Did you have plenty of beer? I find it to be the most important key to catfishing at night next to homemade stinkbait.
What kind of catfish? On the Mississippi a night crawler on a hook with a slip weight will catch them. I put a berkley orange power egg on before the crawler.
Yep, but it has been a while. Channel cats where I fished add some dr Juice just dip the crawler on the hook into the bottle, cast it out and let it sit.
I always used the ole chicken livers for bait on channels and it's a little frustrating keeping the bait on at times. I'm sure there are better, stinkier baits, but livers are cheap and effective. I've always wanted to try fish bites on catfish. Kind of a salt water bait, but I've always wondered if they would work on freshwater cats.
What if I got some livers and dipped them in some stinky crap like Sota does his nightcrawlers? I'm gonna experiment with all these ideas.
Pantyhose will solve that problem. And just to clarify, I am not suggesting you wear pantyhose on your next fishing trip. Put the chicken liver in the leg of the pantyhose then tie a knot above and below it to make a little liver ball. It’ll keep it on your hook and prevent little fish from nibbling it away to nothing. Especially helpful if you are using circle hooks because it’s damn near impossible to correctly put one of those slimy bastards on a circle hook and have it stay on for more than 5 minutes.
I can see it now. VS checking out at the Walmart with just chicken livers and pantyhose getting all kinds of judgy looks.
I've done quite a bit of channel cat fishing on the Snake River here. Here's what works well for me, at least here... I normally use some type of cut-bait or the guts from a fish caught from the river...trout, carp, or Northern Pike Minnow. Trout, worms, shrimp, or chicken liver gets heckled a lot by other fish, but catching other fish gives you fresh cut-bait or guts to use. Dough stink baits have worked for me, and I've read they're fantastic in some places, but no comparison to fresh guts or cut-bait here. Catfish are much more voracious then people give them credit for, they don't just bottom feed like a sucker, they will chase food. I've talked with several people that have used live bait for them and done well, such as small bluegill. I've also seen people do well drifting in a boat and jigging cut-bait up and down just off the bottom. I've also wanted to try the jigging but haven't ever got around to it. When using chicken liver, besides using nylon, you can tie your hook on using an "egg loop knot" to hold it, I myself prefer it over using nylon on a hook with barbs. Also think about the current and where to fish the hole. If the hole I want to fish has just one main current I like to sit at the top of the hole and cast to just the edge of the current, so the scent of the bait gets carried down through the entire hole. Back eddies are my favorite, but I like to sit on the down river side of them so the eddy current takes it back up through the hole. I approach cat fishing like I do coyote calling...if there's no action after an hour I move. The first hour in a hole is when I do the best. I also find that the last hour before dark to about 3 hours after dark are my most productive times.
Heading up to Sturgeon Bay this weekend with a few of the boys. Should be a good time! We'll post pics if we catch anything other than beer and brats.
