I have read a lot of threads about different baits for catfish, I heard a new one today. Copenhagen chew sprinkled in with your night crawlers makes them irresistible to cats. Has anybody tried this or heard of this. Might just work the stuff smells pretty bad.
I find fresh meat works best (carp, white bass, minnows). I’ve tried the smelly yucky stuff, and it doesn’t seem nearly as effective.
Gives them cancer inside the bottom lip.
I agree, i had good luck with a nighcrawler compared to a smelly shrimp. But i try to go prepared with an assorment of baits.
I agree with CP.
Fresh stuff works way better for me. Minnows, carp meat, and shrimp work best for me.
I have never heard of the copenhagen thing before… IMO probably not worth it, but who knows.
**There is probably nothing…animal, vegetable or mineral…that some catfish, somewhere, won’t eat at one time or another. Over the MANY years I have been fishing…and fishing for catfish…I have heard it all. **
The use of “smokeless” tobacco as a scent agent for natural baits is probably not that “far out”. But, the true test is whether it would outproduce natural baits under the same set of circumstances. I doubt that it would.
There is probably no type of “recognized” catfish concoction that I have not tried or witnessed up close and personal. Some of them work better than others and on some waters they work reasonably well. In fact, when fishing the cruddy and muddy waters in some states, where sight feeding and natural baits are both a rarity, the sinus clearing stinkbaits often have an advantage.
However, I have fished catfish all over the western states and most of our kitty habitat includes fairly clean water where the cats establish feeding patterns that include chasing down live food and feeding heavily on fresh natural aquatic groceries. In many clear rivers and lakes, catfish are almost as easy to catch on lures as on bait. They pattern on minnows, crawdads, large aquatic bugs, leeches, amphibians, etc. A lure that looks and acts like a natural food source gets bit.
**Virtually all of the waters in Utah that hold catfish also host carp…lots of carp. Catfish pattern on carp…small live ones and big dead ones. They like meat. Chubs are very close to carp in the gene pool. They look, smell and act like baby carp…a favored snack of cat-kind. So, strips of carp meat and chub minnows are two of the best carp catchers in Utah. **
All catfish have a natural affinity for worms. They feed on leeches which are the same family as landlocked worms and nightcrawlers…and they smell the same to a catfish. Slam dunk.
They also dine on crawdads whenever they can find them. Great cat bait if you can score a few. Crawdads are crustaceans. So are shrimp. Shrimp smell the same only much stronger. Bingo.
Now, getting into the more exotic baits…like sardines, mackerel, etc…they do not have natural counterparts in Utah’s waters, but they have a powerful oily smell. Same with anchovies. That is usually enough to get Mr. Whiskers to gulp down a piece of the foreign stuff. They got no pride. They can pattern on certain foods but I never said they were all that picky.
**Around the country catfish are caught on everything from pieces of Ivory soap to foul smelling cheese to rotten fish dips to chicken livers…fresh or ripe…to corn kernels and strawberries. **
If you wanna flavor up some crawlers with some chaw, go right ahead. Just don’t get mixed up and stuff a crawler between cheek and gum. Well, maybe you might like it.
you know years ago i fished with a guy that would put his Nightcrawlers in a Copenhagen can and he always cought more fish than anyone.. trout was all he fished for tho..
Did he smoke his fish? Which end did he light?
(Boo hiss)
I too remember seeing lots of “copenhagen cowboys” packing worms in their cans, but it was always on an artifical only river or lake. I think the wardens caught on to that one pretty fast, good for them.