The last few summers I have been doing some drift fishing on lake Ray Roberts with store bought shrimp. I have done OK most trips but was wondering if it would be worth the effort to catch perch and either use them for cut bait or maybe fish the small ones alive. I mostly catch smallish channel cats with the shrimp. What do the experts think?

Perch But shad is the best. I'm no expert just my 2 cents. Oh and some crazies on this forum like to use gummy worms. They say sour works best.

I'm with T-MAC (other than the gummy worms ), Get a cast net and catch some shad, it really isn't that hard to learn to use. Bream will work, both small live and cut, but I still find shad to work better.

charteuse and red sour gummi worms,shad,cut bait,shad,any natural forage,shad,you might check out the fresh shrimp instead of the bait shrimp,it is cheaper alot of times.

I do use the store bought shrimp and try to catch them on sale. They are definitely cheaper than the frozen stuff at the bait stores and are much better. In addition to throwing the cast net, I don't have a clue WHERE to throw it!

Try around ramps and docks, if not there, use your fishfinder and locate them in coves. It shouldn't be to hard now that it is warming up.

Thanks to all. The shad message has soaked in and I will learn to throw a cast net, but take some perch and possibly some gummy worms as a backup! Thanks again.

Don't use the store bought shrimp. Catch your own.

Try gummy shrimp or gummy shad, chartreuse or dead red color!!
Fresh shad is very difficult to beat!

I wouldnt use store bought gummies but try to catch your own.

i use perch ALL the time, and never get any bites... use is live (small) and cut. not even a nibble.

THEN WHY DO YOU USE IT ALL THE TIME???

Shrimp will work just fine for channel cats while drift fishing. Add a little Dead Red Blood Spray too. Get the fresher shrimp from the seafood case. The boxed TV Bait Shrimp is often pretty old and has the heads on as well. No sense paying for the heads if you just peel them off anyway. You won't catch as many blues on shrimp as you will with fresh shad though.

I have never had a bite on cut/live shad! I fish GV from the bank most the time.

Just to be the voice of dissention, I have caught many big blues on cut perch. There are certain times that fresh cut perch will out perform fresh shad, as will other baits like carp and buffalo. I will agree that shad is the most consistent bait, but do not rule the others out because they work as good or better than shad at times. There was a period of a month or so this winter that all of us in the fishoff got our hind ends kicked by a guy that 90% of his big fish were coming on cut gaspergoo.

To answer the original question, I would prefer perch to shrimp most of the time.