I made a batch of lye soap to use as bait a few years ago. I used it on a trotline and caught one fish. I think he may have even been foul hooked (can't remember for sure). If every other bait in the world was unavailable and I was starving, I may try lye soap bait again. Shad, minnows, cut bait, liver, heart, hot dogs, and nightcrawlers all work better than lye soap in my opinion.

I always did good with soap in clear, slow current rivers like the San Marcos and Guadalupe on drop lines with no weights. Channel cats seem to like it that way.

The white catfish soap bait I got back in 1979 was sold in the KOA Campground we were staying at. I set a few lines out on the river about where it fed into Lake Corpus (used to be called Lake Mathis). The water was stationary (no current). Water was a light brownish color. I realized that the soap floated. I caught quite a few Blues & Channels on it. Also, I do not recall that there was a smell to it, at least one that would catch your attention.

Chad (Redneck Soap Bait) said he knew the guy that made that soap, but the guy died. But Chad was unsure of what made it float, unless perhaps air injected into it. I tried some of Chad's in the Pre-Turkey Day set out of lines in November 2003. I was trying to do a sort of contest between the soap & perch, and see which had the best results. However, after we set the last line out, a storm hit earlier than expected & we almost did not get off the bottom of the lake. The rain & wind was coming down so hard, we decided we could not make it across the bottom & head up the RB fork of Limestone. So we were trying to pull off over at the Free Boat Ramp & Park on the east bottom side. Passed the piers because we could not see. By this time, the waves were at least 3 feet, if not worse. Anyways, disaster. Lost a lot of gear. Boat broke free & went into a nook. I should have left it there, partially protected. But we pulled it out & tied it back to the pier. I hopped a ride to go get the truck & trailer parked at RB. When I arrived back, the boat had flipped over. They (my crew- my Daughter, Son-in-law, and his step brother) had salvaged most of the main items- boat, motor, battery, depth finder, and very few other items. Needless to say, due to all of this, I did not really get a good head count on the contest between soap & perch. But I do know that I caught some nice Blues up to 10#s off Chad's soap, plus almost a 10# Channel off of it too. Not only did I have to get some more paddles & dipnets (among items that got away), it cost me $200 to get a new electrical box. It got fried when I relaunched the boat at RB. Darrell (at RB) took me out once a day to run the lines in his boat. I overstuffed both of his livewells. He got an idea of how my Catfish Calendar works.

Anyway, I've been wanting to try soap again, but I would like some that floats like what I got back in 1979.

And Chad is not making his soap currently. Like me, he has too many irons in the fire (meaning stretched pretty thin).

That is what my Grandpa used and it always worked great.

Ivory soap is suppose to float

Use shad to catch catfish and soap to wash your hands afterwards.

Schultz Bait Soap was sold in central and south Texas from the 60's to mid 80's. It was made by a gentleman in Seguin. It was white and floated. Came wrapped in white butcher paper. Mr Schultz died in the 80"s and the soap went with him.

Ivory is too brittle for bait. Can't get a hook thru it without it breaking up.

If you want to use Ivory, you�ll need to grate it and soften it up by adding a little water. It�ll soak it up and get squishy. It�ll then be moldable into a ball around the hook. I�ve never done this but the theory is from my soap making experience.

I use the Pink Zote Soap. On Trotlines worked great. Catch and lot of channelcat on it. Cut it up about the size of dice.

That�s what we use.

I use the Pink Zote Soap

I had a friend years ago who always used soap for drop-lines on the Guadalupe River. At first he used Schultz until he could no longer get it. After that he started using Hogie Soap made in Cuero. It's still made and readily available around there. Comes wrapped in butcher paper. It works ok. Smells like anise oil. Shad, cut bream, and live bait always out-fished soap by about 10:1 though so I never used it unless I just couldn't find bait. Soap was just convenient. Most of the time it would still be on the hook the next day. Jack also used Zotes soap on occasion although I don't remember him catching anything with it. Good Luck!

Not saying it will not catch but I tried the zote and as litlefeather said most any other bait will out fish it. I set out some trotlines with it and had nothing but pink cubes of soap on the line the next day. I left the lines in the same spot rebaited with cut shad and the next day I caught a good mess of eaters. But all was not lost I used the rest of the soap to get the shad smell off my hands.

I forget if Chad (Redneck) ever told me his name, but it sounds like the one you spoke of ChuChu1- Schulz. I do not recall that it actually had any outstanding smell like many today. It floated & it worked. You could actually set your lines across the bottom, and with leaders about 18" to 24" long, they would be just up off the bottom. The Cats (Blues & Channels) either hit it by sight or smell (but not sure what the smell may have been, if any).

I did catch some goods ones up front off of Redneck's, but I did not keep a tally as we had the boat roll in a storm while we were waiting it out. Luckily, Darrell at Running Branch Marina, took me out once a day to run my 2 trotlines & jugs for that T-Day trip (2003). We stuffed (overflowed) the 2 Bait/Fish holders. Darrell was talking about that trip for quite some time. I was using perch from RB & Redneck's soap. Of course, as the trip continued, I had to lean more towards perch, as Darrell was nice enough to take time off to run me out for a few hours for 4 days. But Redneck's soap did farly well.

If anybody runs across some Catfish soap bait similar to either, give me a shout. My Dad & his fishing buddy were very big on P&G soap back in the 50s & 60s.