Which do you true catfishers prefer?
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Which do you true catfishers prefer?
Different baits for different times and areas and conditions.Hard to beat fresh goldeye or shad,but hard to beat dip bait for eaters in the summer.Flatheads rarely hit prep. baits,but will hit jigs at times.
Gotta narrow down your question a little.
If you were giving me one choice and one choice only...year round, shad. Could be fresh shad, stick bait or shad guts.
Slabsrus,
You have the makings of a true catfisherman,a 1 sentence,5 word post and you still had to edit it.Bwhaaaaaaa:):)
you'll fit right in!!
My favorite is shad but do use small crappie and brim if I cant find any shad.most dip bates and home made stink baits work better when there is moving water involved. have caught some decent channel cat on bomber model A's tiger shark colors when trolling.
Live bait Livers, fresh cut skipjack, Or shad. Shad or skipjack minnows.
Here is what fresh bait will get you.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...blues09003.jpg
Smaller channel cats ... dip bait. Great big monster cats, like blues or flathead ... live bait.
Boy thats a heck of a nice cat Shilohred.
guides will ONLY use fresh shad caught that morning before a trip- they wont even use shad caught yesterday......
Thanks it was fun.. Ad the Lady in the picture caught it. And I enjoyed it as much of i had caught it my self. Sorry for being late getting back to you on it,.Quote:
Originally Posted by grubby
I will use frozen skipjack. But only if I can't get any fresh skipjack or shad.
One of our guides here uses frozen bait. As its hard to get here in the winter.
Also I do just as good on big blues on strips of fat where I fillet a 8 OR 10 lb blue. the line in the middle that has the strip of fat in it. I save that and do catch a lot of fish off it.
Pete
Well I learned last year that chicken breast with garlic was good so I tried it and it turned out to be my number one bait last year.Got more cats off that than I did bream or shad or shrimp.Aint never really been a dip bait person never had any luck with that stuff.
Leeches!!!!
leeches are a great summer time bait- when you can get them
Live bait (shad, bluegill, and creek chubs), cut bait (skipjack, suckers) seem to work best around here for the larger cats. I have padded the livewell using Hog Wild a time or two, but they are always smaller fish.
I guide on Badin and Tillery in NC for mainly cats and a few stripers. It really depends on what you are after. If you're looking for channels, they eat anything from dip baits to worms to shad. For big blues, fresh shad is key, either live or cut. I mainly use cut shad for blues. For flatheads you need something lively and hardy such as brim, perch or crappie. My biggest flathead at 46 lb. came off a perch that was 10" long. I hooked 2 last year I couldn't turn before they got in the timber. Hate to think how big they were. One hit a 10" crappie wide open. PM me if you need any more info.
Here's a nice blue!
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...mmill/scan.jpg
A couple good flatheads!
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...illerycats.jpg
and a big mess of fish, big one is just shy of 50 lb., 47 if I remember right
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...areecats-1.jpg
Shad, for blues. That is what they eat most of the time. They are kinda like striped bass as far as diet goes. Flatheads, I have caught big ones on whole dead shad in rivers.The shad needs to be a big one, like 8 or 10 inches long. The best bait for them though is a nice lively hand sized blue gill. I like to trim the tail fin a little. It seems to keep them from dislodging the weight from the bottom of the river. The reason for this is I fish downed trees and logs in the river, wich makes bait placement key. BIG BAIT- BIG FISH