This is weird but one day I was fishing a stream (open water) for trout and not doing very well. I was using small minnows and was only catching fallfish ( It was a low gradient stream, primarily a put-and-take water). When I was almost out of minnows I decided to cut up a fallfish for bait. I filleted it and cut it into strips and ended up catching a limit of trout. Ever since I've been doing the same. I've never known anyone else who uses them - most people I know can't even identify them.