Just curious how you guys catfish with carp?

chum

about 1/2 to 3/4" wide by 3" ling strips, filleted off the side. take the fish and fillet it after scaling it, leave the skin on, then cut the fillets into strips. makes SUPER SUPER catfish bait, just like buffalo. very tough wiht that skin on them, i use it when i can catch a fresh one in the cast net and not getting any shad. caught all my fish in the tawakoni NTACATS tournament on cut carp, they didnt want shad from me that day. using 1"x1"x1" cubes that day

We dont scale them, just fillet like usual and then cut into rectangels about an inch wide by and inch and a half long. Works great for us, you dont have to keep it alive, it is tough as nails, and it is the one cut bait that I have caught a number of good sized yellas on. The bigger the carp the better the cut bait.

matt

I obviously don't use big carp for bait, me being a carp fisherman, but I've used yearling carp alive, carp under 2lbs in all sorts of ways.....carcass, fillets, cut bait, innards, whole fish with fillets hangin' off or puncture wounds and small chunks taken out.....they do make great bait. So do small buff and drum. I wish I could find inexpensive large goldfish or isreali carp around here....closest place I know is Texoma.

I need to do a carp fishing trip to get a couple medium sized ones for cut bait. I have found that they work just as well if not better after being frozen. I learned this as a kid when I ran out of bait (my mom used to give me the little paper bag of chicken innards for bait). I caught a carp and cut it into strips and froze what I wasn't using. The frozen stuff worked really well, I caught lots of cats on it.

Can you buy large-enough goldfish at PetSmart?

I hear buffs are better? You guys that have used both have an opinion?

i think carp is better.

you can buy large carp/buff at the fiesta and carnival food stores.

Carp and buffs work about the same for. The cool thing about carp and buffs. Is you get to have fun catching bait as well.

several years ago in-fisherman mag did a lengthy study on flathead stomach content ... i was very surprised to see that the highest percentage that they found was drum ... i have caught fish on drum but never like carp/buffalo

Albertking,
A study done by the Texas Parkas and Wildlife on Gator gar also showed drum way up the list of stomach contents. Gizzard shad being number 1 and then I believe drum.

Seems to me that drum make the most noise of the three and thereby call the catfish and gar to them. Just goes to show ya... becareful how loud and when to beat your drum!

Are drum considered "game fish"? Just wondering about the legalities of using them for bait.

I've also heard of people using little bullheads and yellow bass for yella cat bait as well. The later being illegal I'm sure.

drum are not game fish