#Hook fish and chicken free#

#Hook fish and chicken free#

If you want to use live baitfish but donвЂ™t have time to catch them in the body of water where youвЂ™ll fish, goldfish, shiners and minnows that can be purchased from bait shops come from baitfish farms that are certified to be free of diseases and other nasties live fish may carry. The risk of spreading disease or invasive species is too high when moving live, wild-caught baitfish. Rebaiting then can really help bring in some bigger cats.вЂќДЄny fish or crayfish caught in the wild canвЂ™t be transported to another body of water and used as bait there unless it is used as dead bait. Channel cats may beat the flatheads to your bait, and the flatheads are most active after about midnight. вЂњOne trick is to check your bait at about midnight. вЂњYou have to catch the sunfish first, and canвЂ™t move them from another body of water, but they work very well,вЂќ Homan said. Many anglers use goldfish purchased from bait dealers, and heвЂ™s personally done well on Lake Conway running trotlines at night with live sunfish. Homan says flathead catfish are much fonder of live baitfish than cut bait, so targeting these big fighters may require a little more effort to care for your lures. вЂњChunks of carp or buffalo stay on the hook well and will bring in a lot of fish.вЂќ

вЂњWhen IвЂ™m running jugs with my wife and little girl, we tend to use cut bait as well, especially fish with a tougher skin,вЂќ Homan said. These oily fish will put out a scent big catfish are looking for. Justin Homan, lead biologist in the Arkansas Game and Fish CommissionвЂ™s catfish team, says many veteran catfish anglers, especially those on the big rivers of east Arkansas, favor cut shad and skipjack. Shad, small bream and chunks of less desirable species like carpsuckers and skipjack are top producers for many catfish anglers. The best smells of all are going to come from the foods catfish are used to eating. The channel catfish is blessed with 140 of these specialized folds to sense smell, enabling it to detect compounds as minute as one part per 100 million. Trout have 18 or so of these folds, while largemouth bass may have only 10. The more folds these membranes have, the keener the fishвЂ™s sense of smell. Highly sensitive membranes inside the fishвЂ™s nostrils detect compounds in the water. The secret ingredient to all good catfish lures is scent.Д¬atfish can вЂњsmellвЂќ baits much better than many fish species. All it takes to catch them is a little patience and the proper lure to tempt them into biting. Mother Nature produces millions more of the fish in ArkansasвЂ™s rivers and lakes every year. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission stocks thousands of catchable-size channel catfish through its hatchery system each year to small ponds and lakes that cannot keep up with fishing pressure. Top off those features with its fantastic flavor, and itвЂ™s amazing that anyone would look down on these hardy fish. It occurs in practically every body of water in the state, grows to gigantic proportions, and is easy to catch with inexpensive equipment. The catfish may be one of the most misunderstood of all ArkansasвЂ™s sportfish. Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.