im looking to find out what other peoples favorite cat fish baits are. Personaly like berkley chicken livers and berkley nuggets but i have had luck with other homemade stuff to. So let me know what your favorite bait is.
You must be talking about channel cats. My stand-by is cut sucker (it’s what I’ve used most), but I have also had luck on redhorse, smelt, and fatheads. I haven’t broadened my horizons much further than that.
Hey Luke,
Welcome to the Miss Catfish forum.
IMO the best bait is what you have confidence in.
For channels I prefer cut sucker (like ralph above). Tried the packaged and stinkers but didn’t get the results that I wanted.
For Flats I prefer live bait, because that’s what I have confidence in.
Another member on this site out fishes me pretty often with cut bait for Flats. I have never caught any flats on cut but my fishing partner DTRO can make it happen regularly enough to make me scratch my head.
There are many baits that work out there but again its what you have confidence in that will make the difference for you.
I had my best luck by far on shad this year. We caught a lot of big channels on them.
Cut suckers have their good days, other days the fish wont touch them. Early in the year I use a couple pinched off fatheads and have excellent results. Shiners work well also.
I have had NO luck on any type of pre-packaged, or stink baits. I have caught a few nibblers, but no fish of any size. A chunk of meat is the only thing that I have had consistent success with.
It sounds silly, but never overlook leeches for channel cat bait, I have had many walleye trips turn into phenominal channel cat trips.
Have you guys ever tried shrimp? Learned it from a buddy and works well. Don’t mind sharing, and I do want to see if any of you guys have tried it as well. What I do is I usually set aside a couple jumbo shrimps you get from the grocery/sea market. Head on or off is fine and seal it in a zip lock bag. Leave it in the sunlight for a day or so before going out. This has always done the trick. Although I don’t fish much for cats, its fun when I do go out though.
I’ve had great success with dip baits for channels
use a bright color dip worm on a slider rig
I’ve had success all season long
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Sonny’s blood bait outproduces cut bait for me 5 to 1. I do like a nice bluegill for big flatties. I will use a frozen or dead shiner or shad in the spring.
yep and dont forget the redtails anytime flats or channels
I think I used everything at one point last year.
Early season channels love cut up mooneye and cut shad worked well when I ran out of those. Later on in the year Sonny’s Super Sticky did well…it’s funny you mentioned 5 to 1 kev. When I had Catten Addict out, he fished cut sucker and I fished Sonny’s. My five fish weren’t trophy’s (one approached 5 lbs), but it was better than a goose egg!
I’m the traditional MN bullhead guy for Flatties…. but then again…at sometimes of the year…a live sucker or bullhead just wouldn’t get bit….
If the movie will not start for you or you connect to the internet using a dial-up connection it is recommended that you right-click on the video link and choose “save target as.” Once the video has finished downloading you can play the movie on your machine.
yep, plenty’o kitty on the old chunk last year.
If I was limited to one bait and one bait only, it would be a nice big creek chub. They stay relatively nice and lively and make a good slimy smelly oily chunk when they finally kick it.
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a good slimy smelly oily chunk when they finally kick it.
Thats not right.. I just got one of those *bullhead wine* flashbacks from this summer!
One good thing about winter, if there is a cooler of wine left around, its easy to send away with the garbage man frozen 
I don’t know, bullhead wine has never made me gag, however Shad soup has.
I had to usethe backspace… a little too graphic 
Had something to do with a little ziplock baggy full of slime with 24 eyeballs floating around Thats what is encountered if you forget a bag of shad in a hot summer truck for a week.
So if you see a white van that’s almost black with flys this summer…send a pm to Dave…or better yet…to Fisher Sherry…let her tell him! 
Luke, what areas are you fishing?
I like shrimp on occasion too, including the precooked canned tiny bumblebee ones. But I prefer fresh shrimp, but the fresh stuff falls apart easy even with the shell and has to be changed often. Otherwise I like smelt. I did also liked the shad from Moore’s. I probably used fresh cut sucker and shad the most.
Ahhhh Brian,
that was some much needed therapy. Nothing the like the sweet smell of summer and the sound of Crunching sucker heads……
I’ve seen that vid a number of times and never tire of it.
thanks for sharing again.
Larry
It’s coming Larry…slowly…but it’s coming. 
I gotta go with the shad too. I not only saw numbers of fish caught but also good size while using them.
Dtro… for the record on the bullhead wine thing… I have gaged. And that was while approaching Daves van from 10 ft. away as he kindly asked me for help in the dumping of the cooler process. Hot summer days and trapped bullheads in the back of daves van is a never a good thing. Pretty nasty stuff!!…… I’m sure he is laughing as he reads this…..
Well, if that video doesn’t make you anxious to go catfishing I don’t know what does! Hopefully I can hook into a flat this year!
As for the bait, I have to say shad, just because it seemed to work well for me last year, but I don’t have much to compare it to!
Unfortunately,I haven’t really had the pleasure of smelling the actual soup or wine, but did smell the remaining odor in Dave’s van! I have a feeling now that I said that, I’m going to smell one or both this season! And there will definitely be some gagging!
Speaking of video’s… I have a new toy on the way that is supposed to be here in the next week or 2
I hope to get good at using it before the April Fool’s gathering.
I cant wait to catch the expressions on Mr Keb’s face as Whisker Hooked is doing the usual *fish hawging* 
Blacksportman should be able to be the comedy relief when we tell him *you have a run!* after he passes out in his lawn chair.. he doesnt miss a step 
And dtro can create impressive audibles when eels enter the boat! 
If anyone catches a mudpuppy before the event, please keep it alive and bring it, we will put it in Bob Moores Minnow bucket and get the 1st edition of 2007 outdoor-out-takes!
May I bring to your attention this quote from another thread… Straight from the mouth of Mr. Fisher Dave…
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How come every time a prank has transpired from unknown origin, I become the spotlight of attention?
Guilty before proven innocent
Hmm…
Nice one Sherry! 
He walked himself right into that one!
Dave-I look forward to this new toy! 
There’s a lot of stuff that I wish could have been caught on video!
I mainly fish pool 8 and 9 but ill have my liscence for this summer 
so my stomping grounds will expand. But for cats i usually fish below the dam in neshonoc, dresbach, and genoa. But i fish a lot of sloughs too by mud banks.
So when you fish the sloughs…I’m sure you run into some flatheads I would think?
We have some sloughs around here and I know there’s some nice size flats that come out of there…any tips as to what to look for in a slough?
I usually look for a muddy bank with a some cover(sticks). Sometimes some weeds can be alright too. But mud banks are the main icon to look for becuase around here they hide in the banks a lot.
Good Luck
Luke, your sloughs…they have very little current most of the year?
ya, they usually there isnt a lot of current in the sloughs at all. But sometimes there can be an undertoe.
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