Catfish eat a variety of baits, but probably the 2 most common are nightcrawlers or cutbait. I've been fishing for Cats for a while and usually catch the smaller ones on crawlers and bigger on cut. Last night I took out a newbie to show him how sweet Cats were (before the storm). We soaked crawlers and leeches until dark then were to switch to cutbait for big kitties. 1.5 hours of daylight fishing in a 12 foot hole with crawlers and I caught a Rock Bass, 18" Shorthead, and a small Channie (and no Carp??). The Channie came right at dark, so I dropped the crawlers and went for cutbait to try to up the size. My buddy stayed with crawlers for awhile. About five minutes after I switched to cutbait he caught this.
It weighed 12# on my new scale, a big one for up here. He was hard set on using his (ancient) Cherrywood which was way to light of a action. 10 Min after this fish he hooked a behemoth that made the Cherrywood bend almost to its breaking point, and proptly snapped his line. It seemed like a monster (major power run). Then the down pour and electricity started so we got off the water.
My question is, is when do Cats prefer crawlers to cut and vice versa? He hooked 2 awesome cats on a drowned little crawler, while I had my fresh juicy cut sucker down in the same vacinity sending fresh ooy gooyness through the water. This was the first time for me that crawlers outproduced cutbait.
Here's my little Cat, which actually has me excited because they're doing well and reproducing.
My little Shorty.
