Best Catfish Bait

ngt · Jun 25, 2011

So, I'm going camping next Wednesday and Thursday out at Clear Lake in Nor Cal. Most of the night is going to be spent going for catfish. I have 3 different baits, but I was wondering what you guys thought, and if there was anything else I could use to catch something.

I have:

1: Dough Bait...regular red label walmart dough bait. I caught a nice little 26 inch, 8 pound guy a few years ago on this stuff up there.

2: Prawns...my friend who first got me into fishing said prawns are good and someone gave me a huge frozen bag of them last time I went fishing, so they're just in the freezer waiting.

3: This old guy and a fishing shop once told me to take chicken gizzards, hearts, and livers and put them in a jar with cheap whiskey. Then stick out in the sun for 4-5 days and the whiskey toughens in all up so it stays on your hook while the smell brings them in. I've never tried it before, but I have two jars full of this stuff out in the sun in the back yard. We shall see.

4: another guy said to buy clams when I'm up there and they work well.

Anything else? Any special bait I can get? I've been having a tough summer fishing so far (spent 9 hours fishing from 6pm to 3am without a bite the other day) and I'd love to catch something nice out there.

any help would be appreciated!

thank you!

JB · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

I like #1 and #2. #3 is mostly mythology, except that most catfish hunt by smell. The truth is they like stuff that smells good just as much as stuff designed to run all other fishermen off the lake.

I tend to prefer fresh meat of some kind, be it shellfish, fish, or mammal. I have caught cats on fresh steak trimmings, but I think my favorite is shrimp or night crawlers.

reddogg · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Around here we call #3 stinkbait and it does actually work

If you have a chicken prosessing plant nearby get a bunch of that stuff and just use it, you don't have to soak it in whiskey.

red

ngt · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

The store near me gives out crabbing bait if you go in the morning. Mostly chicken fat chunks and fish heads. Will that work?

reddogg said:
Around here we call #3 stinkbait and it does actually work If you have a chicken prosessing plant nearby get a bunch of that stuff and just use it, you don't have to soak it in whiskey.

red

So you just put the gizzards, livers and hearts in a jar in the sun?

AF rigger · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

around here we use shad, live or dead. the shad produce some of the bigger cats and are pretty simple to catch yourself using a cast net. I have used chicken livers for years with good results also.

ngt · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Shad huh? Not sure how to catch something like that, but can I use the dead shad in the bags on the shelf at walmart? Or should I go get them from the bait shop?

So what was the whiskey for??

Fishing Dude too · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Catch small bluegills put a slice down the side so they swim wounded. Most excellent

HAV2FISH · Jun 25, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Try pieces of cut raw chicken in a bag with powder Kool Aid, i use cherry. It works great. I mix it the day before.

Bamaman1 · Jun 26, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

My father retired young to run two 100 hook trotlines in the front of our lake house. He spent his afternoons talking with his catfishermen buddies up and down the river--finding out what they were biting that week. He'd wake up at 3:00 a.m. anticipating what he had hanging on his trotlines. Fortunately, our lake is one of the top catfish (if not the best) lakes in the U.S. The average catfish caught by the winners of a recent catfish tournament was 25 pounds.

1: Dough Bait...regular red label walmart dough bait. YES

2: Prawns...Bait shrimp. Best results if you peel the shells off them.
I wouldn't exactly call'em prawns. More like junk shrimp.

3: Chicken gizzards, hearts, and livers...YES You don't have to fool with the whiskey. Let'em sit out in the sun 1/2 day before baiting..

4: Clams No. They are not native bait to this area.

Other favorite baits that are easily found:
Worms
Minnows
Sponge cubes soaked in Oil of Anise
Ivory Soap cut into 1/2" cubes
Just about anything that stinks!

reel clownz · Jun 26, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Go buy a can of spam!! Local ponds and lakes around here they crush spam. Cut it into 1.5 in squares 1 in thick. Use a #2 trebel hook. Push the trebel hook through the spam in the middle turn hook 30 degrees . So the hook doesnt go through the same holes you put in the spam. It works here good luck!!

ngt · Jun 26, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

The guy at the bass pro shop said use chunks of mackrel? or Anchovies?

I read dead Bullhead are ok too? I have about 10 nice size ones in a bag in the freezer.

Going to pick up the Ivory Soap at walmart. any particular type? Or just the plain white bar? Is it easy to bait? or does it crumble in your hands?

sasto · Jun 26, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

What kind of catfish are you going after in your area, ngt?

ngt · Jun 26, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

sasto said:
What kind of catfish are you going after in your area, ngt?

same as in this video:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/813031/fishing_for_bass_catfish_on_clear_lake_in_ca/

jigngrub · Jun 27, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

The larger catfish are actually predators, and not the scavengers a lot of people think they are. Live bait or fresh dead bait will work the best. Live minnows (shiners work best), sunfish (if your regs allow), shad (if you have them in your lake), and crawfish are all excellent cat baits.

Catfish are also oppertunistic feeders and will bite the other baits too, but they'll mainly attract the smaller ones with the odd big one.

Cut bait (fish) and fresh chicken are my second choices, but you should change the bait every 30 mins. if you don't get a bite.

Dip and dough baits are third on my list.

Forget the preserved shad and crayfish at wal-mart, they've been deodorized and don't work.

I catch quite a few cats on artificial lures that mimick live baits, mostly while crappie fishing and on small jigs.

Went out Crappie fishin' the other night and this guy thought he'd try to take my little 2" jig away from me.

I was using a 1/16 oz. jig with a 2" plastic grub on 4lb. test on my 8' noodle rod I use for Crappie.

Good luck, hope you catch a bunch!

sasto · Jun 27, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

I'm with jigngrub. Especially channel cats, they love live bait. When I was a young'un my neighbor caught a 40lb'er on a live 3lb live bass off a trot line (which is illegal now).

Good Luck and Hook 'em.

"The drinking will continue until morale improves"

ngt · Jun 27, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

OK, so live shad is the best...but I'm not sure how to catch that. I don't have a net to toss. Any other way? We're only really fishing channels too. No boat on this trip. I read that they sometimes go for flies. Would a small sabiki rig work?

Also, I have this chicken gizzard, heart, and liver mix that's been sitting in whiskey and in the sun in glass jars for 3-4 days. Is this bait a waste of time? Should I go get fresh livers and dump this stuff? Or just take this and give it a shot?

So far for the trip I have:

1: this combo described above
2: ivory soap
3: dough bait
4: big bag or raw prawn/shimp
5: night crawlers
6: going out tomorrow morning to catch crawfish (not sure if they'll be alive by Wednesday night for catfishing) Should I just cut the tails off and use those? Or try and keep them alive? They really haven't come up in my local lake yet, so I'm guessing I'll have 20 of them or so in the hour or two I have to get them tomorrow.

Other things I have in my freezer that I would be willing to toss in the lake on a hook:

1: one 12 inch trout I didn't gut. (have used it for crawfish twice)
2: a couple small frozen and gutted perch
3: a bag of frozen bullhead
4: some left over frozen anchovies

any of that stuff worth taking?

I've had such a bad last couple of months of fishing, I'm will to try anything out there.

thanks again for the help

2 Eagles · Jun 28, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

1: this combo described above
2: ivory soap
3: dough bait
4: big bag or raw prawn/shimp
5: night crawlers
6: going out tomorrow morning to catch crawfish

All the above will work. Try the chicken whishey mix and if it makes you fill better buy some fresh liver too. As for the crawfish try to keep them alive but steal user them if the die them work both ways. You might even try cheap hot dogs the cheaper the better they also work good. Cut them up in1/2" pieces and stick them on a trebel hook.

ngt · Jun 28, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Thanks!

jeapord · Jun 28, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Best catfish bait I've used is catfish dough mashed onto a treble hook and the smothered in Hogwild stinkbait. Negative side is, everything within 10 feet of your tackle box will smell like Hogwild.

relocyo · Jun 28, 2011

Re: Best Catfish Bait

Easy to keep the crawfish alive, put them in a closable net, like if u buy a bag of lemon, and put em in the fridge, ive worked at restaraunts that as long as they are cold they stay alive, warm them up I.e. take them out of the fridge and they wake up! Cold=sleep warm=awake... Good,luck! Down here we throw the catfish back

and they tend to steal my freshly dead pinfish while im red fishin or trout fishin, I hear when using live pinfish its best to trim theyre dorsal spines with a pair of scissors, I guess this makes them easier to eat

anywho.... Good luck !

Best Catfish Bait

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