Catfish bait

[gouran01]

The post from AACH got me thinking, my go to bait for catfish is some shrimp mixed with chicken livers/blood and left out in the sun for the day, and ofcourse there is always the good ole night crawler and hot dogs. What does everyone else use? Anyone make their own stink baits/dough balls?

 

[200racing]

i like shad the best. i used to buy them from academy. i recently found a spot below a local dam where they stack up when they run water.best part is i dont need the boat to catch em.

rooster liver work well to.

i had several trot lines out one time, i alternated shad and livers on the hooks and could not pick a pattern or preference.

following a magazine article i coated hot dogs in oil and garlic salt let them sit. worked but not as good as the others.

i took hotdogs, shad, chicken livers and threw them in a blender(cheapo purchased for my mad max experiments ).
thickened with flour then worked in cotton to hold it on the hook.dont think i caught a thing on it.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Live bluegills and white perch

 

[Driftingrz]

I got tired of dealing with messy livers and changed to cutbait last year. Spend a few min with worm amd bobber and youll have plenty of bait for a day out fishin. Rod and reel or jugs. Freeze the left overs and use em later. Thae fast in water and still work great.. amd best of all dont have my bait nibbled off by baby cats eho refuse to touch the hook

 

[gouran01]

the cut bait is something I may needa give a lil more attention to, when I catch thos nasty lil rock bass, I'm always choppin em into 2-3 chunks and get a 2-5 pound cat in return.

 

[200racing]

i just remembered i tried chicken gizzards as well by far the toughest bait. theyre cheap to buy and stink like something fierce after being left in the sun awhile.

 

[Jdholmes]

Anyone use the trout bait stuff in the jars that you roll into a ball?

I have heard that works but haven't tried..l

 

[200racing]

Anyone use the trout bait stuff in the jars that you roll into a ball?

I have heard that works but haven't tried..l

it is dynamite for trout but way to spendy for mudcats to me. i havent had much luck with any store bought, doughs, balls or paste for cats.

 

[Jdholmes]

Good to know..
Guess I need to pick up some chicken parts.

 

[200racing]

Good to know..
Guess I need to pick up some chicken parts.

if you get chicken livers they need to say bait or not for human consumption on them. the ones in the grocery meat section have been cleaned and scrubbed. hardly any blood or scent and they cant stay on the hook.

 

[Jdholmes]

Wow...did not know that either.

We don't have catfish back home, so this is all new.

 

[200racing]

cleaning catfish is a unique thing might watch some videos on it to get a idea.

 

[morecoffee]

I have good luck with Squid or Shrimp.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Cleaning a catfish is easy with an electric fillet knife or a sharp fillet knife. I don't know anyone that bothers skinning them anymore. 5 seconds with a electric knife and the fish is done.

Catalpa worms are awesome catfish bait, if you're looking for eaters. Big flatheads, use live sunfish, bluegills or white perch. Big blues, cut shad, cut crappie, cut bluegill and cut sunfish.

 

[RickyRick]

Didnt know that store bought chicken liver was purified and most of my catfish have come off of store bought liver from Wally World. My biggest cat came from Secret7, but that was during the summertime when the scent can run in the warmer waters.

My other fishing buddy uses Chovies and has caught a few 6-11lb cats. Just depends on what you think will work, and seeing if it actually does.

 

[Jdholmes]

I have good luck with Squid or Shrimp.

I will try that, I now we are fishing the same Lake.

I just got on it the first time last week...we tried fishing a little with not even a hit...you seem to have no problems finding them though...I have to learn the area...

 

[parkerdog]

Alot of people around here use "shad guts" which is just cut up shad I believe.

Myself, for my lake because I feed them I cheat. I run some of the food pellets through the blender then mix with some salt, flour, little bit of garlic and make dough balls. I catch and release but I can only do it once a year. Once they are caught they get educated pretty quick and stay away!

 

[Nismoron]

My wife and I fish for cats ALOT. We have been expiramenting a great deal with bait recently. Here is what I found:
1 Live Minnows -- Good for Blues and Flatheads
2 Dead Minnows-- Poor for Blues
3 Live Bream -- GREAT for Flatheads... run out of bait quickly! Cant catch enough of the little buggers...
4 Dead Bream/cutbait -- Not a bite... at all...
5 Chicken Livers (food grade) good for blues and channel cats
6 Chicken Livers (food grade) sliced and mixed with garlic and generous amounts of cayenne pepper-- Cant keep the cats off of it. It is ridiculous. Wrap in small circle of pantyhose to keep baby cats from eating it all.
7 Hotdogs-- Not a bite (tried only once)
8 Squid -- Not a bite
9 Canned Clams -- Good for Flatheads

Thought of the clams idea after inspecting the stomachs of catfishg that we had caught. Almost all of them contained whole mussels...

 

[FFDOZIER]

Live eels are the go to bait around here these days

 

[chiefsizzle]

We use skipjack around here