Catfish bait and what it attracts which catfish to keep and which not to.

wfberger

Button Buck
I have heard that cheap hotdogs work great, I then heard that catfish are drawn to the smell of blood. That got me thinking about blood sausage. Has anyone ever tried this or have any Insite? Another question would be will this attract blue catfish or channels cats and which ones taste better?
 
thelivecanary

thelivecanary

Eight Pointer
I prefer to use fresh bait, from the lake I am fishing. It's much cheaper to dig some worms, or buy some worms and catch some panfish. Then you can fish the panfish live or cutbait. If you can throw a cast net you can catch a bunch of bait for very low cost. In my opinion, I like to keep the cost of catching as low as possible. I've even used catfish as bait and had plenty of success!
 
Scrub

Scrub

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Chicken liver, shrimp mostly channels I’ve found. Cut bait a mixture of blues and channels. Night crawlers, live bait you’ll catch all 3. My opinion flatheads are the best, blues next then channels. But all 3 are good eats. Key to catfish is making sure you get all the fat off them when you clean them. Any yellow looking areas around outside edges of the filets and I like to take a really sharp knife after I filet off the skin and skim that thin white fat off where the skin came off of.
 
kilerhamilton

kilerhamilton

Old Mossy Horns
Scrub said:
Chicken liver, shrimp mostly channels I’ve found. Cut bait a mixture of blues and channels. Night crawlers, live bait you’ll catch all 3. My opinion flatheads are the best, blues next then channels. But all 3 are good eats. Key to catfish is making sure you get all the fat off them when you clean them. Any yellow looking areas around outside edges of the filets and I like to take a really sharp knife after I filet off the skin and skim that thin white fat off where the skin came off of.
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You should leave the skin on. Power wash the whole fish. Fillet and leave skin on, cut in strips and fry.
Yum yum
 
HarryNC

HarryNC

Ten Pointer
I prefer live or fresh cut bait caught from the water I'm fishing. Shad, white perch, sunfish, crappie (check local regulations). Suckers or chubs if fishing a creek. Stick to live bait if targeting flatheads. Nightcrawlers will work. So will chicken breast. Try to give them a variety and see if they have a preference on a given day.
 
TobyScreams

TobyScreams

Twelve Pointer
If you can’t catch channels on hotdog you’re in the wrong spot. I’ve caught right many fish on “people food” and will continue to do so if I get the urge.

As far as eating em stick to the smaller channels. Maybe 4-5lbs at absolute most. They start getting a yellow/oily streak up high on the back that’s generally unpleasant.
 
thelivecanary

thelivecanary

Eight Pointer
One of the most vile moments of my life was fishing with chicken livers for catfish...I had been fishing all afternoon, catching many number of white cats out of wheeler on my chicken livers, all the while ripping grits. I pulled a grit out of the pack and popped it in my mouth realizing....right at that moment that I had basically been putting raw chicken liver juice into my mouth all day long!!!! YUCK!

That was the last day I ever fished with "people food"....I save the fish scraps from my filet jobs and use chunk bait from the freezer or catch it same-day.
 
BarSinister

BarSinister

Old Mossy Horns
In my experience whether it be trout streams, lakes, or salt water, you can't beat using whatever lives in the water for bait. I always bring a cast net for lake or salt and even on trout streams I've put a fine meshed landing net next to some rocks and kicked them over to obtain aquatic larva.
 
Charlie16ga

Charlie16ga

Spike
Channel catfish, roughly 1.5 pounds to 2 are ideal. We’ve always skinned and soaked in buttermilk before a flour/cornmeal based frying mix.

As far as catching them, I have, on more than one occasion, caught catfish with ivory soap.
 
Hunterreed

Hunterreed

Twelve Pointer
I prefer to use fresh cut shad when I can catch them, second is any fish with scales for cut bait or even fished live. But it's got to be fresh cut bait not frozen. Beef liver is what I use instead of chicken livers now being it stays on the hook better and was cheaper than the tub of liquid chicken liver I see at the store. Shrimp works good especially for jug fishing but it needs to be on sale before I go soaking money in the lake. A friend of mine uses deer meat for channel and blue cats with success. Smaller channels less than 4 lbs eat good and will bite anything but blues are my favorite to eat. Hot summer water temperatures in High rock lake have made some channel catfish I have caught before strong tasting along with catching them off the muscle beds. A smaller flathead is good eating but most of the ones I catch with live bait are too big and go back in the lake. There are what I believe are black bullheads in Badin that are good eating and seldom larger than 1.5 lbs but at times can be plentiful to catch especially night fishing.
 
Scrub

Scrub

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Hunterreed said:
I prefer to use fresh cut shad when I can catch them, second is any fish with scales for cut bait or even fished live. But it's got to be fresh cut bait not frozen. Beef liver is what I use instead of chicken livers now being it stays on the hook better and was cheaper than the tub of liquid chicken liver I see at the store. Shrimp works good especially for jug fishing but it needs to be on sale before I go soaking money in the lake. A friend of mine uses deer meat for channel and blue cats with success. Smaller channels less than 4 lbs eat good and will bite anything but blues are my favorite to eat. Hot summer water temperatures in High rock lake have made some channel catfish I have caught before strong tasting along with catching them off the muscle beds. A smaller flathead is good eating but most of the ones I catch with live bait are too big and go back in the lake. There are what I believe are black bullheads in Badin that are good eating and seldom larger than 1.5 lbs but at times can be plentiful to catch especially night fishing.
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How’s the beef liver work compared to chicken liver?
 
Hunterreed

Hunterreed

Twelve Pointer
Scrub said:
How’s the beef liver work compared to chicken liver?
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I thought It caught channel catfish just as good and stayed on the hook better. Easy to use being you cut it instead of digging in a carton of juice. But sometimes when the catfish are feeding they will bite anything.
 
Hunterreed

Hunterreed

Twelve Pointer
I have always wondered how good menhaden oil would work in freshwater. If you could get any kind of protein like deer or chicken and soak it in it before baiting up. I have used it in saltwater before especially surf fishing. Even pouring in on the rocks at the jetty during low tide and then coming back later to fish near it. It really concentrated the pinfish and baitfish for easy catching to use for the larger predators
 

Justin

Old Mossy Horns
We used to use beef heart on jugs back in the 90s when we didn’t have time to catch bait. Could catch a fish, and toss jug back out with same bait and catch more.
 
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