CUT FOR FLATS

[bigcatpat]

I used to be live bait only for flats.Over the last couple years,i,ve switched to about 50/50 live cut ratio.I,ve had a lot of nights where they,ll ignore the live completely in favor of the cut.How much cut,s everyone else using for flats.My favorite cut bait is gills,pumbkinseeds and greenies that I pick up off the beds in spring.I freeze em up.Sime days they only want the ones that are full of eggs,seems to make a huge difference.Catfish caviar?I like the head and 1/2 the body of whatever i,m using.

[ducky]

When i fish the river i will use cut, but the only cutbait i will use is if i kill the bait at the location i fish, i want it to be as fresh as possible, when the river is muddy i have always caught more flats on cut than live, vise versa if the river is clear, as for the lakes, cut shad works great from april to mid may, i will only use shad i kill while im fishing no frozen stuff, Not sure on exact #s of flats we caught last year on cut shad but around 5 or so for sure, i will have to look at my logs.

[Smoothkip]

2 years ago i had great luck on cut shad and all my bigger fish came on cut. Last year the Turtles were so bad on the Muskingum that you couldnt keep a bait on very long! I didnt catch one Flat on cut in 2010.

[bigcatpat]

We don't have much of a turtle problem here.Big gar problem though,they seem to stay away from the cut.

[Seanstone]

I have been doing some overwinter reading and the consensus amoung the so called experts is to use cut bait in the during the cold water periods in spring and fall for flatheads. They then switch to live baits during pre spawn and throughout the remainder of the summer. I like duckys explanation of flatheads and how they use smell more in muddy water, never really though to use cut bait when the waters stained. I will have to give that a shot.

[loanwizard]

I love cut bait. I have had more luck using fresh bloody carp and sucker than anything else except perhaps bluegill or shad which is always with me. If I can kill a carp and use a slab of him, that's my go to bait!

[catfishhunter]

Cut bait is always better in muddy water, rather for channels or flatheads. But 99% of the time I use live bait for flatheads.

[gryan1966]

I was shown by my biggest that cut is the way to go

[Ramrod]

I'm a big fan of cut bait as well. I like using chunked skipjack in the river and cut shad in the lakes. Have also had great luck with bluegill fillets as well. So I'd agree that I'm at about a 50/50 too.

[papaw714]

I tried cut bait several times last year on the Muskingum (shad and gills) not one flathead, turtles and channels always seem to get there first. Any suggestions?

[ducky]

Mar 2, 2011 11:14:01 GMT -5 papaw714 said:

I tried cut bait several times last year on the Muskingum (shad and gills) not one flathead, turtles and channels always seem to get there first. Any suggestions?

I no its hard to get away from channels but mybe try to look for areas that have less and make sure you use cutbait that you kill on the day you fish, I like to put a different piece on every 20 mins to keep good fresh cutbait out there.

[papaw714]

Thanks Ducky I'll try to get away from the channels and turtles but that is tuff to do on the Muskingum.