Fishing with soap

[Mike Dooley]

Has anyone ever used soap to catch cats with? These lakes I have been fishing are excessively full of turtles. Tonight I am setting out some setlines with ivory soap on them. I have heard the best soap to use is Zote, but I have yet to find it. Was just wondering what other soaps y'all have used. I was going to try homemade soap but have found a way to burn water, so there is that. Would any other store bought soap work?

[gabowman]

Welcome to the boards. I've always heard of baiting hooks with soap but IMO there's better bait out there to be had, especially if youre having to buy it.

[Mike Dooley]

Actually I have used just about everything, but this lake is so overrun with turtles that soap was my last option. I didn't get any fish last night, but at least I didn't get any turtles.

[BULLFROG-1]

I used soap one night jugging not long ago and didnt catch anything on the jugs i baited with the soap.There was no bite that night.All i caught was a little gar and a alligator snapping turtle on jugs baited with cut bait.

[boatstall]

Sounds like a great place to stock the freezer with turtle meat.

Turtle Sauce Piquante
Turtle Soup
Fried
Grilled
Use like chicken

As to the soap topic, Zote is typically found to work better than other soaps, due to its high solid fat content. Takes usually a longer soak than an overnight. Can be found in Hispanic groceries. Would not be my bait of choice, but is used by some folks that leave trot lines in place and run them regularly.

Turtle, yum........