I have recently put out 2 trotlines and have done decent. The other day we caught 30 perch and baited most of the lines and put goldfish on the rest. The first day a few perch were gone with some average size channel cats. The next day all the hooks were empty.

So today we used goldfish on all the hooks and every goldfish was gone with only 3 3 pound channels on.

My question is could this be turtles, wrong place hooking the bait. or a big fish shaking the trotline and the bait coming off.

I am new to trotlining (bass fisherman by trade) and would appreciate any help

Oh yea we are hooking the perch and goldfish through the eyes.

Also the trotlines have been out since Friday and the goldfish have stayed alive and on the hook until Sunday when we used some perch. Then tried goldfish again and the same results no bait.

Turtles!!

That is what I think too

Are your hooks sharp? If the point of your hook doesn't grab hold of your thumb nail and hold, it's not sharp enough. I always touch-up my trotline hooks with a hook sharpener.

Hooking through the eyes on bream maybe killing them too soon and either gar & turtles then are cleaning you off.

I have always hooked my trotline bait slightly behind the dorsal fin but above the lateral line/backbone or you can hook it underneath the dorsal fin and above the lateral line.

How loose is your main line? That could be a problem too since the tightness acts as a 'hook-set' when the fish takes a bait.

Few suggestions...

Thanks for the suggestions, The main lines are tight enough. The perch dying makes sense, that is probably how the turtles found the lines.

I am fixing to move them anyway since the catfish should be spawning soon. I have them set too deep I think for this time of the year.

Thanks everyone

I run deep lines at Benbrook and my experience with bait dissapearing is that the smaller fish(not always cats)will grab the tail and nibble/pull the bait off.I then resorted to hooking the perch behind the back fin and on the rest of the hooks I use small pieces(smaller than thumbnail) of cut bait, since then I have done very well.

Wast that yours that I caught in 32 FT of water last week, that was weighted down with a big ole rock?

Took me a long time to get it up. thought i was hooded into a dang log.

no--but be careful checking other peoples lines--might get hurt--some peolpe take thier trottlinin very serious

Wasn't checking a line I was trying to get my slab back that was caught up in the line wrapped around a 30 lb rock 32 feet down

hook behind the back bone so the bait can swim bc if not gar and tutrles will take your bait!!!!!

Imgonefishing...that is one cute video with the dog knocking down the kid...can I find it on Utube?

okay man im gonna give you the 101 on catfishin. the first thing you want to look for is structure, log jams graval bank and stuff like that. the second thing is the depth of water for trot lines you only want to fish about 10-15 depth of water. as far as the perch goes hook them right behind the head on the lateral line. and i mean a perch about hand size. them gold fish die nomal pretty quick for my experinace. and also make sure you way it down with good heavy weight! remeber that weight is what help set the hook. well man that bout is reply back and let me no now that works for you.

yeah pretty much what steven said