# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Fishing >  Catfish Bait

## Sparky93

I was wondering what others use for catfish bait. When I fish with a pole I use chicken livers and they work good but the bait is a one time use thing and smaller fish like bluegills will steal the bait. When I jug for catfish I use small bluegill or shiners. I'm just curious what other people use expecially the weird ones like I have heard of people using chunks of bar soap for bait.

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## Rick

The largest cats I've caught have been on small bluegill or shad. Nothing weird unfortunately. I'm mostly a worm guy when it comes to catfish.

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## Sparky93

yah my dad and I caught a 15 pound cat out of a mine pit on either a bluegill or shiner I don't know wich we had our jugs baited with both.

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

Blueback herring is THE best bait.

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## Skinner

Ok, This May  Sound Weird But I Have Used Dove Soap and Caught Catfish .So It Works

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## Sparky93

> Ok, This May  Sound Weird But I Have Used Dove Soap and Caught Catfish .So It Works


How well does soap stay on the hook?

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## nell67

I have always done the best using worms like RIck said,the only time I used chicken liver,I never caught a stinking catfish,but I did catcht the biggest bass I have ever caught,@ 8.5 pounds.

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## Rick

> How well does soap stay on the hook?


Not very long but you wind up with the cleanest hooks in the lake.

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## Sparky93

> Not very long but you wind up with the cleanest hooks in the lake.


or catfish with squeaky clean mouths  :Tongue Smilie:

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## Winter

I always used chicken liver when I lived down south. You keep the bait alot longer if you wrap it in pantyhose.

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## Sparky93

> I always used chicken liver when I lived down south. You keep the bait alot longer if you wrap it in pantyhose.


I'll have to try that, sounds like a good idea. I've seen treble hooks with nets on them for stuffing bait into but have never tryed them.

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## LowKey

Usually worms.
Occasionally corn, cheese or hot-dog.
For some reason it was always a rumor that it was against the law to use liver here in MA.

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## Sparky93

I bet mold vein cheeses would work well do to their pungent oder

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## LowKey

All we ever had was the orange Kraft stuff.

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## Rick

I've seen a lot that looked good wrapped in panty hose but none of it was chicken liver. Hmmm. No, I'm sure none of it was.

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## Full Metal

We tend to use live goldfish for large yellow/flatheads in the river. Mostly if we are fishing for catfish in general we like to use cut bait(shad) or night crawlers. Weirdest bait I've ever seen used that worked was pepper jack cheese.

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## Sparky93

The gander mountain near me sales live goldfish, but they want five bucks for the little boogers.

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## wtrfwlr

Yeah that's where I'm at too, when it got to where I could by goldfish at wal-mart or the pet shop cheaper than the bait-shop I went with a casting net to catch bait or if I'm going to have lines out for a while in one place I put out some minnow traps for small bream. Native bait always seems to be the most effective which makes sense. Although I knew an old timer that used to make his own blood bait which was very good, he gave me a 5gal. pail of it and it was awesome. I never got the actual process from him before he passed but he used to go to a slaughter house and have them bleed out a beef. Then that was collected on big trays and treated with salt. This was then cooled to coagulate and then taken out after a day or so and sliced into 2" squares. He then put it in 5gal pails and he had blood bait,it never went bad and you didn't have to worry about the storage, the salt I'm guessing, it was great bait on trotlines here on the lower Arkansas River. And he always floated his where as most everyone else sinks um down. That's all I can remember, if somebody out there can fill in any blank spots I would really like to make some more of that bait.

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## Sparky93

That does sound like good bait

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## Old GI

I seem to remember my Grandpa using doughballs for catfish.  Never found out his recipe.

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## kyratshooter

> I seem to remember my Grandpa using doughballs for catfish.  Never found out his recipe.


Plain flour mixed stiff using vinillia extract and water.  Roll it into balls and let it sit in the refregerator all night before use.

I caught some impressive catfish as a kid using this recipe.  My brothers and I would ride our bikes to the river and come back with a catfish hanging from each side of the handlebars.  Often their tails would be dragging the ground.  

My Mom did not even object to the bait in the fridge, and she sure loved the fish.

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## your_comforting_company

My grandmother on my mom's side was a commercial fisher for a lodge down on the lake. She used bar soap on her box lines. looked like Ivory I think, but I'm sure she used whatever was cheap.
When we go for catfish, we generally just use wigglers, but back in my younger days (harhar) we'd use whatever we could get our hands on. slugs, catalpa worms, crickets, chicken (or other) livers and gut parts. Catfish aren't picky eaters, they're scavengers and opportunists. catch a few small bream, and either use them whole, or cut into pieces.

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## Skinner

or Ya Can Just Learn How to Noodle And Catch them With your Hand

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## Sparky93

> or Ya Can Just Learn How to Noodle And Catch them With your Hand


I believe there has been discusion on this forum before on why not to noodle  :Smile:

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## BH51

Minnows, worms or fatty chicken skin, like you strip from chicken thighs & legs, stays on the hook best
and hooks with some'thin on'em works better than hooks with nothin' on'em....I wouldn't noodle for 
catfish (flat'heads) for nothin in the world and I've heard tell some have used bait sprayed with WD-40.
Bait soaked in red food coloring dye is popular here also...especially blocking on the Mississippi river..BH51

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## Sparky93

Here are three reasons why I won't noodle

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## garethw

Hi there
In recent years over here in continental Europe, "Marine halibut pellets" have been the top bait for our 'Wels' Catfish. These large 25mm oily, fishy pellets can be bouhgt in 25kg sacks and are easy to use. We simple drill a small hole in a couple of them and use a carp fishing style hair rig to attach to the braided hooklink. I use a size 2/0 heavy wire single hook. You need ti introduce a fair amount oçf bait into the water to get the fish feeding, but once on these baits they seem love them. 
They are a very convenient bait as they keep for a long time, so you always have them ready. We've had fish to over 140lb on this method. 
Regards
Gareth

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## crashdive123

I wonder if Mousefish would be good bait for Catfish? :Innocent: 

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## Sparky93

I imagine catfish would love them

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## wtrfwlr

SPARKY-don't do that! I have to try and close my eyes tonight and that is all I'll see!

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## oldtrap59

I hit the river this morning at 6:30 so can give you this bait from fresh experience. Caught 5 keepers in about an hour and a half plus several that I released as I figured to let them grow a bit more. The keepers were nothing to brag about but from 2 to maybe 4 lbs. All caught on fresh clam found along a sandbar on the way to my fishing hole. I was also using a dip bait but all the fish I caught were on the clam meat. Have had good luck using small bream and catalpa worms over the years also.

Oldtrap

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## Sparky93

Sounds like you caught some good eat'n size catfish, clam baits definetly a new one on me.

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## oldtrap59

Sparky. I was raised by an oldtime cat fisherman. My dad lived all his life in eastern Iowa and I doubt there were many rivers he hadn't catfished over the years. I can't ever remember him buying his bait until his later years. He always kept a couple minnow traps in a local creek which we went to when a night on the river was planned. We also always had crawlers in the frig in the garage that we got out of the backyard. Like I told you about the clams, he always picked them up when he found them on the river. Some he would keep in the stock tank in the garage some he would put in mason jars for a couple days to sour. (both good ways to use them) Another sure bet for bait back then was when we butchered chickens. He often used the gut on a treble hook and also let the blood coagulate(spelling?) to be cut in strips and hung on a treble in a cheesecloth bag. Also used frogs when we could find them in the grass along the banks of the river. Crawfish was another natural bait we used when they were available. He also used bream or bluegills when he was after flatheads. As you can probably tell he wasn't into things like we buy now for catfish bait. As a matter of fact I think I heard his spirit laughing at me the other day every time I cussed that fancy dip bait I had paid $4 for and saying I thought I taught you better then that. Goodluck with the catfish Sparky, and always remember the best bait is what they see coming down the river everyday.

Oldtrap

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## Sparky93

Thanks Oldtrap, my dads got a trap that was my great grandpa's. It's a large scale minnow trap for fiddler size catfish. From the stories I've heard he sounds alot like your dad. He'd catch his own night crawlers in his back yard, mom said one time when she was little how she could get the night crawlers to come out of the ground by pouring out soapy water. He didn't like her method as it killed the worms  :Smile:

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## finallyME

The only time I went, I went with a seasoned veteran.  He was my buddy in Iraq, and he said I had to come with him when we got home.  So, he took me to his parents house in south Texas near Harlingen.  His family had lived in the area for a few generations.  He gave me all the equipment I needed.  For bait, then had a bunch of buckets of stink stuff.  They would put all kinds of nasty stuff in it, like liver and bad cheese and a bunch of other stuff I don't remember.  If you get a waft of it, it takes all the power you have to not hurl.  It is pretty runny stuff.  Anyways, they gave each of us a bottle with a handle and filled it up with this stuff.  Then we got a bunch of treble hooks and some sponge.  You put the sponge on the treble and then dip it in the bait jar.  Every so often you pull out your line and reapply.  My buddy knew the area very well, but not as well as his dad or grandpa.  We went to a bunch of spots and got a ton of fish.  It was one of the best fishing experiences I have had.

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## TheWaywardOne

When it comes to catfish bait the concoctions and methods are all but infinite.  I've seen catfish caught on hotdogs, dove bar soap, sponges sprayed with WD-40, crawlers, liver, mice, baby rattlesnakes, chicken feet..heard of many more.  Dough, punch, and dip bait recipes that are jealously guarded as family traditions, and stuff off the shelf.  I myself have used such things as velveeta cheese,  crawdads, grasshoppers..my hands..goldfish and frogs (personal best channel cat came off a leopard frog).  My preferred bait over all else is fresh.  Whether it be fresh shad, carp, bluegill, or whatever I can catch or thrownet.  Channel cats (and blues on the rare occasion I'm fishing water that has them) get fresh cut bait, with fresh cut carp being my favorite due to it's toughness on the hook and oily nature (usually bowshot in the same waters, as well).  My normal routine is bowfish all day then catfish at night unless I'm solely hunting flatheads, then I make sure I have fresh LIVE bait.  When I'm after flatheads I'm after big ones.  It's an endless debate between catmen when it comes to bait size, but I prefer big bait.  I've used goldfish before, and I've even caught quite a few cats on goldfish (and walleye, for that matter), but the rivers I fish are loaded with longnose gar.  Bright colored goldfish swimming around draw gar like moth to a flame.  I'm not big on commercially prepared baits, and the "stinkier the better" in my experience, is a myth.  Not saying you can't catch fish on stink bait, because you can, but more often than not fresh bait is going to produce more.  When it comes to noodling, I do that for a month or two out of the year as well, but that may be better saved for another thread.

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## Sparky93

Baby rattle snakes!! that is the craziest thng I have heard in a while! I have not been brave enough to try my hand at noodling (ha ha get it...)

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## TheWaywardOne

> Baby rattle snakes!! that is the craziest thng I have heard in a while! I have not been brave enough to try my hand at noodling (ha ha get it...)


Yep, I remember an old river rat who was friends with my grandfather used them.   He'd show up with a handful of them in a bucket.  Being I was very young I wasn't allowed to go near the bucket alone, but I got to peak inside it a few times.  Little prairie rattlers.  He caught some good channel cat, and even bass on them.  He and my grandpa have both since passed on, but I've heard stories of a few Okies who still use them, though I've never seen it in person again.  As for noodling, it can be fun, addictive even.  Never, under any circumstance, go alone though.  I may start a thread and post some things I've learned about noodling if anyone is interested, maybe discuss a few points of recreation vs. survival.

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## Rick

Baby rattlers for fish bait and noodling fall into the, "Hold my beer and watch this," category for me. If you show up with baby rattlers for fish bait where I'm fishing you will probably go home with a holy bait bucket and I'll go home with an empty magazine. Just sayin'.

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

Channel Catfish = stinky smelly bait
Blue Catfish = Fresh cut bait or live bait
Flatheads = live bait
Bullheads = Night Crawlers

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## Sparky93

> ...If you show up with baby rattlers for fish bait where I'm fishing you will probably go home with a holy bait bucket and I'll go home with an empty magazine. Just sayin'.


I would concur with this logic....

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## TheWaywardOne

> Baby rattlers for fish bait and noodling fall into the, "Hold my beer and watch this," category for me. If you show up with baby rattlers for fish bait where I'm fishing you will probably go home with a holy bait bucket and I'll go home with an empty magazine. Just sayin'.


I certainly wouldn't encourage using baby rattlers as bait, but it does go to show how vast bait selection can be.  The stories of bait used by the old timers are endless.

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## Willie

My uncle used to make his own. It was some type of dough stuff and smelled like stinkyass feet. He wouldn't give anyone the ingred.


Willie

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## crashdive123

> My uncle used to make his own. It was some type of dough stuff and smelled like stinkyass feet. He wouldn't give anyone the ingred.
> 
> 
> Willie


I'll bet he wouldn't give out his secret recipe because - a) it wouldn't be a secret any more and b) the mystery of all those missing (and stinky) socks would no longer get blamed on the dryer.

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## Rick

If you feet smell like stinky*** then you're storing your socks in the wrong place.

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## 2dumb2kwit

If y'all are looking for a good stink bait, that will stay on the hook, Rick has this thong.......LOL

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## Sparky93

> If y'all are looking for a good stink bait, that will stay on the hook, Rick has this thong.......LOL


Now that right there is funny!

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