How is the best way to fish them on the bottom or under a float? I have some in the freezer don't wont to wast them by tring to fish them at the wrong time of the year. Is there a better time to fish them spring,summer, or fall

I've done well both ways any time.

I loved the way they come back alive after taking them out of the freezer...we always used them under a cork but we were bream fishing...

Catfish candy...doesnt matter. Channels will eat them on bottom. Blues will eat them suspended.

Great bait either way.

We've torn up some channel cats using them under a cork. That was back when our tree was providing them. Not any more though.

Back in 1979, we used 'em live on throwlines in the Trinity River below TX 21. Mostly Blues, a few Channels. All we did was run lines, take off fish, rebait. UNTIL, finally I decided it was tiime to clean fish. Between 4 of us, I fried up 9 good sized ones & we ate every bit of them. Then back to baiting out. One run had 4 Cats out of 5 hooks. We went til daybreak & decided enough was enough. We slept until the afternoon. But we were down to frozen worms & they did not do as good as the live ones.

Since then, I've only found a few here & there. But in 1979, I picked several dozen & bought 7+ dozen from Larry who had the Bait Barn. Over the bait shop was a huge Catalpa tree. He was trying to get rid of the worms. So I assisted in that.

Makes my Heart fell good. To hear you.
Brings back memories; from the Concho, and Dove-Creek. Off the Middle-Concho.

That was April/May 1979 (a VERY, VERY wet spring that year), regardless of where we went. And also before the Catfish Calendar. It would be totally awesome to use Catalpa worms & the Catfish Calendar for BC (BlueCat) days on the Trinity River below TX 21 about 20 to 25 Bends down.

Sadly I have not found any good worm producing Catalpa trees since then. Only a few here & there. Mom has even planted a few Catalpa trees around here, but I understand the worms need to be transplanted (sorta kinda "grafted" in) to get the worm crops into production.

Yes, brings back really good memories here as well. Same as my Dad's 1962 Elgin (bought new at Sears) 12 ft. Aluminum flat bottom boat. It was actually about 11.5' long. It had a deeper hull including up at the front. And was really braced on the upper bridge. Rated for a 7.5 HP. Yet in the later years from 1982-1986, I ran a 15 HP Sea King (by Chrysler) short stocky (47 pounds worth) shallow shoal motor bought at Montgomery Wards for half price. I braced the boat in 3 places to handle the torque & stress. She would fly at 25 MPH almost above the water unless loaded with gear or more than one person. I could even do a few "tricks" with it. But only because I understood the power to weight ratio. I could squat a certain way just in front of the back seat, at a slight tilt to the right and have the left side of the boat acting as the front. In other words, I could head up or down the river going sideways. But one mistake & she would have flipped & rolled. Lots of memories in that boat from 1962 to 1999 when it was stolen down the road as I had her chained to a tree about 1.5 miles from home on the Navasota River here.

Does anybody know of where to find these worms in the grapevine area I want to try this old timers bait

www.handyfarms.com

^^^Never tried catalpa worms, this place sells them^^^

catalpa worms Rock! we went fishing along the rocks at the dam fished punch and catalpa worms the differance that I saw was both caught fish the same but with the worms you could just take the fish off and slide the worm back on the hook and fish again. Cought 23 catfish from 11am to 3 pm I cought six fish on one worm they are super tough.

Catalpa Fisher sells them on here.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...ale#Post8889365