A study comparing pressed cottonseed cake with fresh cut fish as baits for catfish baskets was conducted at High Rock Reservoir in Piedmont North Carolina. The average weight of catfish taken in cut-fish baited baskets was 0.29 lb. while those taken in cake-baited baskets averaged only 0.14 lb. Catch per basket-day in cut-fish baited baskets was: catfish, 1.170 lb.; carp, 0.009 lb. ; crappie, 0.025 lb.; sunfish, 0.001 lb.; and miscellaneous fishes, 0.003 lb. Comparable data from cottonseed cake-baited baskets were: catfish, 1.135 lb.; carp, 00405 lb.; crappie, 0.080 lb.; sunfish, 0.002 lb.; and miscellaneous fishes, 0.002 lb. The total weights of catfish caught by the two baits differed by only 3 percent. Cake-baited baskets caught carp while fish-baited baskets caught very few. Cake-baited baskets also caught more crappie and sunfish than fish-baited baskets.
