Fish Parts for Bait

Once upon a time, I was ice fishing for perch. I was using small lures tipped with pieces of minnows. Tons of perch were showing up on the sonars. The problem however was that the perch were ravenous. It was quite difficult to bait the hooks while fish were showing up on the screens. Not only that but as soon as a perch nibbled a little, the bait would often come off. The fish were much more likely to eat when the bait had meat on it so having no bait was not an option. There was one solution to all these issues however.

If you’re keeping fish, the use of fish parts can be very useful in certain scenarios for a variety of reasons. In this article, I’ll discuss the usage of fish parts as a way that will not only save some bait costs but also increase your fishing success. We will go over which fish parts can be used and the situations where fish parts are effective.

Before using fish parts, check with your local regulations. In Manitoba for example, the remains of cleaned fish can be used at bait. Some jurisdictions may prohibit the use of fish parts as bait. Some specific bodies of water may prevent the use of non-artificial bait altogether.

Why Fish Parts?

Typically the most common parts used for bait are typically chosen for their durability. They are often very tough and do not come off the hook very easily. That means that short striking fish like perch cannot easily steal your bait unlike a worm or a minnow. Often when using fish parts, when I get a nibble, I feel confident that the bait is still attached. Had I been using normal bait, I would reel up immediately as I would have to check if the bait was still on. A hook out of the water is an unproductive hook.

Due to the durability, fish parts allow you to conserve your bait reserves. If you run out of bait or you find your bait to be spoiled, fish parts might save your day. Fish parts have natural scent which is a very good reason to use them. There are many situations where using fish parts are some of the most effective ways of catching your target species.

Now onto the different types of fish parts and the situations where they can be used.

Gullets

One of the most common parts used are the gullet. Typically walleye is used but I have also used perch and even pike with great success. Back when I used to guide, I would cut out the gullets of the shore lunch walleye for the clients to use. Using a sharp knife and a pair of pliers, it can be cut out very easily.

Gullets are probably the most durable bait that you can use. It is literally like using soft plastics but with natural scent. Once on an ice fishing outing for perch, I was able to use a single gullet of a perch for the entire day. It would never come off no matter how many fish were caught or how hard I would jig.

I typically use gullets as a way to improve the scent of lures. When jigging for walleye and lake trout, I have used walleye gullets to great success. When casting for pike, I put a gullet on a spinner or spoon. Pike gullets also work in this situation as pike are cannibalistic in nature. Though pike are kept less frequently than walleye so the use of pike gullets is not as common.

When ice fishing I typically add gullets to jigging spoons. The walleyes on Lake Winnipeg loved them though I rarely see other people do this.

Perch also love tipped spoons which is especially helpful when they nibble lightly. I found nearly no difference in the catch rate between using gullets and minnow heads. A perch can nibble multiple times before actually getting hooked so it’s good to have a bait that doesn’t come off easily.

Fish Eyes

Like a scene out of the Shakespearean play King Lear, this will involve some eye gouging (though make sure the fish is dead first). Like gullets, eyes have scent and durability though I find them to be less durable than gullets. If there is hot action during the day, you will need to cut a couple eyes out throughout the day.

Typically I use the eyes of perch when I’m perch fishing. The main advantage I find is that they fit perfectly well on a small tungsten jig. When I need an extremely finesse presentation, I find eyes to be preferable to gullets. Though I will admit, I’ve only started using eyes as bait recently. I’ve yet to explore their full potential.

Belly Strips

When filleting a fish, the belly strip of the fillet is also an excellent piece of bait. I have cut them out when cleaning walleyes for a shore lunch. Usually they are harder to obtain as it would require filleting a fish, so they are not used as often. Like gullets, they are durable and have scent, making them effective for tipping walleye jigs. Pike belly strips also work when tipping casting spoons.

However, the most common application of belly strips in my experience is when fishing for lake trout. In April, sucker netting is a common activity where you can take home dozens of suckers in a day to eat. Some also use the suckers for chumming or cut bait for catfish. When I filleted the suckers I would cut the belly strip from each sucker fillet until I had a couple dozen strips. The belly of a whitefish or cisco could work as well. I would then store this bag of belly strips in my freezer for a future lake trout outing.

Using these belly strips of sucker, I would tip my lake trout lures with them. Lake trout love the scent of oily fish like suckers, ciscoes and whitefish, so sucker belly strips are ideal. Belly strips last a long time when being aggressively jigged in deep water. All my biggest lake trout have come off jigging lures tipped with belly strips. You can use frozen minnows but they are fragile and when you are fishing in deep water, reeling up and down is very time consuming.

Final Words

The use of fish parts may feel barbaric but consider incorporating this technique if you haven’t done so yourself. It’s not something I do all the time but in certain situations it might be the best technique to use. There’s probably applications of fish parts that I am not even aware of. Let us know in the comments if you’ve used fish parts that were not discussed in this article.