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Im still relatively new to fresh water fishing (used to saltwater from shore and boat).
I took my son cat-fishing several times at lake ontelaunee at night. We see the success that others are having and we cant figure out what were doing wrong.
We tried gulp baits (all flavors) and never get a nipple.
We tried chicken livers and size 2 treble and single catfish hooks and we get tugs all the time but were never able to hook anything.
Now weve tried covering the hook, leaving a little exposed , wrapping a little thread around to hold the livers on (that works very well btw). Weve tried to set when we feel tugs, letting um nibble a bit and every other method we can read up on.
Can anyone give us a clue as to what we can be doing wrong?
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buy a block of extra sharp cheddar cheese and form little balls of it to fish with. Make sure your fishing it close to if not on the bottom. I like to fish with a 3 way swivel with a foot of line for the weight side and a foot of line for the bait side of the swivel. Sounds like your night fishing. I like to take a bobber and drill a hole in it and but some bbs in it and attatch it to the tip of the line. when you hear it, its time to set the hook. This is my go to setup. Hope it helps.
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google "carolina rig" and "Santee-cooper rigs". both of these work well when catfishing. I like the carolina rig with a 5/0 ish circle hook. but pretty much anything will work. The advantage of the sliding sinker rig is the fish won't feel the weight when they take the bait and turn and run. the circle hook will set itself as the fish turns, and viola, fish fry time.....
Chicken livers are great bait but they come off easily. Try this: get a thing of livers and get them as dry as possible. pour out all the juice and pat them on paper towels. put them back in the container with a layer of non-iodized salt. don't skimp on the salt. this will draw more juice outta the livers and you might need to empty the container every so often. let the livers sit in the salt for a week or 5. the tougher the better. I also season them in vanilla extract, garlic or dog shit. Catties will bite a well seasoned turd and like strong smelling baits. not dead/rotten baits, just strong scents like cheese, garlic, or whatever.
if you plan to keep the catties, they're delish...i've learned to bleed them out rather than whacking them in the head or just tossing them on ice. if you bleed them first, they'll taste much better. it's easy and painless to do this, with a real sharp knife, just slice into the back of gill plate behind the head. they have a large artery here and will quickly bleed out. you can cut both sides if you want. I catch, de-hook, slice and toss on ice. your cooler will be a nasty bloody mess but it's worth it. don't forget to put the drain plug in the cooler if you're on a nice boat.
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As the previous member mentioned, I would highly recommend getting some circle hooks. I like gamakatsu finesse wide gaps in size 1/0, 1, and 2 depending on the size of the fish in your area. Circle hooks will eliminate the need to set the hook.
Another trick we used to use was to loosen the drag or open the bail so that the fish would feel no resistance after picking up the bait. The drag also acted as a fish alarm. I don't think this is necessary with circle hooks though.
I've always had the best luck with cats on raw shrimp and earthworms. Adding garlic salt or an attractant always seems to help as well. They sell a tube of catfish attractant at walmart for a few bucks that I have had success with. I believe it is molasses based and really doesn't smell too bad.
Good luck!
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Also in addition to the gills slice across just in front of the tail to drain the meat. I do this to Chinook and it really helps to get rid of the strong flavour.
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[left]5/0 circle hooks are great!!! also try getting a minnow bucket and filling it with dog food. (kind of like chumming) then get some good rotted chicken livers get some pantie hose and wrap the chicken livers in a small piece before you put them on the hook it helps hold them together. if fishing a river look for a good hole after a island or a bridge support they like holes where the current brings the food to them. If a lake find a damn or a place there is current. hope this helps good luck.
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