WHICH BAITS WORK BEST?

Which baits for Cats work best? I’m not a big cat fisherman but have enjoyed catching them. My youngest son Nate and I use to fish for them on Lake Zumbro with light tackle and worms and they were a blast to catch. We have caught them on the Mississippi River while fishing for walleyes. It’s alot of fun to tie into one. Is a person better off using live bait or stink bait? Educate a walleye fisherman please. Thanks, Bill

The general rule is if you want to catch flatheads, use live bait. I’m not sure about whats legal in Minnesota, but here in Iowa a bluegill or bullhead is hard to beat. Chubs will work well also, and crawlers{if the carp will leave them alone.} The livelier the bait the better.

For channels, live or cut bait works real well. Chubs, frogs, crawdads,crawlers all will catch them at one time or another. Cut or sour bait seems to be best early in the year. If you want to catch a bunch of eaters and aren’t worried about real big ones, dip bait is hard to beat when the water warms up.

If you are after the channel cat and the water is warm blood or cheese stink bait are both pretty good. Last summer a friend of mine gave me some Catapla stink bait. Green as a gord and is the stinkest stuff I’ve ever used. I’d throw one pole out with it and one pole out with either cheese or blood. Most of the time the Catapla caught more fish. When the bite was really on it did’t seem to matter. My dad and a buddy of his were sold on live leopard frogs. They would use stout poles and very heavy line and get right up in the snags and just dip those frogs. Man did they come home with some nice stringers of fish.

I’ve got to agree with my catfish colleagues here. Live bait is the only way to go. A cat will hit a crank or a plastic worm, but it’s a pretty rare occurrence.

For fishing below the dams, I’ll use fresh chicken livers when things are slow. The problem with livers is that it’s hard to keep the fiddlers off. Leeches will, for reasons unknown to me, keep the smaller fish off. Crawdads will definitely attract the big cats, but are difficult to fish in rocks because they’ll just jump under a snag and hide. It might work to suspend them under a bobber, but that doesn’t seem like a very natural presentation.

Someone once told me that peanut butter was the “secret weapon,” but I’ve never tried it. If it worked, it would be a much more pleasant alternative to cut bait or liver.

Hea Gianni, Do you fish the smaller rivers much or do you stick to the lakes and mighty Missississsissiiissiipi!

You’ll get alot of diferent opinions when the subject of bait comes up to catfisherman. Last summer this very subject came up on FTR and generated alot of comments. If you go back and check it you’ll get alot of info. My humble opinion for the Mississippi (channel cats) is that stink baits will catch smaller fish in general. Crawlers catch em but they also catch every other fish and this can drive a guy crazy if you only want cats. Chicken livers, leeches, grasshoppers, etc. will all catch channels to. Day in and day out though on the MIssissippi its cut bait (suckers and chubs for me) and smaller live bait (4-5 inches) that get me the numbers and quality fish I’m looking for. Cats will show a preference for one or the other on different days. Many nights I’ve had channels just smash live bait and only had a few hits on cut bait and vise versa. Channels will hit bigger live bait to but hooking them with big bait can be a challenge.

Flatheads are livebaiters for sure. QUALITY live bait really helps and it can be very large. Iv’e had them hit cut bait, especially in the spring, but I dont have enough experience with spring flatheads to really comment on patterns that produce consistently.

If you have problems hooking channels you might want to try circle hooks. Some guys dont like them but they greatly increased my hooking percentage last summer. Don’t set the hook. Just engage the reel and hold on or reel slowly. You can also keep your reel engaged with circles. A rod with a soft tip really helps. Good luck!!

Hea Dirk, Do you fish mostly at night for the flats?

I fish the interior rivers probably 80% of the time. I like to fish early in the morning on Saturdays and sometimes before work for an hour or two. It’s just not enough time to drive up to the Miss.

I’ll make as many day-long trips up to the big river as I think my wife will tolerate. Upsetting the master of ceremonies would definitely degrade both the amount and quality of time that I spend fishing.

Oh no, not this topic again. I will stick to my guns that cutbait for channels is tough to beat ( in general) and a live bullhead is hard to be for a flathead. I m sure you chub fans will give me an ear full over this ,but a bullhead is a far superior bait as compared to a chub.

I fish flats and cats in general at night mostly cause it fits my schedule and I’ve had most of my success then. A couple years back however Eye-Guide and I did well for flatheads during the late afternoon in mid August. There are guys who fish flatheads during the day and do well. Check out the latest Catfish Guide. There are some boys who apparently do well for flats on the Minnesota during the day fishing cut baits in snags.

PS – Don’t listen to Big Time’s bullhead crap. Chubs rule!!

Flatheads most certainly can be caught during the day. At least where I fish in Nebraska on the Missouri river. The key is putting the bait very near the fish. I think that flatheads get hungry at different periods throughout the day and if an easy meal presents itself, they will capitalize on it. I don’t feel that they will move far out of their safe haunts to pursue food during most of summer. Spring is a different story all together. They almost seem more active during the day in Spring. In summer though..the key is to stay mobile during the daylight hours. Put yourself on as many good holes as you can in order to find active fish. It’s the exact same as run and gun channel cats only giving each spot a bit longer. I’d say sit for 20 minutes and then move if nothing has touched the baits. If you stay mobile, you can cover a lot of water and possibly find some active cats. If you sit in one spot, you are relying on those few fish to be feeding when you are there. If you move, you have many more fish to present the bait to and increase your odds greatly. Just my two cents.

Matt

I dont care what anybody says…….find a pond overrun with bullheads, throw some bread on the surface and try to net them when they swarm. Try to keep the ones between 6 and 8 inches. When its time to go fishing, put them in ALOT of ice. This makes them stop moving so you can stick your hand in the bucket and grab one. Cut off the spines with a needle nose pliers or a wire cutter, then put a 5/0 circle hook through the tail…..put a large weight about 2 feet up, throw out and wait. Bullheads live through everything. Chubs and suckers are much too sensitive and just arent hardy enough for me. Me and my buddy caught between 20 and 30 big flatheads last season (from 10 to 45 lbs), and they were all on bullheads…..need I say more??

I am going to listen to bigtimes crap. If you are looking to change baits every five minutes use chubs. But I beleive that bullheads are by far the better bait. I read that Insider and wonder at what time of day that guy is catching his fish. We have had good success a hour or so before the sun has set. I am sure that it is also that way after sunrise for a hour or so? I just fine it hard to beleive that this guy is catching them all day.?.. If he is great. I will give it a try.

bullheads, creek chubs…. your all way off…… bluegills, are hands down the best flathead baite in the history of flathead baite….. you can keep them alive forever And they will kick around down there and not just want to hide behind a stick/rock and lay motionless……. bluegills are the way to go….. find yourself a farm pond that has them by the thousands (stunted) and you have the best baite there is…..

Its worth mentioning that us MN anglers can’t legally fish with ‘gils. Only our WI brothers across the crick get that privledge.

There are as many ways to catch flatheads as there are flatheads! But one thing for sure is, they love live bait! The livelier the better. I use Chubs, suckers, and bullheads. The bigger the better! Some of the suckers and chubs we use are 9″ or better! We usually have at least one rod down with a monster minnow, and smaller minnows on others. But, the key is movement! That minnow HAS to be active!!!! I hook all of my minnows JUST behing the dorsal fin. This throws the weight of the minnow forward from the hooking point. This causes the minnow to always fight to stay up into the current, knowing that they will drown if the do not. Yeah, you go through a few minnows, but if you want to see some results, look at the viewers pictures on this site for a few….

Good Luck!!

Tuck

i don’t have as much experience as some guys on the board, but what i’ve found is, for channel cats you must determine one of two things, are you going for big ones, or lots of them. If you’re going for quantity, then I’d say worms are the best bait. You can consistently catch many cats on nightcrawlers or angle worms in the right spot. If you are trying for a trophy, your best bet is cut bait as mentioned (try shad). I caught my biggest channel on a sucker that I had cut the head off of. It bit in the middle of the night, 20 feet deep or so in heavy brush. Of course you can also catch big ones on live bullheads, minnows, worms, etc. If you are fishing a lake, find the deepest part and drift across it with a worm or bait of your choice on the bottom. Keep covering the same section of water until you get a bite. This is an overlooked way to catch tthe largest cats that don’t get much fishing pressure. In a stream, small river, or backwater situation, look for structure, anything that a cat can hide in or under like a culvert, bridge pilings, stumps, down trees, etc. A large river might be more challenging, try log jams and current breaks, or creek mouths. Cats concentrate below dams too.

If you’re going for flatheads, it is a whole different ball game. Bullheads seem to get the fastest action, that’s all I can really say, the cats simply can’t resist them. just make sure you have a large hook, tied good, and heavy line (at least 30 lb. or more). Believe it or not these fish will take chicken liver and night crawlers and even in the middle of the day but you increase your odds after the sun goes down. Try fishing in or near deep water cause the flatheads live in the deepest holes and in the best cover.

I am a believer that the type of baitfish is not as important as how lively it is. If the bait is kicking good, I don’t care if it is a skipjack, bluegill, bullhead…whatever. It’s that movement that attracts the flathead. I doubt they have a certain flavor in mind when they go hunting for food.

matt

Its not that the ´´ flavor´´ is important, but like you say the livelyness. And I have found that bullheads are the most lively baitfish under most conditions.