[kycatman84]

I need some advise on chumming a hole on a small river, i have no ideal what to do, maybe fill a milk jug with chicken liver and sink it in the river for 2 days? i dont know... can some one tell me the best way to chun a small river?

 

[river scum]

chumin a hole in summer works great. it is ilegal here so check your regs though! i read that you start with a 5gal. bucket full of holes. fill with layers of straw and old meat ( from the family grocier ). top it off with chicken wire. please tie a rope to it so you can retrieve it from the water so you can use it again and dont pollute!

 

[iceman]

I am planning to try some chumming of my own. my plans are to take a bucket with a lid and drill several holes in it. then mix up some canned cat food, bacon grease, and corn meal to thicken it. put iin the bucket and tie a rope and float to it and fish around it. also i am going to put one under the middle of my trout line and see what happens! anyone have any advice on this? anything would be a help.

 

[tkishkape]

A better chum than what you describe is cottonseed cake, rabbit pellets or cattle range cubes. Each of these are readily available from feed stores. The range cubes and cottonseed cake are chunks of solid feed that have a plesant aroma and are heavier than the water, so they sink. They attract catfish by the aroma of the high-protein cottonseed. The rabbit pellets are compressed chunks of alfalfa hay, one of the strongest catfish attractants.

Many people bait a hole by sinking bales of alfalfa hay. The catfish will make all but the wire disappear within a week, so you need to add bales weekly to maintain the hole. Check your state's game laws for legality...

Chum works for firing up the bite if the fish are there. Don't depend on the chum to bring fish in.

The chum on the trotline is probably a wasted effort. Instead, if the trotline is not in heavy current and shallow water, cast the chum along the length of the line.

I occasionally use soured grain chum here on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma, but only in backwater areas with little or no current. If you try to chum in the current, the chum will be quickly dissapated and washed away.

When I do chum with soured grain, I use milo, wheat, corn, soybeans, oats... whatever is available for free, spilled at the commodity elevator. (The operator lets me clean it up for him to help him control rodents.)

Throw two or three old tomato cans full of chum in a semi-circle around the area you want to fish, then immediately move to another spot, repeating the chumming. Repeat in a third spot, then return to the first chummed spot and begin fishing. If you have no bite within 15 minutes, move to the second chummed spot. If no bite, go to the third. Repeat the circle once, then start over at least 100 yards away.

If the fish bite, then slow down, throw out an additional can full of chum to fire them up again. If you catch dinks, then they abruptly stop biting, STAY THERE. Bigger fish have probably moved in and run off the dinks. Hang onto your rods.

 

[james]

id have to go with tkishkape on the range cubes and cotton seed cakes you can get the cotton seed cakes at academy sports another one of my favs is magic baits dinner bell chum you can get it at walmart i use a 2 liter coke bottel that i melted a bunch of holes in it with a hot screwdriver and also put a couple of holes around the top so when it is put into the water it will sink and no air will be traped about every 15 to 20 mins i grab the line and give it a good shake i usely only use it at the spillway when there is very littel flow another good chum is to catch alot of shad and put them threw a food processer grind them into something like a bloody milk shake and pour it into a container and freeze it into a block and put the block of shad into a chum bag or a burlap sack is what i use and attach a line to it and throw it in the lake which it will melt letting tiny chunks of shad float away alog with the smell but by far magic baits dinner bell is my fav my first time useing it i wore them out 3 fish over 5# and i dont even know how many smaller ones but there was 6 other people fishing there that day and i was in the middle closest person was prob 20 feet away from me and only 1 person out of that 6 caught a fish that day. next day i went back seen one couple rigging up the 2 liter coke bottle with the dinner bell total that day was 14 fish 2-3# and they did better than me.

 

[TOPS]

All you guys have some good chumming ideas, I have some small empty bath room deodorant containers, the ones with the holes in the lids. I put sardines in the container and hang the bottles over the side of my boat. you can see the oil from the sardines coming to the top of the water.

 

[Katmaster Jr.]

You can also buy those little white laundry bags that have alot of little holes in them and have a little draw-string on top. Thats what I use I just tie a rope to the drawstring. If you dont know what I'm talking about I can post a pic of it for you. Good luck!

 

[Bigun]

For chumming with small quantities of material the bags that I use are made from cheese cloth. The kind made and sold for Deer Bags are thinner. The kind bought at the auto parts made for polishing cloths are thicker. Both are in a tube form. I just cut off what I want and tie wrap the end closed. Add a rock or brick if you need weight to sink it. I also buy Tow sacks at the feed store. New ones cost $1 to $1.50 They are used to package pecans in this area. For short term ( a couple of days) I just use feed cubes or Block. For longer term up to a couple weeks I put the Material in the Burlap sacks. For long term chumming I prefer a plastic bucket with holes in it contaning soured wheat. I haven't caught anything over 7 lbs over chummed holes mostly smaller fish 1-2 lb. The crazey thing is that one day you will catch mostly channels another day it will be mostly Blues. If they are both there the same day the channels tend to be right on bottom and the Blues suspended somewhat.

 

[Coloman]

I throw soured grain around the boat and then throw a few range cubes farther out. All within casting range.