Chicken for bait

[thatchergreg]

This weekend found me low on chub fillets and no time to catch more. Desperate times call for desperate measures so i rummaged through the freezer and found some very old chicken, perfect. A quick Google search found several thousand recipes for catfish marinade. Cherry kool-aid sounded interesting and tuna fish oil looked promising so i made a batch of each.
This morning found me at Willard Bay trolling fligs, one tipped with chub the other with chicken. The cherry chicken accounted for 2 cats, the fish oil chicken also landed 2 cats but had many more hits and the chub caught 4. Which brings me to the question, how do you keep the chicken on the hook? Those sneaky cats were pulling it off the fligs almost as fast as I could replace it, they really liked the tuna oil chicken.
The only idea I have is to tie it to a hook shank and fish it on a Santee rig.

[catchinon]

If you are using breast cut into 1" pieces it should stay on fairly well. There are many things you can flavor it up with and several of them should toughen the chicken if it marinates for a while; overnight to a couple of days is good. The longer you keep it the drier the flesh becomes and then it doesn't stay on the hook well at all. You can hardly get a hook through it but then it rips out easily with the grain. I never heard of the tuna oil trick; I'll have to try it. Here are some other things I have tried: strawberry jello, vanilla, garlic salt, olive oil, and chicken liver blood/juice. They all work and the art comes in in mixing and matching combos. Fresh garlic or powder will work but I think the salt helps to toughen the chicken pieces up. Heard cinnamon is good but I can't vouch for it and the other dozens of things people have tried. Just plain chicken works fine too. Chicken skin is supposed to stay on the hook really well if you ever get a chance to try it. The chicken works as well on a Santee as a flig. In a pinch it should work well on a plain circle hook. Good luck and have fun.

[Kent]

Stretchy String or Magic Thread should do the trick. We use them all the time to keep our pickled herring on our hooks when fishing for sturgeon.

[Tin-Can]

This weekend found me low on chub fillets and no time to catch more. Desperate times call for desperate measures so i rummaged through the freezer and found some very old chicken, perfect. A quick Google search found several thousand recipes for catfish marinade. Cherry kool-aid sounded interesting and tuna fish oil looked promising so i made a batch of each.
This morning found me at Willard Bay trolling fligs, one tipped with chub the other with chicken. The cherry chicken accounted for 2 cats, the fish oil chicken also landed 2 cats but had many more hits and the chub caught 4. Which brings me to the question, how do you keep the chicken on the hook? Those sneaky cats were pulling it off the fligs almost as fast as I could replace it, they really liked the tuna oil chicken.
The only idea I have is to tie it to a hook shank and fish it on a Santee rig.

Greg, get some of this from Amazon. It's a small diameter finger bandage gauze. Works kind of like a Chinese finger trap only softer. 
Pull out about an inch, tie a knot in the end, pull out another 2 inches, cut it from the roll.
stuff it with whatever bait you want to use (I use it for chicken livers)  then tie the cut end.
Feed a circle hook thru top knot, then back into and thru bottom knot. 
Works best (for me) when it's on the bottom. If you troll, or drift drag it, it pretty much knocks all the bait out, leaving a tangle of gauze thread. 
I've not tried to use it with fligs. Depending how much bait you stuff in one of these, it may be too heavy for a flig to float. Santee rig with a bit bigger bobber, maybe. 

I'm planning to be out on Willard tomorrow (Tuesday) and I always have a roll of it on the boat. If you are out there, stop by, I'll cut you off a couple feet.

[thatchergreg]

Thanks guys.
I have some Stretchy String left over from my first, last, and only trip for sturgeon.
Forest, unfortunately Tuesday will find me at work, or its supposed to. I will get a roll of finger gauze, it should keep the small cats in the river from constantly stripping the bait.

[Tin-Can]

Thanks guys.
I have some Stretchy String left over from my first, last, and only trip for sturgeon.
Forest, unfortunately Tuesday will find me at work, or its supposed to. I will get a roll of finger gauze, it should keep the small cats in the river from constantly stripping the bait.

  OK.  You missed a nice day on WB. But I do understand the "gotta work"  thing. I been telling folks  that for long time. Now it's really nice to be able to just go if I want.  Met up with Fatbiker (Larry) at the ramp after we had come off the water. Finally got a chance to put a face with the name and boat. 

That finger gauze works pretty good with Catfish baits that won't stay on a hook well, and the small river cats do nibble and peck at it, but takes them longer to strip it all off. The bigger cats just swallow it up. 
A tactic I learned from John last year.............

[FatBiker]

This weekend found me low on chub fillets and no time to catch more. Desperate times call for desperate measures so i rummaged through the freezer and found some very old chicken, perfect. A quick Google search found several thousand recipes for catfish marinade. Cherry kool-aid sounded interesting and tuna fish oil looked promising so i made a batch of each.
This morning found me at Willard Bay trolling fligs, one tipped with chub the other with chicken. The cherry chicken accounted for 2 cats, the fish oil chicken also landed 2 cats but had many more hits and the chub caught 4. Which brings me to the question, how do you keep the chicken on the hook? Those sneaky cats were pulling it off the fligs almost as fast as I could replace it, they really liked the tuna oil chicken.
The only idea I have is to tie it to a hook shank and fish it on a Santee rig.

I usually use skinless chicken thighs.

[PAC12_AfterDark]

Why not use an egg loop knot?