Home Made Cut Bait

[Big Water]

Has anyone tried to take smelt that you buy at the food stores around holidays and brine it yourself? That would be appreciably cheaper than the Familiar Bite and Erie Dearie stuff if it works. I think I saw where A-TOM-MIK carries brine.

[momay4000]

Big Water,

NYS DEC Regulations require cutbait to be "Certified" free of VHS and other diseases. It would be illegal to use smelts from your local fishmonger which cannot be verified as free of disease.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/47282.html

Good luck on the water,

- Chris

[Big Water]

Big Water,

NYS DEC Regulations require cutbait to be "Certified" free of VHS and other diseases. It would be illegal to use smelts from your local fishmonger which cannot be verified as free of disease.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/47282.html

Good luck on the water,

- Chris

Thanks for that info Chris. I guess my next question is; where can I get trays of Green Label Herring? I think these are VHS tested. I haven't been able to find an online supplier that didn't have astronomical shipping costs.

Doug

[Captain Carl Bish]

Big Water,

Why don't you just go out into the lake and catch a bunch of bait?

Depending on where you live you may even be able to take them home and freeze them. You certainly could freeze them and leave them at most marinas, campgrounds/motels along the lake.

[Mortigan]

Green label, free shipping: http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/W ... p_458.html

[fast and silver]

If you read the section of use of dead bait it states you can use any bait that is dead in any water that allows the use of bait as long as it is preserved in any other means than freezing, the bait does not need to be certified, if you are going to use a brine to preserve your bait than it should be ok, we salt ours and it says that's ok also, we also tried shinners this year on are sushi flies and worked awesome, we fillet them and cut them to size and the kings loved them, good luck

[ Post made via Android ]

[chinook35]

Fast and Silver is 100% right . I have a letter from the DEC stating that home made cut bait is perfectly legal as long as it is prepared by means other than just freezing . That means brining is an accepted way to prepare cut bait . So use smelt ( I have had some luck using fresh sardine fillets that I brine ) . Have long wanted to try smelt . Really wish Rhys Davis would get back into the cut bait business . Had very good results with Erie Dearie , but it is pricey.

[orangediablo]

I wish I fished enough to go through 20 trays. Anyone wanna split an order 2 or 3 ways of blue label next year?? (Maybe Big Water)??

[Big Water]

I wish I fished enough to go through 20 trays. Anyone wanna split an order 2 or 3 ways of blue label next year?? (Maybe Big Water)??

After reading the post about allowing treated bait, I'm going to try some smelt out at Seneca, Cayuga and Raystown this fall. At $5/lb, thats cheaper than Blue Label. If it doesn't work, I'll go halves with you on the Herring. PM me next April.

[FISHIN AGAIN?]

I bought a pack of 12 Green Label Herring last week, filleted em and brined em. I had 24 baits for 8 bucks. They seemed to work just fine.