One of the best reports I have ever seen. Were is a good spot to catch these there giant suckers.
Thanks so much Shamu

I can't give away my spot but I can tell you what to look for.

I look for a gentle current along a rock or gravel bottom. Look for shoreline washout spots along the shore - these spots usually create a small gravel / rock point into the river creating kind of a natural wingdam. Go along the shoreline and watch your electronics for kind of a hump or point. I have several spots and they are in about 10' to 12' of water along the shore and the humps come up about 4 or 5 feet. The bait fish (sheepies, suckers, etc) seem to relate to these spots.

Here is a community hole which works pretty regular. You can expect company as it gets fished a lot. Right in downtown Stillwater in Lowell Park - just upstream from the Gazebo - the riverwalk has a hump on it. There are a couple of culverts that run into the river at that spot. Those culverts have created a gravel / rock washout into the St Croix. Use a hunk of nightcrawler on a plain hook and you will be on fish in no time.
There is another similar spot on the south end of the Riverwalk near the Dock Cafe. Both of these spots will produce rough fish that can be used for cut bait.

One other tip - I fish a simple rig - a plain hook baited with about 1/2 a nightcrawler with a split shot to get it down. These spots with the rocks and gravel create a lot of snags. If you get hung up a lot - switch to a small weedless hook. I pre-tie a bunch of short 18" leaders with weedless hooks and store them on a leader holder. The weedless hook will save you a lot of frustration if there are a lot of snags. I don't seem to have any trouble catching fish with the weedless hooks.

Well done, great info for new cat'rs skill building.

A Backwater Eddy tip of the day on Goldeye cuts.

Goldeye are an oil rich fish. And as such they exude oils when encouraged to do so. What do I mean by that?

Well borrowing from a old chefs trick is scaling fish as fresh as possible draws fish oils to the skins surface. For cooking purposes that is why you get that golden finish to a pan fried panfish for instance. But for kitty feeding purposes, it GREATLY enhances scent dispersal and appeal.

In short, scaling Goldeye fresh and than pre-cutting cuts adds to the Kitty appeal. Fresh freezing these pre-cuts in there own oily juices locks in the scent and insures top performance when amerced in warmer waters.

The dull back side of a fillet knife is all you need to smear off scales on a fresh Goldeye, they come off like butter when fresh and leave less mess.

Hope this helps, and adds to your baitfish prep skills.

Thanks for the scaling tip, Ed. I haven't scaled my suckers because it creates a bit of a mess but if scaling helps with the scent dispursal I am all for that. Like you said, the scales seem to come off pretty easy - they seem to fly all over. I'm going to leave some old newspapers in the boat - I'll scale them on the newspaper, that should aid in containing the mess.

Shamu, I used to catch them like that around watergate marina good area for em and use the same technique as Steve.

You've got to love getting great bait practically for free or totally free if you dig your own worms. Makes cat'n look smart when rapalas are selling for $7 each.

Thanks Steve for the great tutorial. I'm printing this off and bringing it with me on my next fishing trip.

Rookie question: I just read on another site where they say cut bait is generally better when the water is cooler (below 60 degrees) and should not be used as much in the summer when the water is warmer. It looks like it works fine for you guys when the water temp is above that. Is this something to think about and if so is there a time to shy away from cut bait in the summer.

Also if I'm thinking about heading out for a fishing trip next weekend and wanted to use this weekend to catch fish (for cut bait)... what would be the best way to keep it until next weekend?

Thanks!!

Slabs, cut bait works great all year round and is generally the best option for larger channels. Some times stink bait, or packaged morsels will outfish cutbait, but the fish will usually be smaller.

As far as keeping it, you can cut it up and then freeze, or just freeze whole and then cut up later. I've found that freezing doesn't affect the performance a whole lot, just don't keep it in the freezer forever. Heck if it's just a week and nobody else (wife) minds, just toss it in the fridge.

Gett'in ready to move over to cut bait



Just put this in my boat tonight!

you got that thing all pimped out don't you

Good choice in a board setup. It will greatly diminish the mess in the rig.

If ya don't already have one, the next kewl upgrade for that is a coiled wash hose system.

Ace, we have some bells and whistles on my craft .

Ed,

You hit the money dude. I had the pump in my hand for that yesterday . I might go back on Monday and pick it up. Just another bell and whistle . For now, it is light enough to pull out of the holder and rinse off in water. They ain't cheap, but better than using my live well cover as a cutting board and safer (cutting my self). It is made by Hentress Marine.

I hate to modifie a nice thing, but I am very close this morning to cutting a 2" hole right in the middle back by the back splash. So you can just fling unwanted parts right out the hole. The table angles and all the juices roll off the back and into the water. We will use it once before we start putting holes in it .

Thanks guys

Thats awesome, the more bell and you have the more time you have for fishing. Just like a floating fishhouse. You can never have to many creature comforts.