I’ve had similar experiences with this. I tried to catch shad one morning ( late because I over slept) and wound up with 5 bream. Decided to try them for hybrids. I baited 2 rods. Got a double and landed both. Rebaited both and got another double that I landed. Baited the last one and landed it. Total time trying to catch bait was 2 hrs. Total time catching fish was 15 minutes.
Decided to catch a bunch of bream at a stock tank and put them in city water with aquarium starter added. The next morning I got 2 bites out of 50 bream. I don’t understand it but I haven’t spent any time or effort trying to catch bream somewhere other than the water I’m fishing that day.

We limited out in less than 20 minutes on bluegill from the Lucky Minnow bait shop and continued to catch and release for hours after that. I also constantly use shad from different lakes to catch catfish. Live and dead. The majority of guides on Whitney catch shad on Aquila. The fish have no clue where the bait fish came from.

This is true for flathead catfish as well, makes a huge difference when I catch the fish from the body of water I’m fishing, same case during the sandbass run when I catch my own minnows. It has to be a scent thing, and it definitely makes a HUGE difference.

Don't have this problem using shad. Have y'all tried refilling the bait tanks with water from the lakes your fishing?

My experience on Texoma with perch is that because of the fins the fish will grab it from behind, run about 10-20 feet, and turn the perch around to swallow it. The guide we fished with always told us to wait for the line to stop moving before setting the hook.

When did freshwater perch traps get banned? Or have they always been and my cousins just did it any way lol

Perch traps are legal to my knowledge. I think I’m going to start out with fishing with Perch on Whitney when the fish quit hitting artificial, and see if I can catch stripers that way. Just not really looking forward to getting a big cylinder shaped special live well and trying to catch shad. I’m more of a lure fisherman anyways.

Well, some feedback. I got some live perch from the Lucky Minnow last Sunday. They look like great Vape, they were not too big and very lively(3”+/-) And after unsuccessfully trying top waters we dropped on some stripers in 20 to 40 feet of water… I could not get him to eat it. I could watch them on the livescope and they would come right up to it and turn away. Lots of fish down there that I am pretty certain we’re Striper… maybe they just weren’t in an eating mode. So another idea, does anyone buy the big 3 to 4 inch shiners and use them successfully for striper? A friend of mine who grew up fishing Lake Buckhannon said they used to tear them up with the biggest shiners they could buy. I know she had worked best but I just don’t know if it’s worth me getting a shad tank and figuring out how to catch them is worth it, as I don’t see us bait fishing very often over there. But I guess that’s what I should probably do. Anybody fish with the big shiners that you can buy?

I also tried some 3” or so perch last weekend and didn’t have any luck for stripers. We hit 8 spots or so and not a bite from a striper. We did catch a 19 3/4” largemouth with them in 30 ft of water in a cove by cedar creek. Also caught 2 eater blues in one spot. Looks like I will be trying to get some shad next time I go out. Normally only have 3 poles out so won’t need to many shad for a quick morning trip.

The pic below is a perch. I have never caught one in area lakes.

Please educate me.

I think we are calling them perch as that is what we grew up calling them. Bluegill is probably the actual name for what we are talking about, but I have always heard them called perch so that’s what I’ve kept calling them haha

Shalor, take a fly rod or ultra light spinning rig and work around boat houses and marina boat stalls with canned corn, fireballs, or other bream type baits to catch your striper bait. Good luck.

Perch can be very good bait. Back in the 80's I caught a 20 lb striper on a perch while fishing lake Whitney with
striper guide Don Bohne. At that time perch was the main bait he used. We spent about an hour in the morning catching
perch. He tried to keep only the pumpkin seed perch, they were more lively and had a lot more color. We hooked them
from the lower lip and out the nostril using a carolina rig with 3 ft leader and 1 oz barrel weight and did not trim any fins.
We fished the humps in the area of Towash and Whitney Creek. He said mid May thru June was prime time for drifting
live bait. Hope this helps.

Good Luck,
Bozz