Cat Guys (and Gals) Question #2

Last year, I started to use dip (Secret 7) and punch (Sudden Impact) and really liked both. What I did not like was treble hooks and re-baiting so often. Late in the season, it occured to me that mixing a small amount of dip that I thinned out with oil with cut bait and letting is marinate in the bait fridge for a few hours. I had pretty good luck with this – I don’t know if it was better than either cut of dip alone, but I sure caught some fish. It was a lot less hassle than dipping or punching and I got to use circle hooks. Anybody else do similar? What do you think?

I personally will not use stink bait. I use live or cut bait.

You don’t have to use trebles with stink or punch baits, in fact, I refuse to use the terrible little trebles that come with them. Use a 4/0 octopus, circle, or double action hook with the stink bait tubes and you will be just fine.

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You don’t have to use trebles with stink or punch baits, in fact, I refuse to use the terrible little trebles that come with them. Use a 4/0 octopus, circle, or double action hook with the stink bait tubes and you will be just fine.

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Same here if I even Use dip bait.

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terrible little trebles

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Funny you guys mention this (trebles)! I’ve been working on the text for a treble vs circle report for later this spring. Just need pictures.

Bend down the barbs on your circles or trebles and you’ll like both much better.

I’m out the door.

Hope to see you guys at the Sports Show!

When using stink bait tubes and dip the bait cut off the trebles and use single hooks. It works the same and a whole lot easier to remove. Anytime you can dress up a bait and get better hits, do it again.

I prefer circles with stinkbait too. Nothing worse than catching a stubborn channel with a treble hook that refuses to open his mouth so you can try and remove the 3 hooks of the treble that have penetrated the flesh.

The other thing I like is the same reason I love circles for suckers early in the year. They can nibble and peck all they want and you won’t be tempted to set the hook. You’ll be able to tell when a fish has hooked itself.

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I personally will not use stink bait. I use live or cut bait.

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Always prefer live cut bait, but there have been times with the kids when the fish are just smacking everything, and stink bait is a lot cheaper and easy to dunk and toss out then putting on fresh bait. But again when I’m flying solo I prefer cut BC it tends to get bigger fish to shore/boat, and I’d rather catch one 7# than 5 2-3#s.

I’ve been playing around with scent delivery systems for years but have never come up with one that I like. I do a lot of drifting and trolling and I want something that puts a scent in the water and leads them to my cut bait offering. I want something that holds and disperses a scent but that I can take off my line easily at the end of the day so it doesn’t stink up the boat and my rods in storage.

I built a prototype over the winter that I plan on trying out this spring. It is designed to hold a sponge that is soaked in a combination of scent oil and fish gel. I’m using anchovy paste thinned out with a Pro-Cure Fish Oil that is soaked into a sponge which is then placed in a scent holder on my leader about 6″ or so above my cut bait. I found a simple easy way to make a scent holder and my early experiments are promising. I’ll let you know how it works out. Here are some pictures of what the scent holder looks like:

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I’ve been playing around with scent delivery systems for years but have never come up with one that I like. I do a lot of drifting and trolling and I want something that puts a scent in the water and leads them to my cut bait offering. I want something that holds and disperses a scent but that I can take off my line easily at the end of the day so it doesn’t stink up the boat and my rods in storage.

I built a prototype over the winter that I plan on trying out this spring. It is designed to hold a sponge that is soaked in a combination of scent oil and fish gel. I’m using anchovy paste thinned out with a Pro-Cure Fish Oil that is soaked into a sponge which is then placed in a scent holder on my leader about 6″ or so above my cut bait. I found a simple easy way to make a scent holder and my early experiments are promising. I’ll let you know how it works out. Here are some pictures of what the scent holder looks like:

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Can we pre order these Steve?

Steve,

Add some smelly jelly triple x shad in that and hold on.

Love that Steve has a tackle box labeled ‘scent box’.

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Steve, Add some smelly jelly triple x shad in that and hold on.

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Kevin – That 3X Smelly Jelly Shad was good stuff – it worked good for sturgeon. Trouble is if you got it on anything else you had to throw it away.

Kev – When I get the bugs worked out of on this new scent holder I’ll get you a few to try out. The holder itself costs pennies. One day I’m eating lunch and my wife had a bag of carrots held shut by this IKEA storage clip. I picked it up and started looking at it and I had this picture of it in my head of it holding a small sponge when the clip is closed. So I took one and made a coupe of strategic holes in it to easily thread a leader thru and Voila a scent holder was made. I also added a couple of more strategic holes in it for scent dispersal. The holder goes on and off a leader easily and the sponges can be added or changed in seconds. You can get a bag of 30 of the holders from the IKEA Store for about $3.

The scent is the challenge. I need a scent a little more liquid than smelly jelly and less expensive too. I am trying to use anchovy paste (which you can buy at any Grocery Store) and cutting that with some type of oil to make it easier for the sponge to absorb. I got some Pro-Cure Anise Oil for the initial trials. I would like to come up with something a little cheaper than that so I am still experimenting with the actual scent product.

Anyway, at the end of the day you just take out the used sponges and throw them away. You can leave the scent holder on your leader and just add a new sponge next trip out. You can buy packs of sponges at the dollar store so sponges are easy to come buy – just trim them with a scissors to get them to fit the scent holder.

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Can we pre order these Steve?

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Paul – I probably shouldn’t have said anything until I find out if they work. Send me a PM with your address and I’ll send you a couple to try out. The whole thing may just be a waste of time. Nothing ventured – nothing gained.

I wanna couple too Steve, Id like to try them on dittypoles and see which bait works best, shrimp, bluegills etc. To get them to home in would be ideal.

Threw it away? All you have to do is put whatever you got it on on a hook. That stuff is marvelous on a nice crisp wheat cracker too. I will give them a try but I don’t know about the plastic box. I think they might not like that and spit it. If I am running 6 rods, that makes for a nice control group.