished 8' to 25'... just could not get on them.

Was in areas I have caught fish before. Was marking a lot of bait, and I think marking fish (still trying to get better at marking catfish on the bottom). I am also stuck using an older - smaller sonar unit, until I can get the transducer mounted for my Lowrance Elite 9 on Momma's new boat.

As always, thank you in advance for the help and suggestions - advice.

Stay safe - COVID sucks!

Ken

Always use fresh Ken. Throw em on Ice and get rid of em after day 3.

As said above, fresh is always better. I was told by a very well known guide to never use bait more that 3 days old. And if possible even fresher than 3 days.

My mission this winter is to find some different places that the gizzards stack up in on a regular basis

If I do not have fresh shad, I always use night crawlers or red wigglers. They work good for any cats. I’ve started the worm bin and have worm baits any time.

To me the second most important thing in blue cat fishing is fresh bait shad or cut ruff fish(caught the day of the trip or as near as possible to it.) If you are serious about blue cat fishing-get serious about catching fresh bait, no bait no blues.
Frozen shad are semi OK if just the right amount of thawed out, before that much like putting a popsicle on a hook and after thawed 100% useless.
In emergency situation I might use day old on ice shad, but that is if and when, maybe twice in the past several years.

I have had luck with thawed bluegill, but never shad. As most have mentioned, try to master catching the fresh bait before trying to catch the big blues. It will help your success rate in the long run.

Frozen shad will work but is probably the last thing to use fresh is the way to go. I fish a lake that is really hard to catch shad so I use frozen if it all I have. When using frozen bait I catch about 80 percent less fish.

Thank you all! Sounds like I might have figured out a big part of my problem and (wasted) time last weekend... will keep learning!

El Gato - I think I crossed that fine line you mention in your signature. Fell hard to the idiot side. LOL

Mr. Kennedy, will be calling you soon. Need to talk.

Thanks all!

Ken

My father said many times , " frozen shad is better than no bait ,, but not by much "

MO

When push comes to shove, you can go to an Asian market and pick up some common carp or buffalo. It's on ice and not frozen.

I catch my shad early in the morning (430am). I use an aerated bucket to keep them alive as long as possible. Throwing a castnet is a lot of fun so it is all part of my experience.

It Into no fun when it's below 32*..... ..... especially in a boat.... Or we will be going live deadliest catch. De
Breaking ice......shad will last longer than 3 if you wipe them off one by one with a paper towel and pack them in sonic ice real tight....... tape the lid and a drain plug....we bring them when we come to fish that way..

Been seeing a lot of success with chicken breasts but have not tried myself yet

Try different fresh cut baits you never know what they may prefer on a given day . We baited 6 rods with cut gizzard Shad Saturday and after awhile of no bites I put on some cut Carp and got bit right away . We switched to all carp and had a pretty good day and won a tournament on Livingston.

You can order frozen skipjack. It's kind of pricey to order, but it works great. Unfortunately, it's only slightly less mushy than frozen shad, when it thaws. Way oilier than shad though, which I like.