Fish or Cut Bait
Meaning
Focus on what you are doing or stop doing it altogether.
Example
You’ve been sliding along getting Fs in school for 2 years. It’s time to fish or cut bait.
Origin
The phrase can be confusing if one thinks of bait that requires cutting up. In fact, fisherman often use cut up pieces of fish as bait. Fisherman also use live bait. Cutting bait in this case means to cut loose your bait allowing it to swim free. If you are done fishing, you let the bait go free. Fish or cut bait is a phrase that one fisherman might say to another who is spending too much time talking and not enough time fishing.
