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I actually hear folks uses Cat Food. What do i know 

since we're generally short soakers, i'd recommend squid, they milk faster than other baits.  sardines work fine, ive never tried herring personally.  maybe take a shot at throwing a net during herring season and see what comes up.

as for squid, i usually get it at asian markets.  cheaper than most places unless you can find a commercial sales spot.

I zip tie chicken legs to my hoop nets if I am all out of "seafood".  Seems to work well.

I grind fish carcasses as I always have extra.  That produces more oil that comes out faster on short soaks. 

Still willing to modify the bait bucket on tried and true methods.  We have used a lot of chicken in the past when we were butchering a lot of them. 

A few from yesterday.

american shad that are full of roe.

american shad that are full of roe.

Nooooooo ... shad roe deserves a better end (IN MY BELLY) than in a crab pot.

-Allen

The usual squid from Ranch 99 and anywhere value drumsticks seem to work pretty good at HMB. I average $10 in bait per trip and 3 hoop nets. Last week I found my first "ocean treasure" Scotty top vented container and am eager to try the cat food next time.

Squid and anchovies chopped up. Works the best for me. I move pots just about every hour.  Keeps the poachers away and hunts them down faster.

Make that salmon flavor cat food 😎

I zip tie chicken legs to my hoop nets if I am all out of "seafood".  Seems to work well.

What he said^...I used to make a frozen slurry to chum up the crabs but it was too much work not enough payout.

I freeze my crab bait (usually a mixture of mackerel, squid & bloody tuna chum) in red solo cups to help extend the release time in the bait cups. I just pop the block of bait out of the solo cop & load it into the bait cup . . . it works great. I grind the chum extra fine and I don't have to worry that it's going to disperse too quickly.

Go Blue.

My knowledge is solely based off pb's but hopefully helpful. My bait always is chosen by the amount of time the trap is going to sit in the water.
Squid last a long time in the jars. So if i plan on soaking for multiple days and leave the pots out. I fill the jars with half squid chopped up. I always put in sone type of oily fish like mackerel, sardines, jack smelt, or anything thats going to dissolve faster than the squid.
In addition to the bait jars, I always hang a big solid food source like fish carcasses of chicken if i dont have any fish. Without a solid food for them to eat, they'll start eating each other or try their hardest to escape if they're not occupied.
So short soaks get pure mackerel and long soaks get a squid combo.
I never move my pots within 24 hours. Crabs find your pots by following the sent trail from your bait as it moves down curent. If you move your gear, you end the sent trail and they have to start over again in their search for your pots.
Great infor in this thread. Thanx for the question!

Steve

I've tried different combinations that I think would work but nothing proven as far as I can tell. Popping open a can of cat food seems to be a good idea. I collect and freeze rockfish carcasses and tie them in my traps. Cut up squid and anchovy soaked in bacon grease is what I put in the bait jars. Sometimes I get nothing sometimes all of my traps have a dozen crabs in each after a 2 hour soak. If you find where the crabs are you can throw almost anything at them and you can have success. I believe that a greasy slick is good but still not sure what is best. I try to keep the cost down as much as I can.