So I've fished catfish off and on my entire life. With that I've tried all manner of baits: worms, crawfish,shrimp,frogs and of course live or cut fish of all sorts---never tried grasshoppers but have heard several credible sources ( namely @Bluebasser86 and Doug Stange) that they indeed work very well. Also tried attractor baits like different stink, squeeze and paste baits and chicken liver which I count as an attractor because its really just a bag of blood. But I've heard of several off the wall baits over the years, things like hot dogs or chicken breast marinated in garlic and Jello or chunks of ivory soap. Anybody use any strange or uncommon baits for catfish successfully?

I fished Bull Shoals back in the 60’s and watched a man harvesting catfish from trot line. The man was close to me and asked him what he used for bait and replied Concord grapes and reached into a bucket to show me a hand full.

I thought he was pulling my leg but watch him put grapes on the trot line hooks.

Years later I tried Concord grapes for channel cats and caught a few….who knew!

Tom

Soap definitely works.

 

I like beef liver, lay it out in the sun, the "skin" gets tuff & fish can't take it off.

Growing up, the 3 I remember were Ivory soap bars (cut up), those cheese injected hot dogs, and Velveeta cheese blocks. The latter were my favorite, and I would simply mold a piece of the block around a small treble hook and then fly line (weightless) on a spinning outfit. Worked great for eater sized channels.

Chicken breast marinated in Folgers Instant coffee, no need to add water. It'll look like strips of beef jerky.

9 hours ago, WRB said:

I fished Bull Shoals back in the 60’s and watched a man harvesting catfish from trot line. The man was close to me and asked him what he used for bait and replied Concord grapes and reached into a bucket to show me a hand full.

I thought he was pulling my leg but watch him put grapes on the trot line hooks.

Years later I tried Concord grapes for channel cats and caught a few….who knew!

Tom

Definitely odd but it makes sense, I've always heard of cats eating mulberries. Kinda funny you mention grapes, earlier today I read a post where a guy said his buddy baits his trot line with white raisins and kills em.

 

8 hours ago, Catt said:

Soap definitely works.

 

I like beef liver, lay it out in the sun, the "skin" gets tuff & fish can't take it off.

 

8 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Growing up, the 3 I remember were Ivory soap bars (cut up), those cheese injected hot dogs, and Velveeta cheese blocks. The latter were my favorite, and I would simply mold a piece of the block around a small treble hook and then fly line (weightless) on a spinning outfit. Worked great for eater sized channels.

the soap thing kinda weirds me out...I mean I know I'm not a catfish but I just don't get it.

 

6 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Chicken breast marinated in Folgers Instant coffee, no need to add water. It'll look like strips of beef jerky.

this for real? I'm marinating chicken breast chunks in garlic salt to try in the morning.

2 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Definitely odd but it makes sense, I've always heard of cats eating mulberries. Kinda funny you mention grapes, earlier today I read a post where a guy said his buddy baits his trot line with white raisins and kills em.

 

 

the soap thing kinda weirds me out...I mean I know I'm not a catfish but I just don't get it.

 

this for real? I'm marinating chicken breast chunks in garlic salt to try in the morning.

Absolutely real.

I’ve had luck on hotdogs and livers. Heard of people using corn, soap, shrimp, and cheese

Hot dogs, chicken liver, raw hamburger, a concoction of hamburger, wheaties, and limburger cheese.

Hot dogs but that’s not really strange, I like them myself

 

i did know some guys growing up that would walk onto a golf course and tie a length of line to the red stakes marking the water hazard. They baited their lines with duck turds because they were readily available around the pond. They caught fish

 

years later in college my phD  fisheries professor said that catfish wouldn’t eat poop no matter what you heard. It was at this moment I confirmed the education system was a farce 😂 

Catfish will definitely congregate near any kind of sewage overflow. Also, a great cat day I had, I was on a river under some power lines. Dozens of commorants were on the lines just crappin into the water. The cats were under the lines in a feeding frenzy.