Stripedo

Tired of cutting bait chunks with a knife. Someone mentioned it's much easier with a good set of shears. Any recommendations? Primarily for butterfish up north. Thanks in advance.

bluescholar

I switched to a cheap set of poultry shears for cutting up cigs and menhaden. You can go stainless or just rinse them and live with a little bit of rust.

https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Spring-Loaded-Poultry-Shears/dp/B000PGG7ZQ

Stripedo

thanks

Shaft

Two years ago I picked up a gadget called the chum cutter. Works awesome.
www.chumcutter.com

BTW I am completely unaffiliated with them...I only purchased it and recommend it.

I use it for boxes of sardines when chunking for tuna. Recommend you also get the 10" Dexter serrated knife...it'll cut through semi frozen bait without too much difficulty and stores inside the chumcutter.

GRSC

x2 - I love mine

marlinlane

have shears made by berkeley and they work well-cuda makes one that looks like it might be better

FISHUNTR

I use shears a ton for cutting up snapper baits and have tried a ton of different shears... I had resigned myself to buy el cheapos every year but happened across some by outdoor edge for about 20 bucks and picked them up to try them out. That was 2 years ago and they are still doing the job well. The arent perfect but pretty close...nice and sturdy they will rust after several trips, but its only a stain on the surface and a quick scrub with a SS brush and cleans them up. I rinse them well after every trip and let the dry....spray some penetrating oil on the hinge every so often and wipe them down. Just like a knife they need an occasional sharpening to keep them cutting but I can usually get by doing that once a season, definitely recommend.
That said if its just for chum and I needed to do quite a bit every trip the chum cutter and a serrated knife would be my choice for that app

CNBarron

I am in no way shape or form a supporter of cutco's marketing strategy, but their shears (though overpriced) are by a long shot the best I've ever cut up chunks with.

Fishoi

diad

the tackle room over in the commercial section has the blue handle poultry sheers for $3 each. Perfect for what you need.

Re-Bait

I buy the best Russell serrated blade and whack the butterfish/sardine flat when it first starts to thaw. Stand it up, hold with left hand, saw the flat with right. Taking off 2-3" rows per pass. Can do a flat in 5 minutes. I'd say that X faster then any other method!

If it's hasn't thawed enough you're doing too much work. If it's thawed too much it falls apart and this technique won't work. Oh and I wear a metal glove on left hand!!

cobraarvey

Dexter Russell heavy duty 14" cheese knife. Learned the trick at a Canyon Runner seminar years ago. You can cut up a flat of butterfish in about 3 minutes. Remove the flat from the freezer and let it thaw slightly (about 15-30 minutes depending on how rock solid your freezer keeps the butter fish). The flat should only partially thaw, (enough to get the knife through the bait). Place the butterfish on a dock or lay it on some heavy cardboard on the deck of the boat. Carefully pull back the plastic wrap on the top of the flat, leaving most of the plastic intact on the underside of the flat. Place the knife horizontally across the flat and slowly begin to rock the knife through the butterfish cutting in straight lines about 3-4" apart. Then repeat the process the opposite way to make nice neat chunks.

Pick up the cut pieces in the plastic wrap and pour into a 5 gallon bucket. We do this before we leave the dock, and then put the buckets immediately on ice in the fish boxes. We have also done it offshore, although it is much easier to do at the dock before you leave.

Provie63

As far as shears go.. I've been using these for several years to cut up crabs for blackfishing.. very powerful.. very durable ..

https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Edge-SC-100-Cutlery-Shears/dp/B000KOQ0ZK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523391351&sr=8-1&keywords=outdoor+edge+shears