Author Topic: Anyone want to share a catfish bait recipe???? (Read 3105 times)

RemingtonMagnum · « **on:** June 02, 2012, 05:51:41 PM »

Hi Friends

I have lost my Catfish bait recipe it has been so many yeare. We hope to start drift fishing with jugs and lines. Any idea of what works best here in Alabama are any place?

Don Jackson Remington Magnmu/Ultramag

Ranger99 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 28, 2012, 04:22:08 PM »

only two. . . . .

#1 - throw castnet until you have enough shad for bait

#2 - go to the packing plant and buy a bucket of beef blood.
contrary to popular advice, chicken blood sucks for this method
and the feathers everyone says holds it together, just makes
it crumble easier as it dries and shrinks(i'm sure i'll hear about that).
at home, pour it out on a tray (or cutting board,etc.) and
cut it up in about 1" cubes. put the cubes back in the bucket
and add about a cup of sugar. mix well. next day pour off
liquid, and add more sugar and mix. it may take a coupla
more days of adding sugar. everyday, pour off the liquid
until your cubes get a hard enough shell to stay on the hook.

go fish. . . . . . . . .that's it

Ranger99 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 28, 2012, 04:24:24 PM »

p.s.
i don't know if it works in alabama.
i've not been there, and it's been
about 160 years since i had any kin
from there.
i'll bet alabama catfish get as hungry
as texas catfish. . .

mechanic · « **Reply #3 on:** August 28, 2012, 04:35:06 PM »

Half rotted beef liver. Hook a large chunk, then wrap in a piece of nylon hose, (old stockings), and wrap that with some strong needle thread.

As an alternative to jugs, you might want to try short sections of 2x4. Nail a large staple in one end, and paint the opposite with reflective paint. Much easier to wrap, tie and store, and you can see them a mile!

Ben

bulletstuffer · « **Reply #4 on:** August 28, 2012, 05:41:48 PM »

Best catfish bait I've used is fresh cut bait

We use big suckers cut into 1 or 2 inch chunks not fillets depending on the size of fish targeted. Used whole mashed bluegills where legal too.

Hold on to that pole!

Bulletstuffer

Ranger99 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 28, 2012, 07:27:00 PM »

you may want to check on the rules
regarding jugs.
i made up a dozen a good while back,
and i never realized that texas has very
specific regs on jug construction and
color.
didn't get a ticket, but i wasted my time
and money, and the cost of a trip.

Graybeard · « **Reply #6 on:** August 29, 2012, 05:29:59 AM »

My recipe is to skewer a big catalpa worm on the hook and have at them. A big gob of earth worms works almost as well but are a bit fragile and are easier to get off without the fish getting hooked. Catalpa worms are tough and you can often catch multiple fish on the same worm.

I have prolly 30-40 catalpa trees down near my pond.

mechanic · « **Reply #7 on:** August 29, 2012, 10:45:03 AM »

Quote from: Graybeard on August 29, 2012, 05:29:59 AM

My recipe is to skewer a big catalpa worm on the hook and have at them. A big gob of earth worms works almost as well but are a bit fragile and are easier to get off without the fish getting hooked. Catalpa worms are tough and you can often catch multiple fish on the same worm.

I have prolly 30-40 catalpa trees down near my pond.

GB, I haven't seen a catalpa tree since the Corp of Engineers confiscated the road through my grandpa's farm......you're right...good bait. Sometimes you can catch two or three fish on one..

Ben

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #8 on:** August 29, 2012, 11:00:42 AM »

old chicken livers or ripe srimp also ivory soap chunks.
Some dog food works if you chum with some . but freh bait seems to get the bigger fish here.

RemingtonMagnum · « **Reply #9 on:** September 09, 2012, 12:06:51 AM »

Thanks a lot for all the help we will try each and see how it goes for us.

Thanks Don Jackson Remington Magnum/Ultramag

Graybeard · « **Reply #10 on:** September 09, 2012, 05:42:45 AM »

Ben if ya like I can send you some catalpa seeds when this year's pods are ready. I don't have any left from last season as I gave the last pod I had left over to a guy who dropped by one day and asked about my catalpa trees.

mechanic · « **Reply #11 on:** September 09, 2012, 11:02:41 AM »

Graybeard, I would appreciate that. My lot is small, but my brother has some acreage, and I could pot them here, then transplant them. Brings back old memories of grandpa just thinking of those. Of course, he recognized no seasons or limits, coming from a time when you fished and hunted for survival, and was as apt to put out fish baskets as anything else.

It was my job to take a screen wire basket and collect the catalpa worms.

What I want to know is, who came up with the idea of hellgrammits? Them things will hurt ya'.

Ben

Graybeard · « **Reply #12 on:** September 09, 2012, 11:10:47 AM »

Dunno who came up with the idea to use hellgramites but man them things are bad news whether the larval form or the flying kind. I've been bit more times than I'd like to remember by both. Nasty little critters but they were good bait.

I'll try not to forget but just in case give me a reminder about the time the leaves fall off the trees. There should be lots of seed pods to be picked along about then. They will turn black and dry out and some will pop open and spread their seeds but as many trees as I have there are always intact pods to pull.

I give away a lot of seeds and seed pods and have even let a fellow pick him some worms to put on his trees to get a start. I've never seen that be necessary cuz if you have trees the catalpa spinx moth seems to find them to lay their eggs on. He said it helped tho I suspect the moths would have found his trees anyway.

When I was growing up with had three or four in the yard and back then you could always find trees growing along the river bank as well.

mechanic · « **Reply #13 on:** September 09, 2012, 11:16:27 AM »

Quote from: Graybeard on September 09, 2012, 11:10:47 AM

Dunno who came up with the idea to use hellgramites but man them things are bad news whether the larval form or the flying kind. I've been bit more times than I'd like to remember by both. Nasty little critters but they were good bait.

I'll try not to forget but just in case give me a reminder about the time the leaves fall off the trees. There should be lots of seed pods to be picked along about then. They will turn black and dry out and some will pop open and spread their seeds but as many trees as I have there are always intact pods to pull.

I give away a lot of seeds and seed pods and have even let a fellow pick him some worms to put on his trees to get a start. I've never seen that be necessary cuz if you have trees the catalpa spinx moth seems to find them to lay their eggs on. He said it helped tho I suspect the moths would have found his trees anyway.

When I was growing up with had three or four in the yard and back then you could always find trees growing along the river bank as well.

Rocken · « **Reply #14 on:** October 07, 2012, 03:24:38 AM »

I have doctored up some chicken livers using garlic salt and regular salt and set them in the sun for about 6 hours. You try to get them kinda leathery so they stay on the hook. I works but the soft shell turtles like them as much as the catfish. Caught a few gators using that bait also. The Berkley power catfish sold at Walmart also works well. It is usually a small channel cat bait though. Nothing beats a live 6 inch shad under a fishing noodle about 12 to 18" under the surface left overnight. I try and fish noodles a couple times a month come the winter months. I keep a few freezers full this way.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 07, 2012, 09:08:14 AM »

whut's a noodle (in the fishing sense)?

a trotline?

and when you were talking about the livers, i
thought you might be getting ready to put ' em
on the grill. not in the sun!

Rocken · « **Reply #16 on:** October 07, 2012, 02:10:59 PM »

We buy those noodles the kids use in the swimming pools, cut them 1 foot long, put 18" piece of 3/4" plastic conduit thru it, run a string thru the pipe, secure it to the pipe( SS washer and a thru bolt), leave about 18" to tye a hook on. Cheap to make, I have it down to less than a dollar a rig. I'll have between 25 to 50 at anytime, some have small sinkers some have swivels, just depends what I have on hand at the time.Throw them out let them fish. They float all over the pond or lake and they catch fish. I use a pirogue to raise them. Its fun pulling a few 30 pounders in a small boat like that. Get a hold of an 8' gator or a big soft shell turtle will really wake you up in the morning.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 07, 2012, 02:19:59 PM »

so that's like jug fishing (more or less)

i follow you now.

yep. that can get exciting.
makes me remember chief brody throwing
out the chum in jaws

Rocken · « **Reply #18 on:** October 07, 2012, 03:23:44 PM »

Jugging is exactly what it is. Its just noodles take up a lot less room in the boat. I get 25 in a clothes basket. You rap the line around the noodle when your done , sink the hook in to the foam, ready till next time.

FPH · « **Reply #19 on:** October 07, 2012, 03:34:15 PM »

Blood bait or chicken livers.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 07, 2012, 03:37:59 PM »

well that's pretty smart.
i never thought of that.
a feller i seen once made some
with these styrofoam boat fender
looking things.
last ones i made were with gatoraide
jugs, but i wasn't thinking and made
them the wrong color and couldn't
legally use them.

and 25 is about all i'd want to ramrod
around anyway. 'specially in a pee-row!

i haven't used any trotlines for a while.
getting in too many scrapes over folks
cutting them, people running them , etc.

last time we put one out, this old man
watched from the far bank with binoculars,
and when we left he would go make note
of where it was and run it. we had to get
in a scrape with him when we caught him.
my grandpa would have shot at someone
over that in his time. that was his food
and you didn't touch another man's lines
or traps. they will still "fix you" in loo-zee-ann
if you touch a shrimp net or crab trap

Rocken · « **Reply #21 on:** October 07, 2012, 04:05:59 PM »

A friend turned me on to this type of jugging. Nothing like taking a kid in a small flat boat and having him try to grab the noodle. A good sized cat 5+ lbs will pull the jug under a few times when you approach it, but it always comes up with in 5 feet or so. This seems to get the young uns even more fired up. Let them grab the noodle and you run up there with the landing net. The fish will splash him up and give him a little fight. When you bring that fish in he'll smile so hard you'd bet he'd break his face.

Rocken · « **Reply #22 on:** October 07, 2012, 04:07:58 PM »

PS You have to grab the noodle by the plastic pipe. A good fish will pull the pipe thru the noodle and get away. Thats why the pipe is 6 to 8" longer.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #23 on:** October 07, 2012, 04:58:18 PM »

after you explained i knew what the
noodles were ( i had in my head about
noodling or grabbing)

my first thought was to make a few.
but thinking on it , i've not seen any
white colored swim noodles. by law
here they have to be white for sport
fishing and orange for commercial.

i'll look at megalomart next time i'm there

thanks for the heads up

Rocken · « **Reply #24 on:** October 07, 2012, 10:32:47 PM »

Check the dollar stores. I heard that Texas has a law about white jugs/noodles. I would guess the fisherman would whipe out those colors first. But they do come in white. We seem to like the red/pink best here. White looks like a lot of the trash on the shore, and blue will hide from you.

chefjeff · « **Reply #25 on:** October 08, 2012, 12:39:08 AM »

I catch a carp ,filet,chunk,hook. Stays on the hook well. Catches cats and bass.

KNIFE_NUT_1981 · « **Reply #26 on:** May 27, 2013, 10:42:12 AM »

Quote from: Rocken on October 07, 2012, 04:07:58 PM

PS You have to grab the noodle by the plastic pipe. A good fish will pull the pipe thru the noodle and get away. Thats why the pipe is 6 to 8" longer.

I use blue pvc pipe glue to stick the pipe to the noodle when I'm making them. Just run the pipe about 2 inches out the other side, go around it a couple times with the glue swab, and then pull it back in flush with the end of the noodle, and set it aside for a couple minutes to dry. Good to go. Will never pull out again. In fact, if you keep them long enough that the noodle part dry-rots, you will have to put the pipe on the wire brush side of your bench grinder to take the glue off so you can re-use it with a new noodle...

KNIFE_NUT_1981 · « **Reply #27 on:** May 27, 2013, 02:50:35 PM »

And as for bait... NOTHING works better than cut slickers. At least that's what we call them. The proper name for them is skipjack herring, but I've heard them called lots of things, skipjacks, skips, shiner-shad, slickers, and the list goes on.. They are easy enough to catch, and often more fun than the catfish, but we won't get into catching them. Here's what I do with them: scale them (easiest fish in the world to scale), cut off the head and the belly and the tail (so it won't take up so much room), stack them 4 or 5 deep in a quart-size ziploc storage bag, and put them in the freezer. When you plan on going fishing, take a pack or two out, and put them in the fridge a couple days ahead of time to defrost. Throw them in the ice chest and bring along a knife and cutting board. Keep them on ice, and cut as needed, because if they get hot, they will melt and turn to mush... Be warned! You will catch catfish when no one else can get a nibble, so hide your bait!!

FPH · « **Reply #28 on:** May 27, 2013, 02:56:51 PM »

Chicken gizzards, chicken livers, bucket of blood bait from slaughter house.

ihookem · « **Reply #29 on:** May 28, 2013, 02:34:58 PM »

I always thought chicken blood was better cause it was more like fish blood than beef blood so I always used chicken livers. I cou;ld be wrong though.