Posted: 7/6/2010 4:48:41 AM EDT
| Anybody out there got some good tips on what works for you. I have used crawlers, small piece of chicken, small piece of liver, stink bait and minnows but am looking for something that really works good. Any tips? |
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Anybody out there got some good tips on what works for you. I have used crawlers, small piece of chicken, small piece of liver, stink bait and minnows but am looking for something that really works good. Any tips? My kid's use live grasshoppers. They catch whole bunch from the Garden and go down to the pond. Works better than stinking baits. |
| i hostly use steak... don't buy the good stuff obviously, but find the stuff that's been out a while, around here has a supermarket called Giant. They do different discounts and whatever stuff is discounted that day I pick up for typically less than $2. Lasts a good while too. It's a blood bait (obviously) and stays on the hook much longer than livers. Give it a shot. |
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Cut bait. To hell with all the other stuff. I've tried it all, and cut bait is all that I ever use. When I hit the river and don't have time to catch bait, I'll swing by the bait shop and buy creek chubs in the 6" to 12" range. I suppose if the area you are fishing is very turbid, then some form of stink bait might be called for. ETA: Any pan fish works well as cut bait. For some reason the cut off head of a bluegill gets them going. If you catch really small bluegill just put them on alive. I primarily use circle hooks, but other swear by kahle hooks. |
Danny Kings Punch Bait will do the trick on ol' Mr. Whiskers! 
Punch Bait All of our local sporting goods and tackle shops carry it. BigDozer66 |
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Wait a minute... What kind of catfish? What type of water? What depth? Water temp?
Not all catfish feed the same. I like to catch channel cats in the summer using a cheese and pork brain dip bait. I put a piece of 'hat sponge' on a treble and dip the sponge/hook in the cheese/brain bait. I float it between 2 and 6 feet under a pencil cork. This is normally around rocks, rip-rap and submerged concrete of boat ramps. Mostly where there is alot of shad. I have been using a punch bait this summer that is a combination of cheese and blood, mixed with cattail or natural fiber. Same depth, same fishing method. If they stop biting on that, I switch to a pure blood/clot bait that I also suspend and fish near shad feeding areas. If I wanted blues, I would use live shad or small perch and fish them deeper and without a cork. If I wanted mudcat, I would use a prepared bloodbait (doughbait) and fish on the bottom with a tightline. i don't like chicken liver or worms. Chicken livers fall apart and 50% or more of the 'bait' is water, juices, or 'pieces' that will not stay on a hook. Worms are too attractive to perch and the perch do not touch the cheese/blood/dip baits, so when the cork goes under I know it is 99% a channel cat. 1 in 100 might be a blue. but, I never catch muds with the baits I use or the methods. Different cats use different water and depths. hope this helps. TRG |
Here in Texas leaving the chicken liver out for an hour during the summer is plenty... 
Also one thing I find pretty easy are cheese balls. Take two large bags of cotton balls and pull everything apart think fluff and 2 blocks of velveta cheese. Melt the cheese and add to the shredded cotton balls then stir. Once mixed form small marble sized balls and put them in the fridge to cool and harden. Once I have a large batch made I freeze all but what I will use that day. Whenever I go I can just scoop a cup out of the bowl in the freezer and am set for the day. Also you can add any kinda stank you want while its melted. Just something the Grandparent's have always used. |
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http://image.sportsmansguide.com/image/content/article/a05010.jpg Change out the hook for a circle hook and that's my big cat rig. yep  I've caught some nice flatheads on the ohio river with bluegill. Chubs and big Shinners too.
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My Dad and I use chicken lives. We wrap them in panty hose and freeze them. yea. I know guy's who salt cure livers and hearts from turkey and chickens, they add a few other things they won't talk about but they catch nice channels up my way. I've alays done better on flatheads with live bait. Bigger the bait usually scores bigger flatheads for us. |
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Quoted: fresh squid from the supermarket...... cut into chunks, and its tougher then mails. we usually catch 4-5 cats on 1 peice.. We used a whole squid last summer to catch this nice little kat! http://www.united-paylakers.com/file/SpringwaterMark/RB3815.jpg colt! Hell I doubt if any of my local stores carry squid? I rarely fish for cats as I really don''t know wth I am doing but I bought some wally world shrimp because a few guys that target cats say they have success on Tappan and Atwood using shrimp I seem to catch my best channel cats when I am trolling for muskie, the channels I do catch are around 10-12 lbs and don't even "rip" the drag but the pole usually jerks and bounces to beat hell |
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Quoted: I've tried bout everything, and the best is Waterdogs. They are a pain in the ass to get though, so my second choice is garlic hot dogs in pantyhose. ETA: holy crap.... i just replied to a 1.5 year old thread!!!!! A big plus is using a bait that stays on the hook, well when we butcher deer we throw all the junk meat and pieces of hide in a 10 gallon bucket, then I let it all sit in the garage for a few weeks or so I take this "Bucket O'shit" and dump it out in my back yard by the woods to bait crows in then shoot them with the 17 HMR or the 10/22 right out of the sliding door or window Well I watched the crows today ripping the pile apart and having a hell of a time ripping big chunks of meat off of the small pieces of hide so I thought maybe this stuff would make a good cat bait? I muskie fish 98% of the time but I do try to fish for cats and panfish a few times a year, the wife always whined that she wanted to pan fish but after catching her first muskie she has changed her tune  |
| Liver-beef liver, frozen and cut into cubes and salted. Thawed on day of use. It stays on the hook better than chicken liver. Heard of salted/sundried chicken livers but haven't tried it. Bait shops sell 1# bags of shad caught at dam, frozen. They work good too. BAck in late 70s to mid 80s we got 5 Gal buckets of Asiatic Clams (Mussels) along the shallow river bottom and caught the fire out of anything biting on the bottom, catfish, carp, buffalo,eel. Heat wave in 85 killed'em by the millions here in Al. Flatheads bite live bait best, small bream and big shiners. Any grown shiners we catch bream fishing or jig casting below the dam were use as cut bait. Lately favorite method is "Noodle Fishing". Take a swimming pool noodle and cut it in 5 pieces, tie on amount of line you want (I use 10'-30') depending on place, add a 1 oz. sinker and circle hook and roll the line on the "Noodle". On fishing day, bait the hooks just before deloyment and go down the river/lake tossing them out. We put out 50/60 at once. It is big fun for the kids chasing the upended noodles with a fish on. |
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Chicken livers are great, but get cleaned off by small fish and fall off easily
shrimp that have been left in a ziplock baggie in the beating sun for a day work great, but are worth more than catfish lb for lb cut bait it what you need to use if you wanna get a big one |
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Shrimp is great, but I refuse to waste them on catfish. Shrimp is all i use for channel cats and it is amazing, i will fish it side by side with my friends using chicken livers and stink bait but at the end of the day they are using my shrimp. If you don't want to pay full price for shrimp go to a local seafood place and see if they have some expired shrimp that they are throwing out. Now if you are going for flatheads i use live or cut bait. |
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the guy on river monsters used soap.. I started googling it, and found that ivory soap is a killer bait... it must be all the fat?? guy whom i see every tues night when i go the lake uses it swear buy it. other night he had 20 1-5 lbs cats and to many bull head to count, he swears up and down about using soap i thought was just crazy.... 
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| Cut bait or take a container of chicken livers, drain them, and add a cup of garlic salt. Let them sit for a few hours and absorb the salt and garlic. I've found livers to be 2-3x more effective when I do this. But for big cats, it's only cut bait, or a live bluegill/shad/rock bass/sucker/etc... |