Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Best catfish bait

Do you guys cut the bluegill any special way?

I do them the same as I do shad. Stick them in the brain box with my bait knife so they quit flopping. Rake their scales off so they don’t foul the hook point. Cut them into chunks from the top down, generally about 1/2” cuts but I leave a good bit on behind the head to have for one big bait. I always cut the tail off and toss it too, maybe superstition or maybe real but I never fish tails, old guy told me they weren’t good bait and I just went with it.

Hard to beat ‘Tauga worms.

I’d rather fish the, than any other bait. Plus, bream and bass will eat the, also.


Lately hard to find. Last year my trees didn’t have worms. So far, none this year.

Catalpas are the trees with the big green beans hanging down, correct? I know of a creek that has several big ones if that’s the case but I’ve never noticed any worms. They caterpillars or something else?

That’s them.

Big broad leaf.

Usually find them on sandy creek banks.

Worm, actually a caterpillar.

Got to get them before they go into the ground. Or birds.

Rain crows like them.


Dynamite fish bait.

Chicken livers stored in garlic salt.

You'll thank me....

Chicken livers stored in garlic salt.

You'll thank me....

Treble hooks?

Liver works good. Throws off easy.

I’ve even soaked them in jello hoping to make them tougher.

Live lining white perch with a 5/0-7/0 circle hook in their back can’t be beat at least in our waters. If a catfish doesn’t take it a rockfish certainly will. Win win.

" Shameless Pets " Lobster Roll over flavor dog treats soft baked. Couple bags of these and you`re good to go for all the catfish you want to cart home.

I pulled 5 of these out of my pond today and cut them up in roughly 2 inch chunks. Scaled them and cut the splines off. Going to give it a go next catfishing trip. Even saved the heads.

I do the same thing but keep em whole, vacuum sealed in the freezer.

Went yeasterday morning to float a local creek.

Bass fish on the way down. Stop at a few deep holes to catfish.

Caught a mess of catfish.

Canadian night crawlers on bottom. Love circle hooks.

Kept hoping to find some catagga worms. All the trees on the creek banks were full of leaves.


Seems we don’t have the worms around lately. Maybe the moths sided off?

Try wrapping a small square of cheesecloth tight around a chicken liver if
you cast them. I have pondered doing this, hooking them, them freezing them
in an old ice cube tray. Could attach with a snap swivel and avoid touching them.

Hate to be a pussy, but on an all nighter, I don't like eating a Sammie and
smelling livers. It's almost as bad as eating one in deer season,
and realizing the morning
dump got on your trigger finger!

Depends on the game. Scavengers seem to like fresh (emphasis fresh) chicken livers, fried chicken, and live minnow. Hunters like flathead tend to like them alive. I am convinced that some sort of oil scent helps- anchovy, fried chicken, or krill... not much though, just enough to draw initial interest. Live bait always works best.

Yep, home made blood bait. Use some salt or brown sugar to dry it out and make a tougher rind on the outside, it will hold a hook better then. Take it out of the freezer just long enough for it to soften and take the hook.

Right ^ ^ ^
Salt and sugar both is part of what my grandpa
taught me to use, but it's still relatively fragile for
casting.
You'd buy the big bucket of blood at the slaughterhouse
and it'd be a big clot and you cut it up into cubes and
cover it all with salt and sugar, and put it back in the
bucket and you pour off the liquid everyday, etc.
This isn't refrigerated the way we did it.
Keeping it nearly frozen wasn't practical for the way
we fished.

Love the discussion's on best catfish bait! Sometime's I think the talk should be about what a catfish won't eat! Saw a video of a guy using McDonalds french fries to catch them! My catfish experience is a bit slim but here's what I use. Started trying chicken liver for bullheads. Couldn't keep the stuff on my hook and cast at the same time. Went to beef liver and could cast far as I could without losing the bait and it caught fish. Tried some of that stuff you get at the Walmart, dough balls, and never got a thing on it. Went to targeting channels just this year and got on a catfish site to figure it out. Seem's the channel and the bull head have something in common, they eat anything! But fooling around I started trying chicken breast in a goop of olive oil, bit of water, bunch of garlic powder and package of strawberry kool aide. Strawberry kool aid for some reason was very hard to find but I did find strawberry jam and swapped it in and guess what? It worked very well. Well wasn't in the formular I read about but I did find some strawberry chrystal light and tried it, it worked fine. Then happened on the real deal, strawberry kool aide and tried it. Turned the chicken breast really red and it also worked. I have tried night crawler's and my son prefers them, and, they work. On the catfish forum I'm on there are more baits people swear by than you can count but, for big catfish the opinion seem's to be use cut bait! I put the head from a small mouth on a hook for a kid here the other night and he got hung up with it and broke his line. Brought the rod to me and there was no line on it. He got spooled! Another couple thing's one is Morman cricket's seem to work great, son tried them and they did fine! And lot of talk about crappie guts. Son caught a squaw fish about a week ago and cut the gut's out and tried them. Got himself a nice 18" catfish! I am almost to the point where I think paying for catfish bait is foolish. Just scrape up some road kill and go for it! For myself I'm gonna stick to beef liver when I can find it and chicken breast. One thing about the chicken breast is it seem's after a couple days or so fermenting in that stuff, it doesn't work as well as fresh. Think I'm gonna go back to chrystal light to, easier to find and not as hard on the eyes, and have had to much luck on beef liver with bullheads over the years but seem's hard to find anymore. Guy here in town has one he's giving me and has an elk liver to try also. Should work I'd guess. Catfish is more likely to find elk liver in the river than chrystal light!

Where are you that people fish for bullheads on purpose Don? I’ve never known anyone who intentionally fished for bullheads.

I do know guys who use bullheads for bait on jugs and trot lines. Catch monster flatheads on them or so they claim.