WANT TO KNOW HOW THE FISHERMAN DID
See You on the Lake
Woody Cooper

Makers Of Homemade Catfish Bait Must Have A Strong Constitution

Our lake SAM RAYBURN is known nationally as a prime fishing paradise. Most of the anglers who come from a distance are usually after the Black Bass and the White Perch and overlook another specie of fish that flourishes in our great lake. I am talking about our CATFISH that come in many shapes and sizes. The FLATHEAD is a fish that often reaches above 100 pounds and we see dozens caught each year that go above the 50 pound mark by local fishermen and women. Having a secret Catfish bait that I have used for years I had no trouble getting into the fun of catching the big fish. My bait is really more for the blue and channel cat. It will catch the big flathead but it is likely to catch twenty blues to one big-un. Almost every good catman has a secret home made bait and most guard it with a pit bull junk yard dog. Most will not share the secret ingredients and proper mix with anyone. Many times you are the ultimate winner by not finding out because it do smell (if it's worth anything). Even those catmen who use the "store-bought" bait usually doctor it up to add a bit more scent to it. Whether you dream up your bait or doctor some ones you must remember one thing about all catfish baits- if it doesn't smell to high heaven it will not catch catfish. If you want to smell like a rose do not use catfish bait of any sort. It is not for pretty people to use. One of the most important thing about Catfishing is to learn how to build nests for them. Back in my younger days we would harvest a Jack rabbit for each of the spots that we called nests. We would put at least two rabbits into the water and anchor it to the bottom, usually with the bait in a sack. You have to weight it down and also tie it to a tree because a big cat will steal the bait, sack and a all. Remember some of those fish may weigh over 100 pounds and can swallow a horse I am sad to say that my bait for the catfish is not wholly mine because I got a lot of the information from an old Indian (much of my knowledge comes from old Indians). Not everything that old Indians say is 100 percent but this cat bait is. While a young knot headed boy in Anadarko Oklahoma which may be the Indian capitol of the world and its where the American Indian exposition is held still. We youngsters were always glad to see the Indians congregate for a month and camp there in teepees and tents with some sleeping in covered wagons for the month. They had a carnival with all the rides and side shows so we kids got to enjoy the Indian carnival as well as the regular county fair each year. I can remember that not all the tribes came in wagons and model T Fords' the rich Osage Indians came in Buicks and whippets. You could recognize a whippet by the high whine the engine made and the tilt to one side from the three hundred Osage who rode in it. The springs always broke down and the car would sag to the right side. I have not seen a whippet car since childhood so I guess that they are not made anymore. At any rate the campgrounds came alive for a full month with dancing tom-tom and old Indians singing tribal songs. They had horse racing, spear throwing and bow arrow contests all day every day. This is where I learned to make catfish

bait. One old Indian man was always

the first to arrive and we became fast friends. He always paid me a small fortune for the crawdads that I caught out of the two block pond that was just across the road from my Grandmothers place and the camp grounds. He ate some and used the rest to put into his secret catfish bait. About the third years he gave me the basic ingredients of his bait but told me that he couldn't give me the rest because me and him both would be placed under a tribal curse if he gave away all the secret formula. I did not push him for any more because I did not want to live under an old Indian spell and I had all the smell I needed in the bait I had. The stuff I had would run a dog off a dump. I bypassed by his frog eyes, bat ears and angel dust and settled on rat cheese and pork brains. You want to be sure that your wife is away when you make up a new batch because you need to borrow her electric mixer to do the job right! If she has ever had a whiff of the bait she will not allow you to use anything that will ever be used again in the kitchen. You grind the cheese into a paste then do the same with the pork brains then you mix the two and run it in the mixer sometimes a half dozen times. It turns into a red paste with the brains being a bit more dominant in the earlier stages. After it is mixed put ONLY A HALF gallon in a gallon pickle jar. Set it outside to ripen and it will turn gray and grow into a gallon it swells. If you fill the jar full it will swell and it will explode and if it does the best thing that could happen to you is to get killed in the blast if you don't the neighbors will kill you.

To use the bait properly you need little squares of Hollywood sponge on a treble hook and a stick to push the sponge into the mess. It goes in about the size of your thumb and comes out about the size of a lemon. All gooey and smelly. The bait is ideal for two purposes; It will catch starving catfish and it will also clear the area where you use it. I have fished many areas below dams for the White Bass and when I start catching a few I draw a mass of people. That is when I pick up my cat rig, open the cat jar and if the mob has not left I dip the old sponge into the cesspool and fling it (side arm) into the lake. Mob gone- fast. In looking back at my early days of bait making I remember that the first batch that I made was almost the last. I filled the jar full and set it in the back of our apartment in one of the garage stalls. There were about ten coaches and their families who lived in the old deserted Indian school and no one used the garage so no one claimed them. That stuff fermented and when it had no more room to expand it blew that jar into a million pieces and smelled the neighborhood up for days. I never admitted to it because I was in fear of my life .I made the rest of it after dark and only filled the jars half full and hid the bait in a field near the football field while it was "working." The bait will still do three things today: Catch catfish- clear the bank of mobs and smell like nothing else in this world can do. Try it- you will lose all your friends. Buckle up, Drive with Care, Put on a Life Jacket and I'll See You on the Lake.