Best catfish bait??

[Decoligny]

I’ve been out hitting the ponds pretty hard and I can see some nice cats coming up to the surface when I toss bread for bluegill but I’m having a hard time landing them. Got a few here and there but I should be landing more. I’ve used night crawlers, tried bread, chicken livers, and cut up blue gill, so far the only thing that’s working is cut bluegill. I’m curious as to what others are using that are getting good success.

Red worms, Night Crawlers, Smoked Ham Meat Sticks, tiny Bluegill heads.
This is all since beginning of July.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Red worms, Night Crawlers, Smoked Ham Meat Sticks, tiny Bluegill heads.
This is all since beginning of July.

Meat sticks! Good recommendation. I totally forgot about using those. One time I did a last-minute evening fishing trip. Didn’t have any bait didn’t have any time, so I just swung into the gas station on the way to the lake and bought a couple slim Jim’s . I’ll be darned if I didn’t catch several channels on them!

The nice thing about the meat sticks is that they are tougher than hotdogs. Stay on the hook better. I’ve always felt like the cheap hotdogs fall off the hook easily.

 

[CHenry]

Bar S hotdogs. Cheap and effective.

 

[bigred1]

Bar S hotdogs. Cheap and effective.

And you can eat a few with white bread and mustard while you're fishing.

 

[CHenry]

And you can eat a few with white bread and mustard while you're fishing.

I'd never knowingly eat a Bar S product lol

 

[bigred1]

I'd never knowingly eat a Bar S product lol

LOL....hell, I ain't very picky when I'm fishing.

 

[SPOONBILL]

Danny King punch bait works great for channel cat. Deoesnt really stink too bad either

 

[conditionzero]

I run mackerel for blue's with good success. Stinky as heck.

 

[Shinneryfarmer]

Make you own dough bait and experiment. High protein hog pellets, put a few inches in 5 gallon bucket, cover with water let soak till mushy. Add flour, whole wheat works good, continue to add flour and mix till you can make a ball about the size of a golf ball. Consistency is about right when you can drop the ball to the ground and it stays together. Pack on a treble hook to golf ball size, use no weight, cast out let sink take up slack, when line gets semi tight stop. You will have to rebait everytime you reel it in FYI.
You can add ground minnows from last fishing trip, fruit flavors, ground perch, hot dogs, etc. Put what you don't use in a plastic sealable container and freeze. It will last a long time, use to put in 2lb tubbs and freeze always had bait available. If frozen take out a hour before using and leave out while fishing. Can refreeze what's not used.
If you really want action prebait a area with half a 5 gallon bucket of dough bait in a tow sack and sink in area day before you fish. Been catching catfish with this for over 30 years along with carp.

 

[turkeyrun]

For garlic hot dogs, I use a #4 treble hooks. Stays on better and catches more fish.


Best punch we ever had, made a guy in Kansas. He ran a bait shop. Would skim the dead minnows, shad. Perch, goldfish, whatever else he had. Put in a blender with limberger cheese and cotton seed hulls. Stank to high heaven, but never failed to catch.

He is long out of business, but I have never found a better punch / dough bait.