What is your favorite manufactured catfish bait?

I have been getting into catfishing the past few years, and I am hoping to do a lot more of it now that the weather is getting nice. I know there are a lot of cat guys here with a lot of experience, and I was curious as to what some of your favorite manufactured dip or punch baits are. Never used them before but looking for something I would be able to keep in the toolbox of the truck so it is always there for a quick trip after class or work. Also what are your favorite worms or holders for fishing these baits.

Thanks a bunch,
Bill

In no particular order as the cats tell me daily which one they prefer…

Sonny’s (tube and circle hook)
Sudden Impact Fiber Bait (treble hook with barbs bent down)
Secret Seven (tube and circle hook)

I’ll have to locate a photo of how I use the tubes. It’s a little different.

I’ve always liked sonny’s blood but plan on trying sudden impact this year

Had good luck with sudden impact. Only smaller fish, but it got em.

Here you go Bill. I cut the tube in half, then use a circle hook with the barb bend down (unless fishing with someone that puts slack in their line).

In most cases there isn’t a need to have stink bait flying all over the boat… unless you’re a bait manufacturer or feel the need to draw from a long area. I haven’t found the need for the later yet.

I haven’t had the chance to try Sonny’s blood. But I guess I haven’t found the need to try another bait yet either. Between the three prepared baits and the 4th rod with either cut bait (most often) or a crawler, there’s seldom where at least one performs well.

There’s other baits out there and their users swear by them.

Everts Resort and 4 Seasons Sports in Red Wing stock all the Team Catfish gear.

I’m not sure of the area you live in though.

I would also have to say my first choice has almost always been Sonny’s. I ran it most of the time on rib worms but I like looks of the circle hook in a cut tube. That looks like it would work really well. But it’s been a few years now sense I have targeted cats, so I haven’t really been in the loop, but hopefully this year I will take some time to chase some.

I am in Stevens Point WI, The local store carry’s several different kinds of Sonny’s so I might pick up some of that the next time I go there, from what I remember they had blood flavor and cheese flavor. I didn’t look too much at the tubes they had there, but I believe they had Team Catfish stuff there as well. There is a Gander Mountain about 30 miles away in Wausau, not sure what they carry, but I could always order some online as well if I can’t find any locally.

Does this prepared bait catch more smaller cats or the larger cats? Do the cats of different sizes have a preference of what they chose too eat? Thanks.

Mr. Riverruns, that’s the common misconception about prepared baits.

Now if I was fishing a tourny I would lean to cut bait unless it was a quantity tourny.

I did a test a number of years back with Catten Addict.
Two rods each. One anchored location. He used cut sucker and I used stink. End of the night I had 5 to his zero. I will admit my largest fish was 5 pounds.

Another time I was out with John Stienhaugher. (sorry for the spelling John).
Three rods with three different flavors of stink and one with cut sucker. I don’t recall the exact number of fish brought in the boat but in the fairly short time we were out it was around 10-12. Only one fish came in on the cut bait…but it was the largest somewhere around 9ish pounds.

The thought that only small fish come from stink bait is simply not true.

Ol’ Pete at the resort uses Sonny’s Cheese exclusively. Between his towels and over loading the bait tubes his boat can be identified by the smell a long way down wind. I don’t want my boat to have that odor so I’ll take out the one towel I use for mishaps and drying off tubes…along with using less bait.

Back to size. He and his girl Shirley average 5 pound fish. I’ve seen him release fish pushing 20 pounds. My boat connects with 2 to 7 pound fish regularly when we are targeting channels.

So it really comes down to what body of water you’re fishing and what your goal is. Feeling tugs? Stink bait every time.

Going out for trophy’s with less fish caught? Cut bait is king.

As I said before, I favor having the fish tell me what they want for the day (and it changes daily). At least one rod will have a prepared bait while at least one rod will have cut bait.

Ido Members Thoughts on Stink

Here’s a pretty good thread from this time of the year in 2012.

I personally prefer to use Sonny’s or Secret 7. Though I tend to only use them when I fish the Crow River, for some reason it works VERY well out there compared to any other body of water I have fished. It might have something to do with the small bridge on a dirt road with very little traffic near French Lake that I usually go to. I use just enough weight to keep it down but let the weight and worm ride off the bottom a bit with the current. If the tube and hook are on the bottom I tend to get far fewer bites, but the fish are bigger in most cases with a bottom set hook. I also use ribbed worms with holes in the side, this allows the ribs to catch and hold more bait on the outside while the holes hold onto enough that the fish can find it after the rib held bait is washed off. Just my $0.02

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Mr. Riverruns, that’s the common misconception about prepared baits.

Now if I was fishing a tourny I would lean to cut bait unless it was a quantity tourny.

I did a test a number of years back with Catten Addict.
Two rods each. One anchored location. He used cut sucker and I used stink. End of the night I had 5 to his zero. I will admit my largest fish was 5 pounds.

Another time I was out with John Stienhaugher. (sorry for the spelling John).
Three rods with three different flavors of stink and one with cut sucker. I don’t recall the exact number of fish brought in the boat but in the fairly short time we were out it was around 10-12. Only one fish came in on the cut bait…but it was the largest somewhere around 9ish pounds.

The thought that only small fish come from stink bait is simply not true.

So no fish over 9 pounds….Seems like small fish to me

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

So no fish over 9 pounds….Seems like small fish to me

This thread has my curiosity going.
Although this year is going to be seriously focused on the Wally’s, put in some good cattin time last couple seasons, this new water in the north metro has put out some big fish for me.
All I use is cutbait or crawlers. I’m going to give a good try to the stink and see how they react.
I don’t argue with results.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Ido Members Thoughts on Stink

Here’s a pretty good thread from this time of the year in 2012.

Some funny stuff in that thread!

I can’t say if one brand consistently outperforms another (Sonny’s or Secret 7) and I keep both in the boat. I really think that if there are channel cats around and they are feeding, they will hit stink bait. If they don’t hit the stink bait within 15-20 minutes, it is time to move.

I like Sonny’s regular or blood flavor and I like Cat tracker Wicked Sticky a lot. I’ve used others over the years and mixed them together too. Really if you like dip worms either of the ones I mentioned are good in faster current the wicked sticky does really stay on.

I’ll use conventional worms in current, for still water I like the surgical tube worms with the holes.

Sonny’s over the years has been my no.1 choice, before Sonny’s came out I used Bowkers but don’t know if they even make it anymore. One of the main reasons dip baits produce more smaller catfish is there’s more of them and their always hungry because their growing fast. Because catfish use their sense of smell alot to find food, dip baits fit right in.

I think another reason is bigger fish can eat a bigger meal that will last them awhile but also they won’t pass up another meal even if they have just eaten. Like Dfresh said if you don’t get a hit with fairly short order, 1/2 hr. at most its time to find another spot.

Rippin Lips Bootleg is another good stink bait. Locally around here, Sonny’s has been the long time go to bait. Since the kids took over, I hear a lot of rumors of the difficulty dealers have in getting it. The Rippin Lips products have been growing substitution for sonny’s.

The Sewer Supreme was a cattracker bait i was mixing with leftover Dunkers and that was crazy good bait too. Wicked Sticky had a better consistency, they market them all as Wicked Sticky flavors now so maybe they thickened up the formula of those other flavors. Since I fish live baits most of the time, I haven’t picked up dip bait in a couple years now.