Catfish eat a variety of different foods on a daily basis you may be surprised that catfish feed on such a large variety of foods. Here are a few examples of catfish bait we have identified that work for live bait presentations or dead cutbaits and prepared stink baits. Here a few examples of catfish bait that works well in different fishing situations, nightcrawlers, suckers, chubs, shiners, goldfish, shad, skipjack herring, bluegills, catalpa worms, grasshoppers, leopard frogs, bullfrogs as cutbait, waterdogs, adult salamanders, crayfish, saltwater shrimp, clams, and blood baits. There are allot of fisherman that think catfish feed mainly on dead and stinking food but that is a myth. It is very true that these type of baits do work well because of the catfish's keen sense of smell for certain types of catfish in certain situations but the truth be told catfish consume much of their daily diet from live bait types that are natural to their environment. Catfish are a predominate night feeder and some large catfish can be caught at night. Don't think you need to concentrate all your catfishing at night because catfish will also feed during the day and you can use a vareity of catfish bait to catch them, particularly if they are living in muddy or stained waters. Catfish are a warm water fish are very active when the water temperature rises above 70 degrees. We will concentrate on the catfish baits commonly used for the following three species of catfish, the channel catfish, the blue catfish, and the flathead catfish but first we want to give you a brief background of each type. The channel catfish is very common and has a range from the northern to southern united states. They are blueish gray in color and often have spots along the sides of their bodies. The tail has a deep fork, and the anal fin is shorter and rounder then the bluecat. The world record channel catfish weighed 58 pounds and was taken from the Santee-Cooper Reservoir in South Carolina, July 7, 1964. Channel catfish grow very slowly and a channel often takes over over 9 years to reach a weight over 5lbs. Channel catfish are very tasty and a 1 1/2lb to 3lb fish is excellent table fare. This catfish species will hit on live bait, or dead cutbait as well as prepared catfish bait and also blood catfish baits. The blue catfish looks allot like the channel catfish except they have a long anal fin and do not have any spots. They probably get their name because of their blueish gray color. The bluecat get much larger then the channel catfish and it is common to see fish larger then 20lbs. The current bluecat fish world record is 124 pounds and was caught on May 22, 2005, in the Mississippi River. Blue catfish will usually feed on cut up or dead catfish bait, and even stinkbaits. Blue cats will also respond well to live baits and live river herring and shad usually are a top choice. they also love large shiner minnows, sunfish, suckers, and carp. The bluecat is predominately a river fish but the can also be found in some large lakes and reservoirs where they have been stocked. The flathead also has other names such as the yellow cat, opelousas, and shovelhead cat. The flathead catfish can be fond in areas west of the Appalachian Mountains, in large rivers and their basins of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. Their range goes as far north as North Dakota, and as far west as Arizona, and south to the Gulf of Mexico including northeastern Mexico. The shovelhead catfish can grow very large and will consume catfish bait primarily live bait. In some areas of the south they are a undesirable fish because they love to feed on bream and large flatheads can wipe out populations of these fish. But in many areas they are considered a prize gamefish because they grow so large. The record shovelhead was caught May 14, 1998 from Elk City Reservoir, Kansas and weighed 123 lb 9 oz. Shovelheads like to hide in deep pools, in lakes,and large slow-moving rivers. The flathead catfish has a wide flat looking head very small eyes and are very brownish color. They have more of a square tail and their jaw protrudes beyond the upper jaw. Well folks that concludes our summary article about catfish bait options We sincerely hope you use our fishing information on your next fishing trip Good Luck!
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