catfish bait bullet lube sort of

[357maximum]

I had a few pounds of grocery store parrafin lying around I did not know what to do with for awhile now. (parraffin in my opinion flat sucks in a decent bullet lube).

Anyway I was preparing my secret super duper chick liver channel cat bait one night last weekend.

About 2 in the morning I awoke with one of those ideas you cannot ignore. I went into the shed/labrotory and proceeded to mix up a pretty wonderful looking bad smelling bait. I mixed 1 pound of the wax to 8 to 10tablespoons fish oil and 2 tablespoons cod liver oil (the old smelly kind), and about a TBLSP of vaseline. My brother in law took some cattin this morning and caught channels on it even par with the doctored liver as well as night crawlers. It ain't no magic , but a doughball made of wax is a novel idea and it works. It is fished just as you would a doughbait and I will be further field testing it in the morning. I had to share this with yall, maybe someone will wanna try it. I may have to adjust the mix as the water warms, but we will see. The testing and tweaking is the funnest part of any concoction, ya know.

[Blackwater]

Thanks, Maxi! Always good to have a new catbait. Will be going to Santee-Cooper later this year for them big ol' rascals they have there. A buddy's got them in the boat to about 60 lbs., and had them TO the boat much bigger, but .... well, ya' ever tried to NET a fish THAT big? Nets break in two, and all sorts of fun can be had. Me? I'll be satisfied with all the 5-20 pounders I can get. Them big ones are too dang much WORK! Really plays havoc with the ol' back injury.

Anyone else got any good catfish bait recipes? Can we make this thread a compilation of these, please? All "secret recipes" to be guarded withour lives, naturally.

I haven't done it yet, but have been toying with the idea at least, for a catbait. I'm thinking a combo of shrimp, suitably "aged," chicken livers, also suitably "aged," corn meal, and a binding agent, would cover a lot of bases. Will prolly make up a batch of just the shrimp, and just the liver, to try alongside the combo mix. Catfish can be dang peculiar about what they want to eat on a given day.

Also thought that, with worms being so dang 'spensive these days, that a bunch smushed up (technical term) in some corn meal with a binder, just might catch the odd cat or two. Same with some smushed up live bait. You can't use bream for bait, but you CAN use it as an ingredient in your "secret family recipe." Just to keep an "enterprising" fish cop from hasseling you, might be good to mix in a little shrimp or other cover scent, though, for "camoflage?"

All I gotta' do is find that dang round tuit, now.

Anyone tried anything similar to my proposed recipes? They're really quite simple, and just seem like they'd work, but you'll have to wait for any personal testimonials/pans 'till I find that round tuit. I KNOW I left it around here SOMEWHERE!

[powderburnerr]

catfish bait hells bells that sounds like a good BP lube recipe just change the parrifin to Beeswax ............ Dean.... It would definately open eyes at thee range..

[SharpsShooter]

catfish bait hells bells that sounds like a good BP lube recipe just change the parrifin to Beeswax ............ Dean.... It would definately open eyes at thee range..


I believe I'll stand upwind if you shoot that concoction.:mrgreen:

[357maximum]

RECIPE NO LONGER AVAILABLE ,LIMITED TIME OFFER TO KEEP IT OFF SEARCH ENGINES. IF TRULY INTERESTED P.M. ME AND I WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO SHARE WITH MEMBERS. My inner circle found out I posted it here and freaked, and I want them to just shut the ell up, so it is gone.

[waksupi]

Grand dad had a favorite catfish bait. When we would casterate pigs, he would collect about a half coffee can full. Mixed in some chicken intestine, and set the mess up on top of the hog shed in the sun for about a week. Good bait, but NASTY to use!

[Blackwater]

Thanks Maxi and Waksupi. I've always fished for 1-5 lb. cats in the little blackwater river that my family's lived near since 1763, and my buddy promises me he's going to tie me into some BIG ones at Santee. He usually uses shrimp, and of course anyone who's ever fished for cats much knows this is a classic bait for them. Folks who've never fished for cats much think they're easy to catch, and will bite most anything rank. T'ain't necessarily so. Best bait I've ever used in the little blackwater river is the common (or not so terribly common these days) catalpa (pronounced "catawba" here) worm. Let the scent of those things get in the water and sometimes they won't bite anything else. If I can find some, I may try to make some bait up using them for a base.

Shrimp and chicken livers are the most common baits for cat, and they surely work. My buddy's had some awfully big fish to the boat. He's one of the few whose word I'll trust when it comes to really outsized cats. He's an old river rat who grew up on the river banks, literally. Lived a lot with his grandma and grandpa, and they lived a very traditional old time way. She ran the home and he fished, hunted and trapped, and did seasonal farm and construction work. The first time my buddy got caught in the Ogeechee's backwoods, he was age 8, and he shot his first deer at 6. For many, many years, he fished and/or hunted about 300 days a year, and he turned down promotions on his regular job because it would have meant he wouldn't get home in time to hunt and fish. He also used to shoot for money, anywhere there was money to be at stake. He had eyes like an eagle, and was the best shot I've ever known. And he's best when pressured, unlike most folks. He's shot live pigeons for a fellow for BIG money, and always held his own. He was always a big winner at the turkey shoots held around here, where they shoot pitched targets. He used to shoot pitched pennies and pebbles out of the air with both a rifle and pistol, and this made him positively deadly at the turkey shoots. He aimed the shotgun like a rifle. You have to when at the usual 16 yds. he'd diddled with his choke until he got it shooting a near caliber sized hole at that distance.

In other words, he knows his way around the woods and waters pretty darned good. You can't put that much time in and not learn a thing or two, and he really knows how to pay attention. He's the most tuned in man to his surroundings I've ever known, and we've hunted together a good bit, and shot together a lot as well. He's also the funniest fellow I've ever fished with, and my son used to love going fishing with him because he'd keep the boy in stitches laughing at the tales he could tell of almost every pocket, snag, slough, hole and bank there was along that river. I know of nobody who's spent more of his life on HIS time than this friend.

Of course you KNOW how "good buddies" are, and of course he'd wait until my back problems are getting worse to haul my **** off to fish for 100 lb. cats, right? Oh well, I've done worse .... MUCH worse, but we won't talk about that just now, OK?

He's my prime field tester of ideas I come up with, and just thought making up a good cat bait might be appropriate for his showing me some of his secret holes and rigs, etc.

Has anyone used cod liver oil to "enhance" any cat baits? I've seen recipes off and on for 40+ years, but never used them for one reason or another, but I figure it's something whose time has finally come for me. When we start fishing for cats in the past, we'll usually each use different baits until we find out what they want to bite that day and time, and then we'll both use whatever they seem to want to bite best that day. I know he sometimes uses herring, both live and as cut bait, and sometimes chicken livers and shrimp straight out of the grocery store packages, but that stuff doesn't stay on the hooks that well, according to my occasional use in the past - one reason I've never used any more than I have, plus the fact it gets stinky and sticky after a while.

That dried bait sounds really appealing, and I'm betting it'll work really well. Thanks a bunch, and I DO feel very privileged because I know how closely some of these recipes are guarded. Around here, you'll get more response from asking a fella' about his intimate moments with his wife than about his catfish bait recipes! Ain't that sumthin'!

Any more secret recipes? I'd contribute, but don't have any. General guidelines of ingredients will suffice. I just KNOW some of you boys have some good stuff to recommend .... if you will????

[357maximum]

I have been fishing cats since I could hold a rod and not get pulled in. I now have an 18 foot mod v flatbottom that has no other purpose in life it sports blacklights and the whole shimola. It is basically a carpeted barge and we sit in lawn chairs , a mobile bank if you will.

. I have tried everything, ( I mean everything) and you have read what I came up with for channels. It is superior to everything else. I have caught channels from tadpole size fiddlers to 20+ pounds on it and alot of them. Now if you want to tangle with bigger channels, or flatheads there is only one type of bait to use. BIG AND LIVELY BAITFISH (preferably wild caught) or an eater size green sunfish.

as for blue cats I cannot advise, they don't live here. Some say they do, but those that do are seeing their first truly large channel.

Thanks it is kinda nice to share some of this cattin stuff. I have local waters that have cats , nice cats, but the numbers aren't what the southern boys are used to, and I would rather have all the would be locals sittin on bank tossing worms out and taking the occassional cat, cause they kill all they catch. Don't get me wrong I am not a no kill angler, but if all the would be's caught em like we do, there would not be any, cause most would not have the damn sense to throw some back. It also amazes me how many people only go cattin at night, if they only knew......

Michael

[Mk42gunner]

For rod and reel fishing i like to use plain old river worms, enough to make a wad the size of a golf ball. I use a slip sinker above a swivel then about an 18" leader and a good sharp hook.
The only problem is the best places to dig worms are some awfully snakey places.

Robert

[Blackwater]

Mk42, I've considered building a worm bed - concrete walls and bottom and all that. When I was a kid, Dad used to always stop by a local home that had worm beds, and their bait was the best. Red worms sold here now sure are anemic looking, compared to those. I think it's all in how you feed them, and those old folks knew how to feed 'em, apparently.

Best worms for cats, day in and day out, are what we call "jumpers" here. They're the large, thick, tough blue-gray-greenis ones with pink & purple irridescence, and big cats prefer these to all others. They're getting more expensive for a smaller amount, though, and I'd have to have a bed of these, and a bed of red worms for bream and little cats. I have a little branch by the house, and it stays pretty cool down by the creek, so that's where I'd have to put it, so the summer heat wouldn't kill them. Would have to keep the worm eaters out, too, and I think a screen wire mesh could do that, and still let the bed breathe.

My son and some buddies used to just LOVE going to the little drainage ditches and catch a cooler full of crawdads, and at times, nothing beats them for good sized cats. Excellent trot line bait.

Those catawbas sure are reliable, in season, too.

Most of the really big ones I've seen taken out of our little blackwater river were caught on live bream, though, just as 357 Maxi says. It's illegal over in SC to use them, so I've been wondering about making up some bream flavored dough bait, and maybe throwing in some crawdad in for seasoning?

Let's see now .... bream, crawdad, worms, catawbas, shrimp, chicken livers and blood .... certainly no shortage of candidates for good catbait! Add in garlic, and all sorts of other flavorings, and .... well, the possibilities could keep a fella' fishing and testing for quite a while. That's why those old family recipes are so closely guarded.

I think the biggest "trick" if there is one, is knowing when to offer them to Mr. Whiskers. Other than that, live baitfish seems to be the most productive bait for the really big ones. I hear that some folks break the law and use an odd foul hooked bream for bait. The lawdogs keep a good watch there most days, though, and as the saying goes, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." Besides, it's more fun to experiment with stuff anyway.