Don't Forget Your Cut Bait

CUT BAIT........Dodgers & flies are hot, but don't forget your cut bait!!
By: Capt. Tom Burke

If you spent any time fishing Lake Ontario in the last few years, you are probably aware that dodger/fly and various attractor/fly combos have been a very popular and effective fishing tool. Although these combos are not new by any means, they have gained a lot of popularity, thanks in part to the new high-tech materials used in the flies. Even though I have found these new flies to be extremely effective and use them often, we do not use them exclusively.
Fish, like many other creatures, are moody, and bigger fish many times are looking for easier targets than smaller, more aggressive fish. So if you don't listen to that old statement, "don't put all your eggs in one basket" you could be in for a few tough days on the water. The rest of this article will look at one method that should always be kept in your "basket" and might save a couple of tough days on the water. That method is: cut bait.
Cut bait was a popular method for catching salmon, both sportfishing and commercially, on the west coast, and was introduced on the Great Lakes in the late eighties. The eastern end of Lake Ontario was one of the spots where cut bait fishing really caught on. Famous for having large concentrations of staging adult kings, anglers were always looking for new methods to try when these fish would get "lock jaw." Cut bait, and the rigs used to fish it, were designed for just that purpose.
Cut bait is a herring fillet placed into a bait head, which both protects and allows you to impart action and color to the bait. Although it can be fished alone behind the downrigger ball, it usually works much better on a 31/2-to-6-foot leader behind a variety of attractors. One of my favorites has always been the Kingston salmon slasher. This slasher was designed to look and act like a juvenile salmon feeding and slashing through a school of bait. With the cut bait rolling at about a turn a second behind the slasher, it imitates a wounded baitfish that is too easy a meal for most larger fish to pass up! Gold/silver (goldenboy) and black/silver/glow (skunk) with either a clear/with red Mylar, glow or green glow head on the bait are a few of my favorites. Hot Spot, Luhr Jensen and Shooter attractors, in green, white and chartreuse also work very well, along with the new E-Chip flashers by Pro-Troll. The medium size Bechhold attractor (green, chartreuse and purple) run off your dipsey divers will also produce well. Make sure before attaching the cut bait to the attractor to hold it in the water and adjust the action. Each strip of bait is a little different and may require an adjustment to the bend of the bait head. Getting the proper slow to medium roll of the bait will pay big dividends!
If the fish are on a feeding frenzy, get out those dodger & flies and speed up. However if the fish are a little full and finicky or the weather has the water mixed up and the fish uneasy, get out the cut bait rigs and slow down a little bit; the action might just heat up!

This monster 39-lb. chinook was caught by Norm Lengel of Orwigsburg, PA. It was staging in a 100' of water off the mouth of the Oswego River, and fell prey to a salmon slasher with a green/glow cut bait head.

Cut bait Tips
Cut bait should revolve at 1 to 2 turns per second. The correct type of action is best described as a "roll" as opposed to a spin. The best action is a roll with a wobble or slight hesitation in it. You can make adjustments to the bait rig:

If the action is too slow:
1) Speed up the boat
2) Move the hook forward, but stay within a ¼ inch of the tail of the bait.
3) Bend the last ¼ inch of the bait head away from the bait

If the action is too fast or spinning:
1) Slow the boat down
2) Move the hook back, even with the tail of the bait
3) Flatten out the bait head so there is no bend at all.
Capt. Tom Burke is the owner/operator of Cold Steel Sportfishing. Tom has been pursuing trout and salmon professionally for 16 years on Lake Ontario and its tributaries and the rivers of western Alaska. Tom can be reached at 315-298-2500, or email: tom@coldsteelsportfishing.com