I’ve got a trout line i am going to set out in a few weeks for a fish fry coming up in a while. I always used stink bait and night crawlers for bait. Was talking with a guy i know the other day and he told me to use white grapes for bait. Is this real or did i get slicked into believing this? I’ve never heard of it. What say you tff’rs.

You will be right just about all of the time using baits that have worked for you in the past. Keep in mind baits may change on different water bodies. Cut bait including Bluegill and shad have worked for me over the years. Just my

I wouldn’t use any of those options. Nightcrawlers aren’t terrible baits but they get picked cleaned by small fish. I would be using a natural bait like live bluegill or bullheads. If you don’t opt for live bait, cut Shad, bluegill, and carp are all good choices.

Cut bait or live bait for trotlines. You need something that will stay on the hook a long time.

Little smokies sausages , Bar s weenies , cubed up chicken breast , shad , cut carp , cut blue gill , live blue gill for the bigger blues and occasional yellow.
If you have multiple lines and they are biting good . The bar s weenies or little smokies are fast, easy, plentiful and clean to deal with . Good luck

My favorite bait that used on trot lines when I was a kid was beef liver. Worked like chicken liver but stayed on the hook better. If it was in a good area I’d have a blue or channel on every hook.

I agree on the use of cut bait (bluegill, carp, shad, etc.) as it will stay on the hook for a while rather than being picked apart by bluegill.

This time of yr is tough in shallow water.. would try to find at least 7 - 12 ft water.
Fresh shad is best . Filet drum and leave scales on and cut in chunks is really good at staying on hook over night.
Cut up chicken breast is cheap and a must if you can't get fresh shad. We put couple packs of
cherry Kool aid in it . Don't know if it's the color or taste. Leaning more to the color. But plain
Chicken breast will work. Circle hooks has been a game changer for me since I started using them.
Fish don't get of as easy..they don't swallow them as much and die and they are harder to straighten
out if you catch a bigger fish . 4/0 - 5/0 is good enough size for eaters . Bait out late as you can 7 pm
would be good. You bait out in middle of day and bait stealers will rob you blind. Run early in morning
and if you have enough hooks or distance between lines you can do a few rounds and have a nice
mess of fish. Get off the water before 10am . Nothing but bait stealers after that. Probably 9 am when
it's this hot. But being in a good spot is probably the most important. Good luck

It depends where you are setting the trotline- lake or river and what you are trying for. I try to use perch & shiners, but I use a variety of baits. One thing though, if you want to key in on Yellows (YC) or (Blues), use my Lynn's Catfish Calendar (see the thread here on the TFF in Catfishing section).

Even though I did not research Channels with my calendar, it seems I caught the most on BFT (Buffet) days.
Be sure & look back to get the KEY to reading or understanding the calendar, as well as tips. I think it was listed last time back in the April calendar (towards the end of it.

Also, you can get portable fish finders from Amazon. I got mine from HFT (Harbor Freight Tools) between 2002- 2008. I don't think they have them anymore, but I think I saw some on Amazon. What you do, is set the float up as far as is allowed. Get a small plastic and add water put the float & transponder into the bucket. It should work, but may be off 1 to 2 feet, But this way, you can monitor fish under your boat & the area.

I have never used a trot line rig for catfish but i know they are very effective. I knew a pastor that would set up trot lines several times a year. He said he like have fish frys for his congregation. He would always have a whole mess of channel catfish nothing big but pretty much all eaters. I noticed he didn’t have and soured grain to bait the area or any cut bait for the lines. He only had a bunch of old coffee cans with that contained little pink cubes. I asked him what he used for bait and he said he hated dealing with cut bait or pretty much any live bait. He. Pointed to the cans and said like like to used that pink stuff. I still didn’t know what it was but he told me the it was just soap(zote). He said that it worked really well but needed to soak a long time normally 12-24 hrs for it to work properly. He did say the longer it soaked the better it worked. I have never tried it but he always had big coolers full of good eating channel catfish.

Man if I had a sack of grapes in the boat it dang sure wouldn't go on the hook

Morning cat fishers, how is the catfishing at Terry Park? Going to try this evening. I haven't fished there..

I’m far from an expert on anything but I fish for catfish at least 5 days a week. My 2¢ is to use natural cut bait (shad, bluegill, carp, etc) in chunks big enough that the dinks can’t get them off or live bluegill in the 2”-3” range…or bigger. It’s also a matter of the size fish you’re after. I don’t fish a trot line or jug lines but my baits are big enough that the small ones can’t get them in their mouths and can be hooked deep enough with a 7/0 circle hook that they can’t just pull the bait off the hook.

Cut bait and circle hooks

I fished Terry Park for the first time today. Very clean and family oriented area. Not very big, but very relaxing , with very good weather this morning, even though my son in law and I caught only two dink channel .catfish which lived to bite another day.. It was a good morning. No complaints from us ..