Can't blame the flatheads and gar there, drum are mighty tasty!

Can't believe I'm giving my secret away.

YES---You can---The small goldfish at Pesmart(about 2-3 inches) are about .20 - .25 each. It still make them cheaper than a dozen minnow. I like them cause they live forever on the hook. They are very hardy. I;ll just hang them over the side of the boat--lower til they touch the bottom--a couple reels and let them swim. I gues you would call what I do carolina rigging but I'll put a 1/2 to 1 ouncs egg down and give the goldie about 3 to 4 feet of play line.

I normally hook them behind the dorsel fin and I use a smaller octopus hook. I have had good success with this.

One note of warning. When you walk into the Petsmart and you see the cute 16 year old girl getting you the goldies----don't tell her they are bait. i did this and I thought the poor thing was gonna start balling her eyes out right there. The wife gave me a look that should have killed me. Now we just tell them --they are feeder fish but not that we will put a hook in them.

If you can catch a live carp 10-16", hook throught the tail and put on a trotline (with a large hook). Best goujon bait there is.

When I was growing up we used to trap goldfish in the playa lakes around Lubbock. They were full of goldfish. We always had several hundred "in stock" at any one time. Used them on Lake Kemp. Fun times.

Fourjs

I seem to catch more yellow cats on cut carp than I do live bait. They love the stuff. I scale them, fillet them and make strips about 1 1/2 inch wide and 6 inches long. The fresher the better.

Kim

I like using live baby carp up to 1 1/2 lbs. on a surf rod fishing below large dams. Flatheads love them.

I think they're all legal. Anything that doesn't have a size or bag limit is fair game.

With the exception of yellow bass.

I did not know that. Where is it in the annual?

Doc, its in the list of freshwater game fish. Even though theres no size or bag limit, yellow bass are still considred game fish by TPWD. This is from their page of definitions:

Game Fish (includes hybrids or subspecies of fish on this list):

* Bass: Guadalupe, largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, striped, white, yellow
* Catfish: blue, channel, flathead
* Cobia
* Crappie: black, white
* Mackerel: king, Spanish
* Marlin: blue, white
* Pickerel
* Red drum
* Sailfish
* Sauger
* Seatrout, spotted
* Sharks
* Snook
* Spearfish, longbill
* Swordfish, broadbill
* Tarpon
* Tripletail
* Trout: brown, rainbow
* Wahoo
* Walleye

Its interesting to note that flounder, red snapper and other snappers are not listed as game fish ... maybe TPWD knows something that we don't? lol

Personally, I've had moderate success with cut carp, cut buffalo - fewer cats on them, but they're always bigger. Haven't tried small drum yet ... will give that a shot sometime soon.

any one use mackerel for cut bait? It was pretty popular on the west coast

Duly noted. Thank you.

Odd policy.

yellow bass are recently put on the game list a couple years ago. WOW they made some great bait before then. a fillet of that will last you all day and catch lots of fish. wish i could still use them