Catfish homebrew baits. What do you use?

[gunz]

Just started getting back into catfishing. Wondering what everyone uses for bait. Tried Punchboats, but they all seem to suck.

Cut shad seem to be the go to. But are harder to come by and I have no way to keep them for the next outing if I don't use em.


Anyhow what is your recipe or secret bait.

 

[Wyatt]

Canadian night crawlers personally work the best for me. A close 2nd place would be cut up hot dogs in garlic powder and strawberry kool-aid.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread so see what others are using.

 

[overboard]

One of the best baits we ever used for catfish was manure worms that we dug from around the piles of manure where farmers had pigs.
Other than s**t worms, I don't know what the proper term for them is, but they are reddish with yellow bands around them, and when you put them on the hook, a yellowish juice comes out of them. We have also used groundhog liver, shrimp, night crawlers, pieces of McDonalds rodeo burger :lol: , and cut bait. Seems like the cut bait is what a lot of others use and is pretty well a go to bait.
I would go on some catfish forums and search for what they use for bait, you might be surprised and there's probably some homemade concoctions that may even work!

 

[jasper60103]

Chicken liver always worked well for me. Also, stink bait (or dip bait).

 

[FormerParatrooper]

Cut pieces of asian carp. They are all over the river, the barges and other boats kill them and they float to the bank. Cutting the sides off of them works. Channel Cats around 15lbs seem to love it.

 

[lovedr79]

we use strips of flounder bellies.

 

[BigTerp]

For eater size channels chicken livers and punch bait work well for us. Specifically, Danny King's Punch Bait seems to really put them in the boat. Live and cut bluegill/sunfish catch the flatheads and bigger channels. We usually have 3 lines baited with live or cut bluegill and a 4th rigged with the Danny King's. The Danny King's outfishes the other 3 lines, but those 3 lines catch the MUCH bigger fish.

 

[lugoismad]

Hotdogs soaked in strawberry koolaid powder.

 

[juggernot]

The cheapest hot dogs work well for me. One hot dog can be sliced into 6 or 8 coins, no mess, stays on the hook pretty good and if the fish aren't biting you can eat the bait ! (great for bank fishing w a fire).

 

[KMixson]

I use panfish if I can catch them first. I find that the bigger the panfish that you use the bigger the catfish you will catch. If I can't seem to catch any panfish I will use worms and the smaller catfish up to about a pound love them. Using chicken livers or gizzards bring in catfish a little larger up to about 5 pounds. Small panfish will bring in catfish up to about 50 pounds. Large panfish will bring in catfish over 50 pounds. I only keep a catfish to eat if it is about 2 pounds. That is a perfect size for eating in my opinion.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Nothing catches eater catfish like catalpa worms...which I guess is actually a moth caterpillar.

 

[canadian omc]

Panfish/Drum cut into 1" cubes works well, never heard of the hotdog thing though. I guess I'll be trying that out tonight

 

[keelme]

I have used strawberry koolaid powder and corn mill little water and made a ball ...hard to cast so I would push my botton on the reel and throw the ball

 

[Abraham]

I like turkey liver because it's a little tougher and stays on the hook better. never got into the exotic catfish baits I hear about.

 

[KMixson]

I like turkey liver because it's a little tougher and stays on the hook better. never got into the exotic catfish baits I hear about.

When using baits that are very soft like liver you can use pantyhose and tie them into small bags of pantyhose. Then you can just hook the bag to your hooks. It is a little extra work but it works if that is what you really want to use.

On a side note, I have even heard of some guys using WD-40 and saturating their bait in it to catch catfish. It supposedly contains fish oil which the fish are attracted to. I have never tried that.

 

[user 20022]

Common carp and fresh water drum with team catfish double action circle hooks.

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

 

[lugoismad]

I like turkey liver because it's a little tougher and stays on the hook better. never got into the exotic catfish baits I hear about.

When using baits that are very soft like liver you can use pantyhose and tie them into small bags of pantyhose. Then you can just hook the bag to your hooks. It is a little extra work but it works if that is what you really want to use.

On a side note, I have even heard of some guys using WD-40 and saturating their bait in it to catch catfish. It supposedly contains fish oil which the fish are attracted to. I have never tried that.

You can use medical gauze as well, they make it in tubes, so you can tie one end, put your bait in, and then tie it shut.

Don't use WD-40, its terrible for the environment.

 

[lugoismad]

I like turkey liver because it's a little tougher and stays on the hook better. never got into the exotic catfish baits I hear about.

a grocery store near me sells pork and beef liver, both of which are a good deal tougher than chicken. I've not tried using them yet, though.

 

[onthewater102]

Tried using chicken liver for bullheads with my son - dear God those things stink like raw sewage. Didn't get so much as a nibble. Must be doing something wrong.