I have never before experienced this before

Wrap them with pantyhose so they don't come of the hook. No reason why you shouldn't be catching something with livers. Hope this helps. Good luck next time.

Use circle hooks as well...my hookups have increased dramatically

That could me you are getting pecked to death by very small fish. I was fishing at the Stennis dam during the spring using chicken livers and kept loosing bait to fish. I finally snagged one of them and found it was a channel cat about 5 inches long. There must have been a whole bunch of them chowing down on my bait.

Some places require specific bait. We jug one particular place quite a bit...sometimes we do decent sometimes we get shut out or catch 1 or 2. This past week we used a different bait and wore em out for 2 nites.

I have never had much luck with liver staying on the hook and the panty hose thing while it works, was not worth it for me. I usually do very well using shrimp, they stay on the hook good and if you don't use them all you still have something to eat. I bet if you give it a try you will be more successful.

I have tried liver and had about the same luck. Everything in the water I think knocks liver off the hooks. I use shad when I can find them. I use circle hooks and have had much better luck too.

Liver and moving water doesn't work for me. Shrimp, shad or pond perch work good. Skipjack is the best but can't always get it.

Thanks guys for the input. I think i'm going to try some shrimp from Walmart. Although I gotta defend my livers. They have caught many fish for me over the years. I use the "rooster" livers. Not the plain old chicken livers. Rooster livers are a lot tougher and stay on the hook a lot better. I wouldn't give you a dime for all the plain old chicken livers I could fill my truck with.
I've never experienced this before though. Usually I catch something if only by accident. Keep suggestions coming though.
Thanks again.

randywallace said:

Liver and moving water doesn't work for me. Shrimp, shad or pond perch work good. Skipjack is the best but can't always get it.

Click to expand...

FYI. Pond perch (green sunfish)are illegal to use as bait....

cmyers3 said:

FYI. Pond perch (green sunfish)are illegal to use as bait....

Click to expand...

Lots of us goin to jail then...

As long as they're caught on a hook they're legal bait

True. As long as they are caught on a hook..... Oh sure. I've never known anyone to use anything other than a trap or cast net to catch pond perch as a kid. Guess you better have a brim pole with you when the warden asks for it or you can't prove how you caught them. Most states do not allow any game fish to be used for bait unless caught in the same body of water and used as bait in same body of water. Is this true in MS? I know it's frowned upon to transport fish from one body of water to another but is it illegal?

cmyers3 said:

FYI. Pond perch (green sunfish)are illegal to use as bait....

Click to expand...

How so? [confused]

cmyers3 said:

FYI. Pond perch (green sunfish)are illegal to use as bait....

Click to expand...

I thought they were legal provided they were caught rather than netted and you don't have over the daily limit. Has something changed?

That's how we catch 'em...small hook and a small piece of worm on the end. If you got a cattle pond full of em then it doesn't take much time at all before you have all you need. I have never been checked but have heard of wardens checking the mouth of the fish to see if it was caught on a hook.

Reckon if it wasn't legal the only way to catch a big flat would be a goldfish...

Isn't there a private pond exception to the trapping of green sunfish? Those fish don't belong to the state.