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.