Bait Recipe

Anyone got a good bait recipe to share?

what ya trying to catch ? blues, flatheads channells ?

there is no man made "bait" that is better than fresh bait. best bet is to use what they eat if there were never any humans around. fresh shad, bluegill, minnows, crawdads, even nite crawlers in most cases are better than 99% of man made baits.

For channels and blues use anything from cut bait, (bream, shad, white perch, carp) to livers and worms. Shrimp also works.

For Flatheads use fresh live bait. Bluegill, goldfish, white perch, crappie, baby carp, or live shad/minnows.

i usually stick to the tried-and-true nightcrawler, occasionally throwing on an additional chucnk of redworm or even a wax worm if i have some left over-seems the smells and the sights are just too much for the N-ky catfish to bear. Have also had some luck with chicken livers, even better if they're a little on the ripened side. One of the local favorites also involves cheap dogfood, but i've not had to resort to looking too far down that alley.
Anybody else out there got some good'ns to share??
my .02

Five gallon bucket. Mix cheese, Ground shad, Any left over meats in the fridge. I have heard of using hog brains, but don't know where to buy them.
Mix everything in your bucket being careful not to over fill (1/2 full is fine, It will swell). When everything is mixed well I mix in the final ingredients. Yeast and cattails (or cotton) I also add about a cup of table sugar to help with the fermenting.
When it is done it will smell like soured Milo. It will make you some great punch bait for sure. If you don't like punch bait and prefer sponge bait leave out the cattails.

Dave

Take the remains of a catch from before and put it into a plastic garbage bag and the freeze it. When you go out the next time take the bag still frozen with you and empty the remains into the water where you want to fish at in a couple of hours. Also if you use chicken livers put them onto a disposable plastic plate, heat them up from 1min 30sec to 2 min covered with a paper towel. Put them back in the tub and you will have some of the toughest livers, and smelliest catfish lip smackin liversyou can not hardly throw off your hook!

There is a guy here that has 5 or 6 trot lines in Okatibbee and all he does for flathead is use big shiney hooks, no bait. I know this for a fact as I have been fishing close by when he ran a line and watched him shine the hooks with a rag and drop them back in the lake and he catches flatheads, last time I saw him he had 2 very nice ones.

Steve,
Sounds to me like that guy is using snag lines. Similar to trot lines but set up a bit different. The leaders are set up closer than normal and the leaders are generally made of 100# mono with the curl of the line and the hook set the same direction. Snag lines are illegal in most states that I know of. In fact I don't know of any states that allow them. Here there are reg's on how our lines can be set up ie. spacing between leaders and length of leaders.

Dave

I have seen his trot lines and the drop look like standard trot line drops with cord to me. I don't know if there is anything on the rag but we have talked quite a few times and he has indicated to me that all he does is shine the hooks every day. I have seen a few of the cats and they were hooked in the mouth. Have never seen him with anything but flatheads. He could be pulling my leg tho.

I have a PDF file of assorted bait recipies if you want it PM me with your email address and I will send it to you.

put range cubes like they feed cattle into a plastic bucket that has a lid fill it half to 3/4 full and fill it with hot water to get it to ferment quicker leave enough room in the bucket for it to swell let it set in the sun a couple of days before putting the lid on it .

take that to the lake and pour it out in a hole your going to fish it will draw cats and bream like crazy. But it really smells dont spill it in the boat. but if you can stand it keep a little to dip you bait into.

shrimp, cut the gizzard out of big gizzard shad, or the back strap off a jack rabbit all work very well , also chicken blood, but the blood bait works best in july.
the range cubes work all year.

~ sticko ~

I have used a snag line here in Texas in richland chanbers and in ceder creek, a game warden checked me at ceder creek and did not fine me , saying as long as you are baiting the line there is nothing they could do about it. Oh he also said I will be keeping a eye on you and this line. To make a lone story short this line was cut four times so I just took it up.

MIx strawberry soda water , brand flakes and peanut butter , all to gether add the strawberry soda pop slowly to make a thick dough.
ball this around a small trebble hook.

makes a great bait for carp.

~sticko~

My granda worked on a bait for many, many years. He finally came up with a concoction that he used with a sponge on a trebble hook. It worked. Fishing a clear creek, 2 or 3' deep, I have seen the cats come up stream looking for it. Going side to side. If they passed it up, they would only go a yard or two, turn back downstream till they got a scent again and repeat the process till they found it. He said he would tell me the "secret" ingredent on day "before he went fishing with his grandpa again". He passed away while I was overseas in the service. I do know most all of what he used. Here is the list.
chicken blood
beef blood
about 6 doz. minners (mashed up)
cottenseed meal
oil of anise
limburger cheese and
the "secret ingredient".
Can't remember how much of what 'cept the minners, but it came out a light brown liquidy mess that you had better be upwind from and don't dare get any on your cloths. Used a stick to poke the sponged hook around in it. I did drop the stick one time and it disappeared before it got 10' down stream. Was going to send this last tid bit to Ripley, but doubt they would believe it either.
Dusty

I got this from another forum, have tried it 5 or 6 times, AND IT CATCHES CATFISH!

Buy a package of boneless chicken breasts. Cut them into cubes for bait. Pour half a package of strawberry/banana jello mix in a contaner and add alayer of chicken cubes. Add the rest of thepackage of jello. Cut more cubes and repeat. Cover with lid and refrigerate for a couple days. (If the chicken has been drained on paper towels the chicken wont make water (syrup mixed in with the dry jello powder) with the chicken but I dont dry it.

I've fish this along side of catalpa worms and the chicken held it's own. This summer when I used the chicken the largest I've caught on it was 9 & 1/2 lbs. and we've also caught several in the 3-6 lb. range. I was told by the guy that gave out this recipe that this isnt a "big fish" getter but anything up to 15 lbers. or so will bite it. All I know is that I've caught blue cats on it everytime I've made it and went catfishing. (Naturally it helps going fishing where some fish are at.:) )