Catfish bait....

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Scott Shenton

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Ok, I grew up catching catfish in the potomac. I know that chicken livers are by far the most effective bait in the world, but let's face it, they are NASTY!!!! Perhaps I have become anal in my old age, but I am done with those, stinky, slimey, "fall off the hook all day", things.....



Does anybody make a nice neat, packaged bait that actual works? I have tried dip bait (the stuff Grigsby endorses) and it washes of the hooks in 5 minutes in the potomac, and power bait in blood flavor (it may be a good fish repelant). I would love any suggestions of something, neat, simple, and most of all effective.



Thanks as always...



Wookiee
 
The best catfish bait I have ever used is Sonny's stink bait. Comes in a jar and you use a catfish worm with it. The trick with this worm is when you re bait it you have to completely dry the worm. The bait will not stick unless you completely dry it. Then it will hang on like peanut butter. It seems to be kind of like a lard based product it slowly dissolves in the water and leaves an oil like slik. I used this just this past week down at reelfoot lake in Tenn and caught 5 cats from 1 to 7lbs in 2 hours. What i like is you can cast this stuff a long distance and it sticks on the worm. The only problem I have found is i put a egg slip sinker ahead of the worm so there is no pressure when the fish picks up the worm. So as he starts to swim away with it they almost 85% of the time swallow the hook. So i just slide the worm up the line tie on a new hook and get the old one back later.



ps... when you first tie on the hook i tie to the leader that come with the worm pull the tied knot all the way through the worm , then clip the line and tie directly to the hook withy my line. That way my line is direct to the hook and makes a cleaner presentation .



 
Real catfish dough baits are secret family recipes that sometimes go back generations. Anise, rotten cheese, and my x-brother-in-law's secret ingrediant Kool-Aid, are some examples.



TOXIC
 
When I was in 9th grade I got into a stinkbait fight with a neighbor/friend. We got each other down and rubbed some God-awful stuff called Catfish Charlie into each others hair and all over our faces and everywhere else. My mother had to hose me off before she would let me come into the house to shower.

Ahhhhhhh Good times.



Harpo
 
Raw bacon. Even better if left in the sun for awhile.
 
Okay, I'm about to show my expertise/ignorance. When I was growing up, NOTHING would beat chicken liver. Chicken hearts were my favorite because they're a little tougher. However, that was in a pond. For some reason, I've not found chicken liver to be nearly as effective in lakes. I don't know why, but I also changed states in the process.



The best bait I've found is shad (assuming they're the local forage base). If the shad are dead (keeping them alive is VERY hard anyway), most of the other fish will leave them be. If you use live shad, everything under the sun will try to eat 'em, especially sandbass.



Gamefish also like to eat the gut of a shad if it's only going to eat part of it. So... how do you rig them?



Take a 3/0 or 4/0 hook (I use my bassing hooks), put the point in through one eye and "worm" the shad onto the hook so the point comes out near the tail. Squeeze the shad a little to get the gunk flowing. I use a carolina rig for the rigging. Weight, swivel, leader, hook. Always use the lightest weight you can get away with.



Oh, on keeping the shad... catch them, put them in a zip lock bag and put them on ice. Keeping them in the bag keeps the melting ice from washing them out.
 
Bluegills...

BIG Bluegills...

Remember that catfish are preditors...

Caught my biggest ever cat 2 years ago on a whole, live bluegill...my buddy was teaching me this tactic...you have to catch the bluegills first from the body of water you're fishing from. Leave them whole (these were 6" gills) EXCEPT that you clip off the dorsal fin spines and about 90% of the tail...hook 'em in the top of the back and cast 'em out...

got an 18lb flathead doing this in the river here...



az
 
Thanks so much for the input everyone. Not to be a annoying hippy, but in light of the recent "snakehead" ordeal, I have to mention that using live goldfish is not only enviromentaly irresponsible, but HIGHLY illeagal. Please understand that I don't intend to preach, but as outdoorsman, we all are concerned with the well being of the enviroment. I am sure you understand.



Thanks for the advice everyone!
 
Andy -



My preferred bait is bluegills - about 3" long. But you gotta have a place to trap/net them; I don't anymore so I buy goldfish.



me!
 
Scott - you live in G'burg?? I'm near 370 and SG road.



David......
 
Yes, I live off of Muddy Branch Rd. Then you know about all of the HUGE comet goldfish at great falls, and in Issak Walton Pond......
 
Who says goldfish are illegal? I'm curious because they are sold as bait down here.
 
It may be a state thing. In Maryland it is illegal to my knowledge. Remeber, that they are selectively bred strains of carp. They are highly adaptible and their diet is extremely diverse. It only takes a small breeding population to completly destroy the lower levels of the food chain. (algae, diatoms, copiapods, etc...)(without which, you can say goodbye to trout, bluegill, sunfish, crappie, shad, etc). I would think by this day and age, we would have learned not to introduce non-native species into an enviroment. Haven't we leared from the snakeheads, hydrilla, zeabra mussel, ferrel pigs in Hawaii, Crown of thorn starfish, snakes in Guam, Austrailan dingos, etc, etc, etc.....



I know goldfish may catch catfish, but thats a risk I am not willing to take. Now "RUBBER" goldfish..... ;-)
 
Has anyone had any luck with the prepared baits - like Berkley's - that are in hunks that you push onto a trebble hook?



I keep trying them because they are so convenient to just keep in the car but have had almost no success.
 
Okay, by no means am I turning environmentalist on you guys... but if you're going to outlaw goldfish because they're non-native, why not ban the sale of raw chicken liver for bait? After all, you're putting possibly contaminated blood into the water supply.



(Somewhere there's a democrat writing this down as his campaign promise I bet).
 
Chickens are unionizing and demanding the use of synthetic livers as bait.
 
First time I was down in New Orleans, I had to try eating crayfish. To me, they tasted just about the same as shrimp.



The next time I went trout fishing in a stream where they allowed non-artificial baits, I brought along some little, frozen cocktail shrimp. The trout devoured them just as if they were smal crayfish!
 
Snow, I assume that you are kidding and know better than that..... I am not an ornathologist, but avian blood carries a completely different set of chemical properties, than river water. Not much risk there......



PS: I know you were being sarcastic ;-)



By the way, this is meant in good ol' fun.....
 
Wookie, he's not being sarcastic.....that's really him talking.





Harpo
 
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