This time of year I tend to start getting much less excited about Catfishing as our prospects of catching lake monsters evaporates more and more each week. Catching a bunch of eaters with my son is still fun but I put it at about a level 4 compared catching big fish which for me is a level 10. In the name of fun I’ve decided to have some challenges on my boat now that big fish season is wrapping up.

Todays challenge was to allow my 7 yr old son Action Jaxon to choose 5 baits from Wal-Mart and go see if we could catch fish. The Texas Tornadoes bait of choice? Sour Patch Kids, gummy bears, Slim Jims, Smokies, and canned baby clams. and Night Crawlers. I was thinking what some of y’all are probably thinking right now, Clams and Worms might do alright and maybe a few on Smokies. Well the outcome was surprising. We got on the water at 9:30 am and got to our first fishing spot at 9:45. We fished the thread fin spawn so we anchored up in 1.5 ft of water and cast up into 1ft. I really wasn’t expecting much but 10 minutes in a rod goes down and we got our first fish in the boat. Gummy Bear!! Cast it back out and bang! Gummy bear! Decided to put a couple more rods out with gummy bears and boom!! Double on the bears!! Who knew after all these years of throwing a cast net every week that all I needed was gummy bears!!

Final Score
Gummy Bears 16 blues
Slim Jim’s 2 blues
Smokies 1 blue
Night Crawlers 1 channel cat
Sour Patch Kids 0
Clams 0

We had a great time messing around and laughing every time we’d catch one on a gummy bear but It just doesn’t compare anywhere close to hugging 40 and 50 lbrs every week. At least we got 1 decent one.

maybe that's what I've been doing wrong all along

I may try this. Is there a certain color, shape, flavor or whatever that works best?

Invitation is still open to get on The Cadillac. Not your style, but Jax would have fun.

Heck, I don't even know what gummy bears are, other than some sort of candy lol. Nice pix of great looking fish.

Good looking eaters !

Now there's gonna be a run on Gummy Bears at Walmart and all the gas stations!

Thanks fellas color didn’t seem to matter. We put 3 on a hook. I’m gonna take you up in that this summer Shannon! Appreciate you buddy. We’ll get you on the War Machine this winter. Tim, go buy all the Gummy Bear stock you can get buddy! Time to get rich from fishing! Lol

We were fishing the threadfin spawn guys so had we been using our normal baits we would have probably caught 60 or 60. Not saying Candy is my new go to bait but it worked. Just having some fun with my son.

That is fun!

Wal Mart challenge I would have went Chicken breast, chicken liver, worms, cheapest hot dogs I could find and nightcrawlers. But that is assuming its a super wal mart.

If not, I like the clams in the can idea and slim jims. Never would have thought gummy bears! Pretty cool. Good way to keep fishing fresh and fun, little challenges like that.

My Grandson would be side pocketing the slim jims for sure, that boy eats all the time.

Dang, what fun!!!!

I can’t believe you didn’t use gummy worms though…

It reminds me when I used to fish for silver bream back in the UK in my local lake as a kid. The bait of choice was a couple of maggots suspended off the bottom under a float (bobber).

Some old geezer (probably younger than I now am) told us we should use flour paste mixed with custard powder. So we tried it. We caught so many fish we could hardly lift our net out of the water when we finished.

To note back in the UK all ‘course’ (freshwater) fish have to be returned live to the water, apart from pike.

Fun times,

Good times and more Lifetime Memories.

This is great! I am surprised you picked up so many blues yet no channels save the one.
I am going to do this one day with my son but not tell him what's up. Can't wait to see his reaction when
I boat a fish on a gummy!

I told you all years ago about gummi worms!!!!

I always thought you were BSing Tom. I know eater size Catfish will eat just about anything, but gummy bears and gummy worms? Now my son is going to want me to keep a jug full of gummy bears on the boat!! Lol. On a side note, haven’t seen you on Lewisville in several years. Used to see you every week. Hope all is well