Can you explain this please. I've never worked with cheese cloth, but I would assume you would cut a square and wrap the DK's up in this? How do you seal the ball? Am I way off base here? I am also having problems with reeling in my bait with nothing left on the hook. I believe it's small perch and cats...I want to try to keep them away..If I can't, I'm just wasting my time. Thanks for the info.

[This message has been edited by DUCKHUNTDAVE (edited 07-19-2002).]

Dave

There is ABSOLUTELY no reason you should have to use a cheese cloth with punch bait.

Without knowing what size hook you are using, what rigging etc.. My guess is you have an Ol' Whisker Kitty coming right up and sucking the bait right off your hook.

Is the bait thick enough or has the heat caused it to get soft?

The glory of punch bait is it is not a problem to keep on the hook, but you cannot expect it to stay firm and on the hook more than 20 minutes or so, in which if you have not gotten a bite, you need to move anyway.

Anyway, my guess is you are getting cleaned out without even knowing you are being cleaned, which is very common. There is a VERY good thread on the message board on www.whiskerkitty.com where some of the avid punch bait fishermen have "cleared the air" with hwo to fish this bait and recognize when you get a bite.

To save me an hour typing all the information again, go there and look at the thread titled "Bites?". After you read this you will likely see what many others have seen. The bite is OFTEN one that never even moves your rod...



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The Texas Catfishing Resource
www.whiskerkitty.com

Duck: I do not know what size hooks, hopefully treble, you are using but 1) try smaller and 2) try smaller with the wire wrapped around the center. Both will help you keep the bait on the hook. I you are fishing shallow, 2 to 5 feet you might want to use a cork. Out here in W. Tex we get good bite indication on corks with on problems.

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Thanks and Gig'em, Mark Fairchild

Thanks, I'll take a look at the website. I've been using #4 hooks, but the bait has been a little soft being stored in the garage. I'll have to seal it in a gallon ziploc bag and put it in the frig the night before I use it I guess. I was using the wired wrapped treble hooks as well. I think I'm being cleaned out by smaller fish, but if not, I do need a new technique. I was trying to figure out a way to keep the little ones from messing with my bait?

It does not have to be dink to clean you out without feeling it.

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The Texas Catfishing Resource
www.whiskerkitty.com

Using cheese cloth or stocking nylon is worth a try to help keep soft punch bait on the hook though. Back in Oregon the steelhead trout and salmon fishermen use one of them to keep eggs on the hook in swift current and the fish from sucking them right off the hook. They are quite spooky and didn't feel it on the hook or else the taste was worth biting anyway. Simply tie it shut with sewing thread or light test line.
David C.

I use cheese cloth some with DK. I'm a bank fisherman and sometimes have to make long casts. With the cheesecloth I can throw it as hard as I want and still have a 'pouch' full of DK 30 minutes later. I just kinda smoosh up the pouch to 'freshen' it and throw it back in. You can find the cheesecloth on aisle 7 at Albertson's.
Jay Gentry
Shotgunworld.com

I was going to walk away from this one, since we have covered this in great detail on the thread "Bites" that Chad mentions, but I just can't.

Guys, I been using punch bait for over 12 years now. I have never used cheese cloth, and I can bow that rod most times on the back swing to make a long cast without slinging punch bait off.

Two things when fishing it this time of year. You gotta keep it cool (but, not refrigerator cool or you will wind up with a block of punch bait so hard a chisel won't penetrate it. ) I have an ice chest dedicated to punch bait in the summer months. Just keep a couple of hands full of ice, or a couple of 20oz frozen drink bottles in the cooler with your punch bait. I keep extra containers of the bait and rotate them out of the ice cooler so I don't have to keep reaching in the cooler.

And, if you will use a punch stick large enough to allow you to roll that bait along the lip of your bucket squeezing any excess moisture out of it. I call it, "tightening up your bait."

I also never use spring trebles. Simply don't need them. I generaly use #6 trebles, because I find the #4 has a tendency to create this "sucking" environment. If the bite is aggressive, I go to #4 trebles because you have less swallowed hooks. Count on getting those #6's swallowed, and be sure to bring several (I buy them by the 50 pack minimum.) One fish cost one hook....I'll take that ratio all night long!

It's possible a dink could be sucking your hooks, but if you have good kitties in the area, you won't have dinks, or bream in that same area, cause they know they would be dinner if they hang around.

Dinks usually give indication because they will give you a lot of quick jerks and drops.

But, a big kitty (and I don't care what expert says differently) will go zero bouyant and suck a hook clean without moving a thing if you aren't paying attention.

Anyone who thinks they can simply bait up with punch bait then set that rod in a holder and wait for a bite is spinning their wheels. Sure this will work when the bite is agressive. But, I will guarantee that is only about 1 out of ever 4 fishing trips. The other three times the bite will be a tiny little sucking action that you sure better be feeling for. Or, I will be taking your kitties home for dinner while you're cussing punch bait!

And finally, Dave make sure you aren't fishing too deep. I don't know what that magic depth is. I can typically say it's something less than 15 foot deep. But, the dinks have a tendency to set just a few feet deeper than the bigger kitties. Again, I figure this is due to their desires not to become dinner.

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Mike
www.WhiskerKitty.com

Have to agree with MikeC same way I do it same style same everything. Fish long enough and it all boils down to tha basics.
Keep it simple