Make Homemade Catfish Bait Recipes

Do you want to know how to make your own homemade catfish bait?

You can cut out the middle man by creating your own concoctions, using what you already have in your house.

These do-it-yourself methods for creating your own gourmet catfish meals shall have you catching plenty more whiskerfish to brag about. They are fairly simple and easy to manufacture as well.

Feel free to get creative and experiment however you wish. Or get your hands on these 80 Easy Catfish Bait Recipes for some ready-to-go ideas to start hooking into those whiskerfish.

The Base For Catfish Bait

We'll start off with developing the base to start making many of the homemade catfish baits that you can easily create. Flour and water can be used as the main ingredients for the pasty dough. Mix together to the consistency of slightly stiff cookie dough. Depending on the remaining ingredients that you later add will ultimately determine how much water, if any, will need to be used.

You may also add or substitute items such as cornmeal, bread, or pre-made dough. Or anything which will have a sticky quality to it in order to hold the dough bait together. Other ingredients to consider can be eggs or bread crumbs. Peanut butter is an excellent addition.

Ideas For Homemade Bait Ingredients

Okay, now it's time to get a little creative. What did you do with the left over food from dinner last week? Don't throw it all out. And you don't need to feed it all to the dog. You can use some of the meat and whatever else that you might assume a bottom feeding scavenger catfish might curiously find mouthwatering. Grind it up and mix it into your base mixture.

There are so many other ingredients in your kitchen that will be great for a homemade catfish bait. The next time that you start preparing a meal, take a look at what you are doing and what you have. You might be surprised once you realize that you might actually be holding some catfish bait for your next fishing trip. What do I mean by that?

Main Course Options

More than likely, your main course will be some type of meat, right? Instead of straining the blood down the kitchen sink, set it aside. Catfish absolutely love blood. Are you using beef, pork, chicken or fish? Put a little of that aside as well. Try using it raw and/or cooked. Grind it up and mix that with your base mixture.

You can use the entrails of a fish if you plan on cleaning and gutting it yourself. The same applies with chickens, turkeys and game birds. You can use much of the innards. You may already know chicken liver is an awesome catfish bait.

Morning Delight

Having sausage, bacon, egg, cheese and biscuits for breakfast? Grind and mix those together. Coffee grounds too. Catfish like cheese, so try some different types. Orange cheeses do best, such as cheddar, american, or powder cheese from macaroni and cheese packages. Even try some old stinky rotten cheese. Many angling shops sell cheese dough/pastes baits also.

Using Oils In The Catfish Bait

Add some oil to the mix. Cooking oil may work fine, although I would recommend using fish oils as those are a bit more potent and attractive to the catfish. So, the next time you fulfill your snack attack of crackers and sardines, oysters, clams, salmon or tuna, hold onto the remaining oil left in the can, including some of those oily fish.

Seasoning The Bait

I'm sure you season most of your food, right? Well, catfish also love garlic scents as well. Try some garlic salt or powder. Fresh garlic contains more natural oils and is sticky as well. There is a reason why companies manufacture garlic scented attractants. Be sure to try garlic scents in one of your homemade catfish bait mixes. Also experience with seasonings such as cayenne pepper, curry powder or cajun seasoning.

Refreshments

Don't you need something to wash down your tasty meal with? Try out some cola. Dark soda pops like coke, dr. pepper or berry flavors tend to produce well when added to bait mixtures. Dry powder mixes for kool-aide, jello and punch drinks in berry flavors are also top producers, particularly strawberry flavors.

Soap For Catfish Bait?

You've finished eating your meal so now what? Time to wash up. Cube up a piece of your bar soap. Simply bait the hook with that or grind and mix that into your base mixture. Soaps with lard seem to provide greater results. A simple homemade catfish bait.

Pet Food With Catfish Bait

Don't overlook dry bagged or wet canned dog food and cat food. Other than including the pet food into your homemade catfish bait, you can toss the canned food in the water to help attract the catfish to your area. Puncture a few holes into the can and tie a string or some line to it. Tying it off will allow you to pull it back on shore so you're not polluting the waterways with trash. Chuck the can out towards the area you plan on fishing. It should sink and the aroma will leak into the water column, attracting the catfish without them actually getting a chance to eat it.

Buggin' Out With Catfish Bait

No need to frown upon your children digging for bugs in the back yard anymore. Send them out there and collect a few of those nasty stinky bugs and earthworms. Other ingredients you could consider can include hot dogs, bologna, salami, shrimp, syrup, strawberry jelly, or marshmallows.

Catfish Bait Consistency

I'm not saying to mix every single one of these ingredients together all at the same time for one complete homemade catfish bait recipe. Mix and match, using what you have, until you're satisfied with your new invention.

Once you have rendered the bait into a nice sticky paste consistency, allow it to chill for a few hours. Some people prefer to leave their proud concoction outside to rot, or ripen as you may wish to say, anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I suppose if that's what you choose to do and don't mind pissing off the neighbors.

A real nice sticky dough ball should be sufficient enough to remain on the hook. If it's too loose and continues to fall off, then wrap and tie it off in a piece of cheese cloth or pantyhose. You can also re-dip the bait in your special bloody marinades in between casts.

Create The Bait And Go Catfishing

These are merely just a few of our ideas. Experiment with any of the ingredients here on this page and discover some of your own. Sometimes, the least expected things will land you the quality catfish that you're after.

Save yourself some time and trouble with these 80 Easy Catfish Bait Recipes that are already thought up and proven to work by many catfish anglers with success.

We would enjoy hearing about your experiences of using homemade catfish bait.

What's in it for you? Consideration of your recipe being included into a possible book in the future.

It doesn't matter how simple or complex your baits are, we really do want to know about it. So go ahead and use the form below to share your homemade baits with us. Although none of the information is required, enter as much as you can.

Share Your Homemade Catfish Recipes

First Name

City

State/Prov

Country

Which species of catfish is your homemade bait used to target?

	Channel Catfish
	Flathead Catfish
	Blue Catfish
	Bullhead Catfish
	Other
	Any

What type of water do you mainly use this bait in?

	Rivers
	Streams
	Sloughs
	Ponds
	Lakes

Enter your homemade catfish recipe in the box below.

Additional details

Please enter the word that you see below.

Let us know how you created your homemade catfish bait recipes and how productive it was for you. We don't mind if you only caught a couple of one pound channel catfish or a 50 pound blue cat. We enjoy hearing your stories...

Submit your catfish pictures and stories today.

Have fun and good luck freshwater fishing for catfish.