Took a break form teh big rivers and hit a local pond, I used dough bait and plain chicken and got a win for the day!

Watched a youtube video the other day where the guy soaked his baits using PAM cooking spray.
He did some side by side comparisons of with and without and the PAM came out ahead.
He also caught some cats using rags soaked in the cooking spray.
I saw it on the internet so it's got to be true!

Chicken breasts soaked in Jello mix (makes the bait firmer) has worked for me. Its no fresh cut bait but it will catch blues.

First time I fished with Phil King on the Tennessee River, we baited a double rig. One hook with cut skipjack and the other with turkey livers soaked in red food coloring. One rod had the skipjack on the bottom hook and the liver on the top. The other rod had livers on bottom and skipjack on top. We were slow drifting in 30 to 70 foot of water walking the baits on the bottom. The skipjack out caught the livers by one fish and the location of the baits made no difference.

livers
any kind

I like cut up chicken, I do prefer it to be a week past date, has that smell you all know lol. Then I like to cut it in a fairly big chunk and then butterfly cut that, hook in the edge of the chunk but in the middle of the butterflies area. It will sort of move in the water column like something alive.

When in a pinch for time and nothing like shad, perch or crawfish I have caught or bought or whatever cut bait, this works really great for me.

Then the chicken liver, it's always hard to get a big enough bait of the liver for more than the smaller channel cats in my experience as a young boy. Even left out in the sun to dry and get thicker and more usable. This older fisherman showed me how you get some old pantyhose and you tie one single overhand knot in it first.

Then you put enough liver in that, stacking it against the knot till you get enough for a tennis ball size and you twist that up on top making your bait ball nice and snug. I tie mine off with some superbraid as a rule. I will make 4 to 5 half hitches and the top of the bait ball before cutting it all loose. Now in a few of those half hitches of the now tied off nice and pulled tight hitches , I place my single hook in the superbraid hook facing out ward.

Then cut the ball loose from the pantyhose and it hooked through the top knot of a few of the half hitches of the superbraid for a good snug hold so as to cast better and not fling it off so easy.

Bigger bait catch bigger fish lol. Chicken liver is awesome bait, but those smaller channel cats clean you off before the bigger nice fish ever have a chance. This pantyhose rig works good to guys, you just need to get the hook in with one or two wraps of the braid of that top knot so as to be able to cast it out and not throw it all off...

I think that you can catch cats on just about anything. I had a friend who would make a dough bait with flour, corn, and onion juice that worked wonders on channel cats. I had to ask him where he got onion juice from and he just looked at me like I had two heads and said "from onions dummy". I thought he was buying onion juice. I didn't realize he was just pureeing onions.

In my experience though, all these baits have one thing in common. I don't think any of them will consistently put big fish in the net.
not like these....




And on top of that they're free and there's an endless supply.

You just have to be able to consistently put them in the boat. Or in yesterday's case for me, on the bank. My boat is still out of commission and I went yesterday to do a little bank fishing and try to satisfy the urge. I caught these around 6 PM in less than a foot of water. I was on the calm side of a windy point along a pea gravel shoreline....a spot I would never even think of throwing if I was in my boat. Who knew?....

Skeet,

You not only mentioned the statement of two heads lol, which had me asking myself what the heck he would think of me lol. The other statement you said and certainly the important one for this post, you caught those awesome baits.

Now I am wondering if you are talking about with hook and line? If so you mind sharing what and the how on this?

By the way when I can boat some of those with my cast net, you really are already one up on being toward the goal of landing some good fish. Those are really good looking and a great size too.

Now about your boat still down, we'll I am in the same predicament with mine, ordered all the parts which these days it's always over a 1000 bucks for me. Felt lucky every little thing I wanted to repair mine was in stock too. Bad thing was when I got the shipment, somehow UPS had destroyed the stuff, box looked like it had been ran over by a train...

Heck I have finally got all the stuff again and I have not felt good enough to go out and fix my boat, which is really rare for me lol. I am very fortunate to be able to repair my own boat and motor, I have always been able to do that anyway.
I have done this professionally for years actually, so if something I can possibly help with from this end please ask. PM me or whatever and if I can, I certainly will and if not I am not going to give you some line of bs, I will tell you I have no idea, but lets see if we can figure something out ...

So we are in the same boat here, far as being broke down anyway. I do hope your rig is not really bad. Darn bad enough with the cost of things, but we also have the availability issues with the stuff we need and/or want.

Rowdy,

I caught those shad yesterday afternoon from the bank with my cast net. I was actually just expecting to get some bluegill but I got lucky. I did catch quite a few bluegills as well. With those big gizzards in such skinny water at that time of the day, I'm wondering if we should be fishing really shallow right now. I would expect to find the shad really shallow at dusk or dawn but this was around 6 PM. Who knows though. Every time I think I've got a new theory proved, mother nature steps in and says "Guess again!".

For anyone that wants to know exactly where.....




This is at Grapevine Lake at the end of Dove Rd on the Grapevine side of the lake (the south side). There's an old boat ramp on that point and they were about 10-15 feet from shore.

As far as my boat goes, it's a steering issue I've dealt with before. It's not too tough of a job, I just haven't had the time to tackle it. The fishing hasn't been great lately so I haven't just made time for it. You can bet I'll be out on the water pretty soon though.

It's also hunting season, which kinda takes precedence over fishing, at least until the beginning of December. Do to my obsession with hunting, I always miss the first part of the fall catfish season but the best is always later in the winter anyway.

On the Tennessee River, if I want "eaters" I use Bar S hotdogs cut into bait sized chunks, 1 pkg cherry or strawberry jello, 1/4 cup Dale's Steak marinade. Mix and store inside a ziplock bag.

You know I have never used hotdogs chunks before, and I have heard that many times before. I do need to try them.

Skeet,
That is some nice work on that point right close to some 20' water also. I would think that sort of bait like that there, the predators would also. For sure as it gets dark. I have always found the yellow cats up in the shallow 6-10' in the dark.
I am still a newbie to the Bluecat screen , have only ever caught up to 3-4 lb'ers, maybe a little bigger, on this forum I have all sorts of thoughts about them. Not that I mind catching the flathead as they do like to take the bait lol. Heck of a pic of the lake and that point where you found those.

Also, throwing a cast net from the bank is something I have done time after time and all I ever caught was something on the bottom lol. That old boat ramp is neet, that being smooth does seem the only thing odd, as no cover for them to get in.

I tried chicken gizzards two weeks ago with no luck. Good job

Rowdy, I think the reason the shad are there on that old boat ramp is because of the algae. You can usually catch shad on a boat ramp really early before boaters start putting in. I love to find old ramps that are no longer in service. That's always a gold mine for the gizzards. As the water cools off, I have numerous places where I catch shad right on the bank. Almost all of my spots are sandy bottoms that are very close to a steep drop-off. At my best gizzard shad spot at GV, the bow of my boat will be in 2 feet of water and the stern will be in 12 feet. That's a pretty steep drop for an 18 foot distance. I usually do well on the windy side of points but I always throw on both. Some days they like the calm water. Now, when the winter hits, that's a whole different ball game. You'll have to get a taped cast net and look for deep holes. You have to use a graph to find them then. Well, I use a graph all the time to find them but especially in the winter. If your new to the blue cat game, try the advanced search on here and you can find all the info you'll ever need to catch them. Good luck!