# Catfishing



## white eagle (Feb 8, 2007)

We are thinking of going catfishing soon an want to know what is the best bait to use to hang the big cats?

We have used chickenlivers, nightcrawlers an the bait from wal-mart an never caught a cat on any of that stuff but would catch some nice bluegills or redeyes but not cat.

Maybe you all can give some good advice on what to use.


Thanks


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Live Perch or Goldfish.

big rockpile


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## Corky (May 11, 2002)

Catching catfish is more about the method of fishing than the bait.

That said, I have always had the best luck with blood bait.

I used to be made around here.
Chicken blood, brown sugar and some feather fluff to help hold it together.

It looked a lot like beef liver and I would cut it in 1 inch cubes and leave it out on the end of the boat in the sun to dry more as it is hard to keep it on the hook if it is too fresh.

Mostly I now catch them with a simple worm.

I use to play a game called call your fish.

We would put on worm and , depending on how you fished with it, call out the kind of fish you were going to catch.

I would be right 90% of the time.
perch as we call them, bluegill. sunfish, goggle eye, AKA rock Bass, all feed the same as bass so that one is kind of hard.
You have to see the little buggers after the bait and take it away from them in order to get a bass.

Fish where the current comes close to the bank, put on a sinker but not too heavy of one and leave the worm lay. If there are catfish there they will find it.
cast into the quiet water just behind that same current and real in the worm using no sinker and you may get that nice big bass.
If you can stand so you can cast into fast water and let the bait drift into that quiet pool you have an even better chance.
Let the worm lie on the bottom in the middle of the river and move it a couple of feet every couple of minutes and you may get a drum. They like the middle of the river and they are nosey fish but too lazy to work too hard to get the bait. Once they have it though they will give you one heck of a fight.

I have a Son that pro fishes and he tells everyone that his Mom taught him to fish. That is true because Dad didn't want the kids around where he was fishing so I was the one that taught them all but...
I can't catch a darn thing on artificial bait.


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## Raptor (Aug 29, 2005)

Go to the grocery store and get some chicken gizzards. The gizzards won't come off the hook easily and them big cats will swallow them whole hook and all. I used them on trot lines and they work like a charm.


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## swampgirl (Aug 29, 2006)

Frozen shrimp worked best for my catfish.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Fresh cut fish works great also. For really BIG cats you need live bait


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## tn_junk (Nov 28, 2006)

Chicken hearts. I buy mine at a local ethnic grocery. 'Bout a week before I plan on going I mix the hearts with garlic powder, salt and Oil of Anise. Let them sit in the fridge until time to go. 
I also catch and freeze skipjack in the spring. Use it as cut bait.

galump


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## Esteban29304 (Apr 29, 2003)

Chicken livers! To make these stay on your hook,,, cut a pair of pantyhose into 3-4" squares, place liver inside, fold pantyhose over it. Thread large hook thru the four loose corners of pantyhose, & fish away. Fish on bottom with a small split-shot attached about 18" up the line & an egg sinker [ whatever size holds it on the bottom & in place in the current ] You can prepare them & freeze overnight , too.Some people add a drop or 2 of Worchestire sauce.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

Since you live in the KY/VA area see if you can find someone who grows tobacco that leaves the stalks standing for a while after it's harvested. If you can, get some tobacco worms. It's the same horn worm that gets on tomatoes, but the catfish like'em much better off the tobacco. It's the best catfish bait I've ever seen. No one around here grows tobacco anymore, so I can't ever find any.


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## cowgirlone (May 9, 2002)

We went a couple of weeks ago. The flatheads were biting on shad sides and stink bait. We also caught some channel cats.


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## Thoughthound (Oct 13, 2004)

My dad always said that channel cat were wily so you had to put a small split shot on the line and above that an egg sinker. 

That way the fish didn't notice the weight of the egg sinker because the line slipped through while the sinker sat on the bottom.

I've caught cats on just about everything. Anything that stinks is good.

Dad used to make doughballs with chicken blood and livers the size of a softball. The slow disintegration of the doughball kind of acted like chumming the water and drew them in.

He'd cast from above a riffle and let the bait drift into a calmer hole below the riffle where the big brooders sat waiting for stuff to just drift in their giant cake holes.

That's in a large river of course. We never really fished for cats in a lake though we caught them by accident sometimes.


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2007)

Try to do some chumming before you wet your hook? Buy you a few cans of cheap dog food or cat food. Liver flavor if your planning on using liver to fish with or fish flavor if your gonna use cut fish or shrimp. Punch a few holes in the cans and throw them out in the fishing holes before you start fishing. This will draw more fish up from down stream. Some people start chuming 24 hours before they start fishing..


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

Cut shad, live bluegill, soft 'craws, helgramites, chicken gut.


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## Outlaw9 (Jan 9, 2006)

r.h. in okla. said:


> Try to do some chumming before you wet your hook? Buy you a few cans of cheap dog food or cat food. Liver flavor if your planning on using liver to fish with or fish flavor if your gonna use cut fish or shrimp. Punch a few holes in the cans and throw them out in the fishing holes before you start fishing. This will draw more fish up from down stream. Some people start chuming 24 hours before they start fishing..



I have used corn and dog food to chum but i wouldt want to toss a can in without a way of retrieving it. 

Eagle Im am in your neck of the woods. Last yr I did pretty good at Pound lake with plain old hotdog weenies. In about 1 inch chunks.


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## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

.
You don't need bait to catch catfish. 
Use the the old hand trick and catch the big ones.

Check these babies out.


http://images.search.yahoo.com/sear...?ei=UTF-8&p=Noodling&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-477


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## Beast24 (Jun 29, 2007)

From what I have learned, shad are the best to use, along with chicken livers. Let what ever your fishing with get a little raunchy before you use it.


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## digdirtplanthar (Jun 22, 2007)

I like to fight the big cats (40 + pounds). I use a large cork with a lite stick attached and let the line out about 25 feet down/deep from the cork. I'm useing 130lb test line on a 6 foot snagging rod. I use 3 inch bluegill live for bait. I set the line in the water and back away about a hundred feet or so from the cork. I just float down the lake in the dark.
You had better hold on when that cork disappears under water. I can only keep one large ( 24 inches long or longer ) each night. 
Fun way to spend a summer night talking with friends waiting for that hit on the bait. I have never waited for than an hour before I got to have my fight with a catfish.

Whats fun is to have 3 or 4 people and all of you get a bite about the same time. Has happened more than once.

digdirtplantharvest


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

we use the cheapest hot dogs we can find and always catch as many catfish as we want around here.


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## white eagle (Feb 8, 2007)

We are looking into going to a pay lake in KY. Years an years ago there was a really good pay lake close to KY but think they may have closed it down. It had 3 bears on a sign but can not think of the name of it. Later may go farther up in KY to fish with some buddies that live in Knox or I think Bollen Green area.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

When all else fails, try a 1-2 inch piece of hot dog weiner. :dance: 
But don't tell anyone or we'll have to shoot you.


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

Depends on how you're fishing..last week we caught 26 in a couple of days. 1 trotline, 2 hoopnets.

The trotline was baited with gizzards and weinies. One net was baited with commercial fisherman cheese bait (we buy it in 5 gallon buckets). The other net, we fished for Opelousas Cat, so we left a few perch in them.

I've used these guys for years:

http://www.fishnetco.com/

They have a nice small catalog for the commercial fisherman, or the hobbiest who like to use some commercial methods...


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## PyroDon (Jul 30, 2006)

As a kid growing up on the creek I learned to catch the biggest fish walk the bank and use what ever you saw swimming or jumping in . 
For channel cat chicken liver with sardine oil, shrimp or craw dads. For big blue cats and flat heads live bait works best small bluegill, frogs,helgamites,shad . 
just dont make the mistake of putting the bait on the bottom unless your after bullheads. 
You also dont have to be in deep water . Ive caught my largest cats out of shallows knee to waist deep . At night when hunting they will chase bait fish along the bank and into shallows.


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

Another company I've used:

http://www.champlinnetco.com/default.cfm

Notice that both companies I've mentioned are in the small town of Jonesville, Catahoula Parish...yes, they're both from the same family...


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## Micahn (Nov 19, 2005)

big rockpile said:


> Live Perch or Goldfish.
> 
> big rockpile


Most places if you get caught using gold fish for bait your in deep trouble. I know they work great but if a couple get loose and live to have more your be sorry if you want to keep fishing the same spot.


I have always found that when fishing for anything the bigger the bait the bigger the fish you catch with it. For large cats a good 6 inch live fish of larger is a good bait to use depending on how big the cats are there.
If they only run a couple of pounds then you would want a smaller bait but again live bait is always best.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

> Go to the grocery store and get some chicken gizzards. The gizzards won't come off the hook easily and them big cats will swallow them whole hook and all. I used them on trot lines and they work like a charm.


We use chicken livers but wrap them in a piece of nylon stocking so they stay together on our lines. They're bloodier than the gizzards.


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## PyroDon (Jul 30, 2006)

Beef melt has always been a favorite of some old timers around here .


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## Standupguy (May 27, 2007)

Its nice that others use hot dogs...when I moved to Missouri all my buddies thought I was crazy...Livers always worked best for me and another tip I tried but had limited success was taking a pouch of chew and "maranate" it with dead baitfish...cats must like tobacco I guess...I just love fried catfish and some cornbread!!!


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Ivory soap cut up in small chunks...it works. Also catplula worms..I forget how to spell it...also plain 'ol cheese.


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

Goat manure.

Yes, you heard right....


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## YounGrey (Jun 7, 2007)

Worms, power bait, salmon eggs, crawfish, any sort of guts or fish pieces (we used to cut up the small bluegill we caught).


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## goat^farmer (Dec 28, 2005)

WE is out of town but did calls me to tell me they are catfishing. So far WE said hooked 2 cats 1 snapper. WE is using chickenliver in hose. I using WE pc whiles gone.


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## J. Knife (Jul 22, 2007)

Gentlemen,

 I don't mean for 'big' cat,
but {5-9 Lb cat}, 
ie. good eating size:

For bait:

Frozen Shad.

I used to go to a paticular lake in North central Texas and fish all night
or till 3:30 or so, when I would lay down in the bottom of the boat and go to sleep. I have never caught less than 100 Lbs live weight, 150 is common depending on how hard I want to work, all blues and channels. 
Never less than 5 Lbs or more than 9Lbs, 
'hatchery fish' I recon.

I would launch the boat and run down to the damn and turn left into a relatively giant cove with an island in the middle of the entrance and start putting out juglines.
30 jugs with 2 hooks each is alright.
40 is more work but well worth it.
50, is easy to put out,
but hell the next morning when you have to roll them all up.

My typical jugline is a 'heavy' brick 'with holes in it', on bottom.
A Prestone antifreeze bottle at the top.
A dark green nylon cord with 2-3 loops tied in the line, one loop at the bottom, 
{high enough so that the hook will not touch the brick}.
The next loop high enough so as no to tangle with the lower hook, ect...

I have several milk crates,with styrofoam cut to fit bottom,and sides.
25 hooks on each side, a hook with a big enough 'eye' to run a doubled over {smaller} nylon cord through it.

Imagine a piece of the dark green cord.
double it and tie it with a simple knot but with the ends 1" longer than the knot.This helps to untie the next morning.
Run the doubled over cord. {opposite end from the knot,}
through the eye of the hook and around the hook.
Stick this 'hook and line', in rows in the styrofoam lined milk crate 25 per side.

{I never bait them till after dark.}
{but put them out during daylight.}

When its dark, and the turtles are not going to be a problem,
I run the lines and bait them with frozen shad I buy for $2.00 at a bait house on the way down there. Shad is an easy bait, simple and good enough.
$2.00 for a sandwich baggie full of frozen shad and 3-4 bags are enough.
Bait the lines right after dark, worm the shad on real good to cover the hook.
The cove is big enough so that you can't see most of your jugs, 
even with the search light,
I just anchor, and turn on the music, 
open me a cold homebrew, 
Listen to the music,
drink my homebrew,
watch the moon,
and fish...


My record is 150 Lbs of channels and blues,
and 14... {6 3/4% alcohol} homebrews.
'Mein Acht Pfund Hammerbier'
I run the line ever so often till about 3:30 {last check}
and with the anchor out just lay down in the bottom of the boat
and go to sleep. When I wake up I run the line again 'rollin' it up as I go,
then cruz back to the boat ramp and head home.


Boys, take lots of 'catch' pictures at the boat ramp, 
you will be glad you did when you are older. 

Good fishing Y'all


jacksknifeshop.tripod.com


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## Toads tool (Jun 7, 2007)

Nightcrawlers , plenty of nightcrawlers.


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