Catfish Question

[Dapper Dan Man]

I have always been told that the worst smelling bait always produces the best results. Is this a good rule of thumb? I have some chicken livers that I put in handy little sacs and garlic salt that I didn't end up using and have been sitting outside the back side of the shop since last October I think, it could be longer. Just wanted to get some opinions on if this would be a good idea to use or not. Thanks in advance!

[LittleRedFisherman]

For Channel Cats that seems to be the case sometimes. The best dip bait I've used it to take just standard Docs dip bait, and mix it with some commercial Cheese those guys use for log traps. Used to wear them out on that stuff, and smelled horrible.

[RSBreth]

I've really only caught little Channels with stink bait but some people swear by it.

[Clayton Will]

I'd throw that stuff away. It may give you the Lumpuckaroo!!! I'd do the milk or buttermilk trick for a day on what I needed and start over the next day.

[jim m]

it depends on the species of cats, channels like stinky but they also like shad or cut bait, blues like fresh cut bait better, and flatheads prefer live bait. for big flatheads there is nothing better than live blue guill

[Tim Smith]

it depends on the species of cats, channels like stinky but they also like shad or cut bait, blues like fresh cut bait better, and flatheads prefer live bait. for big flatheads there is nothing better than live blue guill

Ditto.

Not sure it's worth getting stinky for cats when other things work too.

[jim m]

if you want some smell just cut up some blue guill or shad and leave in the gutts. the only bait I buy is worms then I just catch some guills for bait

[Blazerman]

I have caught a ton of catfish, big and small on Junnie's wicked sticky catfish stink bait. Even caught Flathead on it and it does a good job of staying on the hook with the dip tubes.

Also caught some good ones on minnows last year. If I was going after strictly flatheads i would only use live bait.

As far as that stuff you have outside the shop, it will probably work but I would use rubber gloves when using it and put a clothespin on your nose.

[Al Agnew]

Many years ago, I got a good lesson in how well catfish can smell, which convinced me that stinkbait is pretty much overkill; they'll eat it but they'll also eat things that don't smell nearly as strongly and are more pleasant to use.

I had made acquaintance with a guy who regularly fished the Mississippi River near Ste. Genevieve for catfish, and he took me on a couple of trips with him. His main strategy was to hike along the levee and fish the wing dams, using mostly nightcrawlers, for blue and channel catfish, though he had certain spots that were good for big flatheads, and he used green sunfish for them. Anyway, we would walk out onto a wing dam, toss in nightcrawler-baited hooks, and wait up to one minute, no more. Now, understand, this water was muddy, visibility 6 inches or less, so there is no way that fish could locate a nightcrawler by sight unless it dropped in front of their nose. Nor are nightcrawlers the noisiest things in the world, so they couldn't locate it by sound, either. But if we didn't get a bite within one minute, he would reel in and either go at least 50 feet farther out on the wing dam, or go to the next wing dam. He kept telling me that the fish either weren't always on a wing dam, or weren't feeding, but if they were there and feeding, they would smell the nightcrawler and find it within a minute at most.

Later, going a few times without him and wanting to prove to myself that this was true, I would spend a half hour on a wing dam, waiting to see if the fish would eventually come by. Never did catch anything but drum and carp doing that...if I hadn't gotten a bite from a catfish within a minute, I simply wasn't going to get a bite, period. It finally convinced me that if a catfish can locate a nightcrawler anywhere up to 30 feet away in a minute or less, there was no need to use something really smelly on them.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Fish oil isn't a bad attractor. Put some cut up fish parts in a Mason jar with a lid. Let it set in the sun for a week or so until you see a good amount of liquid. Dip your bait in it. The reason for the jar and the lid is that you don't it on anything you value, period.