White Perch for crab bait?

[frankwyte4]

I caught a bunch of white perch over the weekend and got sick of cleaning it for cooking, so I gutted it and sliced it into pieces just the right size to slide under a bait spring,  going to try to use them for crab bait this weekend.   

Has anyone ever used this for crab bait?  I'm guessing it should do just fine.  I'm hoping they like it even more than the necks

[gkrangers]

If its dead and its meat they'll probably eat it.

[Seaweed]

I put perch and perch carcasses in crab pots where my dad keeps his boat all summer.  It works, but not as well as bunker or herring.  probably because perch is not as oily.

One thing is for sure, if you freeze it first, it catches better than if you just put it in fresh

[dumbfounded]

last week i was crabing off a pier.. i had chicken necks in my traps.. but when i went to pull my trap up i pull someone esle they placed theirs not far from mine and i didnt know... so i pulled it up and it had 2 crabs in it.. then i looked at the bait it was perch... so i threw the trap back in the water... and i noticed that in didnt have any hermit crabs... and my traps had hermit crabs.. even though it didnt have much crabs it didnt have any hermit crabs.. i guess hermit crabs dont like perch.. and if they dont thats a good thing because you dont have to worry about them wasteing you bait..

[frankwyte4]

One thing is for sure, if you freeze it first, it catches better than if you just put it in fresh

well they have been in the freezer since saturday so atleast I got that part,  why after they are frozen is better??

[Seaweed]

well they have been in the freezer since saturday so atleast I got that part,  why after they are frozen is better??

I do not know why, but trust me, frozen and thawed is better

[ChrisS]

....I do not use them for bait, but I routinely feed my crabs perch and they love em.......just do not use the heads....cut the heads of and discard.

[R D]

If you are going to use fresh fish for bait then you need to cut them or partly fillet one side to help get the scent out

[cw4340]

eat the perch and buy bunker

[frankwyte4]

....I do not use them for bait, but I routinely feed my crabs perch and they love em.......just do not use the heads....cut the heads of and discard.

I'm going to chop those heads,  I had left them on thinking its all the same to a crab,  but i'm taking your advice.

If you are going to use fresh fish for bait then you need to cut them or partly fillet one side to help get the scent out

I had to partly filet them to get them in good sizes to fit under the bait spring

Thanx for the good info as always,  I'll let you know how they do after saturday .

[ChrisS]

Frank,
Most crabs don't have the brain power to know whether or not the fish is dead, and see the head/eyes as danger....as well, there's not much soft tissue in the head as there would be on a nice fillet. Just my experience with them. When I sit on some crabs and have to feed them, I think perch, and especially Bluegills, give them a nice sweet taste. 

[gkrangers]

Yeah...there might be some truth to the crabs being scared by the heads.

I use cutup fluke racks and the body and tail sections seem to catch better.

I think the head off a 5 pound fluke is a little intimidating....

[tattoo]

interesting. 

[WBrian]

As far as the freezing thing, I think that freezing a fish causes its cells and flesh to break up some (the liquid inside the cells swells and ruptures the cell walls).  This "tenderizes" the fish, and helps it to release the scent into the water faster.

Later,
Brian
(BTW all that I wrote above is a guess!)