# Favorite Catfish Baits



## brfisherman17 (Jan 21, 2011)

It's spring and the catfish are starting to bite. This morning I caught 5 nice ones in UL with straight up holiday ham. They wouldn't take anything else... I'm running low on ideas for bait. What do you use?


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Shrimp and if you catch a white bass you will have more bait.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Critter said:


> Shrimp and if you catch a white bass you will have more bait.


Stinky shrimp that sat in the sun all day


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## Huntin8 (Jul 15, 2013)

I have never had any luck using stinky shrimp, I use two rods and I set one up with fresh shrimp and one with stinky shrimp and I have never had a bite on the stinky shrimp. Ham though huh? Never thought of that. Any particular kind? Cooked? Raw?


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## brfisherman17 (Jan 21, 2011)

Cooked ham.


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

SPAM!!!!! grab some egg sack material and magic thread and make some spam balls!!! so scenty and once they bite they don't let go. I will also tip with a bit of shrimp for the best of both worlds.


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## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

Carp, and white bass meat, caught many 12lbs + catfish that way.... although one time a caught a 20 pounder using a trebble hook with 1 chicken liver 1 night crawler and 3 raw shrimp. sounded like a 10 pound bowling ball hitting the water, I must have threw it right into his mouth because no longer than I set my pole down was it ripped into the water


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## fishreaper (Jan 2, 2014)

they love slices of hot dogs that are on the verge of being classified as a chemical biohazard. that or chicken livers from the package. But with that said, jug/trotlines are generally wrought with whole, small sunfish. Redears here in Texas at least.


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## Wigeon (Jun 19, 2013)

Buy cheap frozen mussels from WalMart, thaw em out, hook a circle hook through the 'foot' of the mussel and back through the meat. Put a weight about 12"-18" above and set it on the bottom. You will be surprised at what happens...


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

smelt


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## fishstalker (Apr 6, 2014)

I have had the best luck on fresh cut bait, either white bass or small mud cats. I took my son out past night for his first night fishing trip and caught these


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## DevanWaters (Oct 18, 2013)

Ivory Soap. Sounds weird but it works. Can be a little tricky to hook but you can do it!


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## Fishrmn (Sep 14, 2007)

fishstalker said:


> I have had the best luck on fresh cut bait, either white bass or small mud cats. I took my son out past night for his first night fishing trip and caught these


Don't tell the Fish Cops that. It's illegal.

⫸<{{{{{⦇°>


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Those little smoky wieners worked good last year at UL. But my motto still remains.."don't eat your lunch 'till ya see what they're bitin"


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Here's a couple small 6 pounders, and some better ones.

The big ones are fun to catch, but the 2-4 pounders are better to eat IMO. We have caught several on the river that we never had a chance to see. They fight so dang hard and strip our line all off, or break off before we get them in. I can only imagine how heavy some of those fish were.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Was down in Looziana last week and we must have caught 50 or so of them in about 3 hours, using plain old night crawlers we found around the base of trees there. Lots of leaves up against the tree trunks and when you moved the leaves it looked like worm heaven. My brother also uses float rigs and he says some guy there sells a homemade catfish bait that really tears them up. He claims you have to wear rubber gloves though because it smells awful and you can't hardly get the smell off your hands. The week before we went down they caught a 30 pound paddle catfish...said it was way yummy.


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## fishreaper (Jan 2, 2014)

Always had the best luck with shrimp or pieces of red-ear sunfish that have been left in the sun too long. When it doubt, leave it out longer. be sure to score the sides of the fish prior to "baking" and in a little bit of luke warm water to ensure you make them as putrid as possible. If you really wanted to have fun, leave the shrimp and fish together to make a catfish gumbo as your wife calls hazmat to clean up your concoction. >>O


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

DevanWaters said:


> Ivory Soap. Sounds weird but it works. Can be a little tricky to hook but you can do it!


That's cool. Haven't heard that for over 30 years.

.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

In the 80s we fished for catfish on the Green from Jensen down to the White River on the res. It was really good. Usually used stink bait from back home; Sonny's. (Still hard to beat Sonny's.) But I did the best on smelt. Smelt from Lake Michigan, My brother in Illinois would send it out to me. Grasshoppers work well also. 

One time we found smelt for sale in the grocery store in Vernal. The smelts were gilled and gutted but still had the heads and a good amount of that oil in them that catfish love. We baited some catfish lines with them and did great and then found out trot lines were illegal in Utah (early 1980s) Man, smelt are the best; catfish, muskies, northerns, lake trout, salmon......turtles.

Does anyone fish for cats anymore below Jensen?


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