Frozen bait not effective?
Hey all,
I've been reading that catfish prefer fresh bait and they don't bite as much on bait that has been frozen. My plan was to buy some frozen skip jack then marinate it with Team Catfish's Dead Red Blood Spray. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Also any tips would be appreciated as well.
Thanks!
fresh is definatley best however frozen will still work, assuming it has been properly cared for from the time it was caught till you take it out of the bag and put it on the hook.
Yeah that's what I figured, but I have no way of getting fresh bait. So my only option is to buy frozen. Would marinating it in that blood spray be a good idea or not?
What do you mean you have no way of getting fresh bait???Are you telling me that the cats in your area lack a food source???No bream, no shad, no minnows or anything??A light action pole and some worms will catch plenty fresh bait, so will a cast net..I've never tried the dead red but your idea seems logical..I know there secret 7 works great..Originally Posted by kraftjd
I mean i have no way of purchasing live bait. The cats in my area have a food source and I'll have to do some looking around for a light action pole in storage. Thanks for the advice too! Much appreciated.
You can learn a lot from a castnet. Frozen stuff is a good backup.
Finding honey holes for bait is a very good idea. Saves a lot of time, etc.
I use frozen gills all the time because catchin fresh isnt really an option all of the time for me. when I catch em they go right on ice and then once home the go in a double freezer bag in the freezer. when fishing they stay in the cooler and as they thaw I can pull one free cut it the way I want and it really only takes a few minutes to thaw em. heck the biggest channel I have ever caught nailed it when it was still froze. they still smell like fishy gills to me. in fact I caught a bunch of eater sized gills the other day and kept the heads for bait along with the guts. but I am new at this so take it for what its worth.
Every fishing trip I make starts with catching fresh bait..Whether its going below the dam to catch skips, fishing a brushpile for bream or taking the castnet down to the creek for chubs and minnows..I rarely buy bait..There is pretty much an endless source of bait in the waters where I catch my catfish..Its just a matter of catching them..As Josh said, frozen is a good backup just in case I can't catch anything fresh..Also if there is no bait where you are fishing for cats then more than likely there are no cats either..
in my experience frozen bait works best below dams that have a regular discharge. i guess the fish in the rivers below them are used to that quality of food coming out of the turbines along with the freshly cut up and killed stuff. if you can vac seal bait while it's still alive you'll be that much better off when you thaw it, and thaw it cold.
about catching bait- it's ALL about the bait! i spend more time catching bait than i do fishing, be it carp, fathead minnows, bream, shad, ghost minnows, you name it. an 8 dollar umbrella net will get you any kind of minnow from big shiners to inch long ghost minnows, and it pays for itsself in just 2 successful throws, especially when minnows are 4 bucks a dozen. same for a cast net. any time you go on a family trip take the cast net and a box of ziplocs, along with a cooler. heck you can catch loads of bream close to shore with a handline and a small hook and worm. get those bream and butterfly them while still alive or however you like to cut them, or fish them live. same for shad and carp. if you aren't sure what the cats in your area are eating, cut a few open and check out their stomach contents. i am always surprised at how many people (who keep some to eat) do not do this. good luck man!
Hey man..
If you have got frozen skipjack you are golden, you dont need to do anything to it, I catch a ton of fish on it, even after re-freezing it a couple of times"keep it on ice when you are fishing" , the only problen is it starts to get mushy after a while,,, another option that works really well for blues and channels is regular old chicken breast cut it up into about two inch squares and you will be amazed at how well it works... done let a bait soak for more than about 20 min, if you dont get a bite change your bait if you still dont get a bite move to somewhere elce, time to start looking for fish...
The fish in my avitar came off a piece of year old skipjack...
Good luck brother..
PJ
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