Sunny but cold days in the cooler months have always been good days for me to go bank fishing for buffs and carp. Went out Saturday to do just that but found even after baiting up my spot nicely and being patient there was zero activity on the carp/buffs end. Freaking blue bird skies, winds out of the north, colder than it has been all year. But I wanted to hope I could find a way to get something going.

I had on a whim picked up a package of chicken gizzards on the way just in case carp and buff were slow. Have had great luck in the past with chicken breast but they are getting pretty expensive and can be hard to keep on the hook at times. The gizzards looked much tougher and would be something new to try out! Had never tried them or even googled if they were any good.

Once it was clear the buff were not playing I switched 2 of my 3 rods over to catfish rigs and baited up a nice hunk of chicken gizzard on each one with a big dose of Dead Red spray. Had a nice take down within 5 minutes but missed the fish. Seemed he ran with it then dropped it and did not care enough to pick it up again.

Meanwhile the lone carp rod gets a little nibble... like a cautious buff lifting and dropping the bait. I time him up and swing. No buff. Even better! Nice big bluegill! Diced him up and added his head to one of the cat rods and his tail to another. The head gets a big run almost right away and results in a nice 7-8lb blue cat!!! Only catfish of the day. Only fish outside the bluegill.

Moral of the story is, bluegill heads are great, chicken gizzards are not and you can catch fish even on tough days if you grind it out.

Blue cat might be my favorite fish in fresh water to eat and the wife made a wonderful fish stew out of this guy that was awesome!

Good luck out there guys! Hope to have more success for cats from the bank as the water cools and I shift from bass fishing back into Carp/Buff/Cat season for me.

Good write-up and glad you were able to adapt and salvage the day. I agree with you on blue cats; a mess of 1-2 pound blues is tough to beat, for table fare.
I like chicken gizzards for trotline bait. They're tough enough to stay on the hook and not get pecked off by small fish and gar. You're right, though, they're not nearly as effective as shad.
I see you left the skin on your fillets. Does that not give off a fishy taste? How do you de-slime them?

Thanks bud!

No problem with the skin. I fillet them then rinse them in cold water for a long long while and there is no slime at all. Then chunk them up and drop them into a super hot grease bath for just a few seconds (20 ish?), then into the stew for a few hours on super low.

The skin helps hold it together in the stew. Then if youre not a fan it literally falls off when you plate or if your an odd duck luck me and like the skin, its there for ya! I like it.

Dude, I never thought about the skin holding the fish together, that is a great tip! Thanks for sharing. Heck I leave the hide on the fish I grill just for that, my dumb head, just to pointed to put that together for the stew. I have always just let the stew get all done then add the fish and let it cook down into the stew.

Really no nice chunks of fish left in it, but it's still good for me, but like how your doing it; I bet there is. Going to be giving this a try. Thanks for sharing.