Red Wing Channel Cats 5/01/10

It was windy on Saturday with gust to 35 mph. Ido Reporter Jessy Krook and I set up shop on what we reverently call Ol’ Pete’s hole.

It’s not really a hole, more like a narrow trench that cuts through a back water with a maximum depth of 19 feet. Muddy bottom with some current, but not much considering the river flow was at 25000 cfs.

Our goal was to taste test a couple flavors of stink bait. We were using Sonny’s Original Super Sticky as the bench mark because it’s what Ol’ Pete uses and he’s been using it since Sonny was a baby! The other bench mark was freshly cut sucker head, kind of the channel cat fisherman’s go to bait in these parts.

I should add that it took some convincing to get Jesse to come along. He’s not really into the eater channel cats…and less interested in a taste test.

Left rod cut bait, rod #2 was Rotten Shad flavor stink, rod #3 was Sonny’s and rod #4 was Chicken Liver flavored stink bait. Since one day does not tell the whiskered tail (pun), the company that makes the flavors adorning the stink bait tubes on rod #2 and #4 will be known as Company X for the time being.

Once in the water, it didn’t take long at all before the rod tips started bending and the channels came to the dinner bell. In fact there were times that by the time we release a channel the next rod was bending giving us some very fast action! Our fish may not have been trophies but it was a relaxing afternoon with great whiskered action and a little fun picking on the walleye guy in the boat with me.

The end result for our taste test were as follows:

Numbers caught…

1st Place: Brand X Chicken Liver

2nd Place: Brand X Rotten Shad

2nd Place: Sonny’s Original

3rd Place: Cut sucker

Here’s some observations about the stink baits. The chicken liver flavor seemed softer than the other baits. This may have led to more of a scent stream in the 58 to 60 degree water. Sonny’s and Brand X’s Rotten Shad stayed on and in the tube baits longer which was nice in the fact that we didn’t have to worry about re-baiting as often. The cut sucker did give us our largest fish although it was lagging way behind in number of bites. I’m not giving up on cut bait, but I will let the fish tell me what they want.

Those cat were just smacking the stink bait. If we wouldn’t have been using rod holders, I’m sure I would be talking to Everts about a new rod. Most of the time it was WACK…Fish ON!

One plus that I notice about both of the Brand X flavors is they were about a third of the price of a tub of Sonny’s. This makes a day of fishing about as inexpensive as it can get unless you pick your own crawlers.

About terminal tackle. I dislike the treble hooks that come with most tube baits. They get wrapped in cardboard and tossed in the garbage. Today, like others I use a 3/0 or 4/0 circle hook and pierce the hook through the tube. In fact I feel the tubes are too long at 1+ inches. I’ve been cutting them in half and then placing them on the hooks. This also eliminates the thin mono leader that comes with the tubes. Channels like other cats aren’t leader shy so I use Cortlands 80 pound Master Braid for a leader. Same stuff I have spooled on my reels. Strong for flats and sturgeon also convenient for use with the smaller channels.

I don’t know how many times I’ve over looked stink bait in my channel cat fishing because it’s known to catch smaller fish. We’ve all heard it, use cut bait if you want the larger channel cats. I think this holds true most of the time although Whiskerkev on Lake Mendota will sure argue this as he has trophy cats taken by stink every year. For us that don’t have a trophy water in our back yard, and want a relaxing day on the water with your rod tips bending frequently, it’s tough to beat the cheesy stink of the old standby stink baits.