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.
Stink Bait- the catfisherman’s fish locator!
If you don’t have a bite in 10-15 minutes it’s time to look for a new location!
The results above show what the channels preferred…
..and the winner is…>drum roll please<
Rotten Shad!!
Yes, we did have to keep Jesse happy too.
27 inches and I’m not telling what it was caught on!
Thank you for the trip it was……an adventure as always to say the least but still a time to be had. For the record stink bait does still stink after it’s been in BK’s mouth.
Who’d a thunk that walleye would hit some rotten shad stink bait
Cool Report…. Sounds like it was a fun afternoon.
Nice report Brian. I’d need a little more convincing to haul around stinkbait and risk spillage in the tacklebox, even though I have no issues with Gulp in the box. So I am going to wait for the results when you put it up against my channel numbers bait, crawlers. Wait, I am vaguely remembering an old stinkbait vs. crawlers challenge report where you fished off Everett’s dock, or am I vaguely mistaken?
I know Bk has a way with words…. But WE DO NOT want to know why you would smell anything in his mouth. BreTT is going to be very upset with Bk for cheating.
Would you like fries with that?
Nice report Brian
So Brian,are you going to market it as walleye bait ?
Very perceptive! However I think the walleye guys would have a fit if they knew their favorite fish would eat anything other than a bright colored hair jig.
Too many preconceived notions.
I can’t believe your mother ever let you out of the house, hope you had a big glass of milk to chase that down.
She was never really willing to.
Nice work B,
I have been having a hard time getting out lately. the fish should be going great here right now nearly post spawn te females get off the beds and the males stay you can get a bunch of big ones and few small ones. Did you get a chance to run those rigs I gave you? I like the mono much better for those tubes. If you find a nice bunch of eaters like that you are into males. The bigger fish are just a little shallower most of the time or deeper if it is post spawn. Time to think about shallow weeds. I tried circles once here and found my hookup percentage went down drastically. If you fish those with floats they don’t swallow the trebles if you hit them right away. I haven’t seen a fish hurt badly with trebles in 5 plus years.
Great read and informational report Mr. K
I can’t get to upset, once Brian starts hitting the stink bait he looses all control
Speaking of loosing control…I just realized I over looked the Blood flavor…the third dimension!
I hope it’s not raining Friday…it’s too early in the year to get wet!
Good report! Can’t wait to fish the Sippi again this summer, my favorite time to fish it!