Anyone ever used mussels for catfish, just an idea i had. Let me know if you have experiance with this!

I've caught lots of drum on them, never a catfish though

I have caught channels on muscles before.
They seem to work pretty good for me.

Ive caught blues and channels with a belly full of them.

When I was a kid, people still shelled the river for mussles. We'd buy the mussle meat and my Dad would make some Gawd awful catfish bait using the meat, rotted cheese, salt and other stuff. I was too young to remember how it was made. We'd have to keep the barrel out at the road (away from the house)because of the aroma. We trotlined with it and Always caught big cats. I remember the meat getting tough so it'd stay on hooks in fast current.

I know there are tons of them in Eagle Mountain up north in the shallow flats. Certainly catch a lot blues in the area.

I've literally caught several mussels off rod and reel, they'd clamp on the hook or something. I crack them open and use them as bait, it'll catch good blues!

I have been told that you can tell if fish have been eating mussels because they will have a bloody anal opening. I have no idea if that is actually true.

Hahaha sounds scientifically reasonable to me.

What's best way to get mussels or find them

Go swimming somewhere that has a sandy bottom.

Ok so wednesday i picked a few mussels out the sand, baited one pole with mussels and one with DK's. mussles out fished DK's about 4 to 1 with way bigger hits and consistently bigger fish ( by a few pounds). Think i may be on to something.... Fresh bait for the fatter kitties from now on!

It works but if you fish daytime or dusk you will catch drum like crazy so you get a good fight and more bait

Mussels can be good bait, this from personal experience when I was a kid. Now mussels are facing tough times. Several species are currently listed by the TPWD as State Endangered status and others are being proposed for federal endangered species status by USFWS. You might look into TPWD harvest regulations for mussels, just for your own knowledge and information. While some folks will just find'em, crack'em and use them, I believe you can catch all the channels you want with DKs punch bait, all the blues you want with shad, all the flatheads you want with sunfish/bullheads. Good Fishing!