Tag Archives: Mackerel

Should You Use Stink Bait Or Live Bait For Catching Big Catfish?

A long-lived debate amongst catfish anglers concerns which bait is most effective for catching big catfish: stink bait or live bait.

The answer is both.

This is why: Catfish possess a sense of smell more powerful than a bloodhound’s and they target wounded prey with shark-like ferocity.

But this is the bottom line: Stink bait catches the most catfish, but live bait catches the biggest.

Favorite live baits include night crawlers, minnows, crawdads, shad, menhaden and freshwater clams. Bluegill can also be used as live bait where it’s legal to do so. Live baits also include chicken livers, shrimp and cut bait–such as shad, anchovies, carp, sardines or mackerel–even those these baits aren’t technically “live.”

The type of live bait used should be dictated by the type of catfish you’re fishing for. Flatheads are attracted to bluegill, whereas big blue or channel catfish prefer minnows, shad or menhaden. Catching big catfish can be as easy as using bait like crawdads and waterdogs.

If you’re using cut bait, it can be aged for a few days to until it becomes sour bait, which adds stink bait attraction. Just place a few chunks in a canning jar and leave an inch of air space below the lid. Add a few drops of water, close the lid fairly loosely, and bury it in the ground in a sunny location for a few days. It’s quite stinky, but it’s a delicacy for catfish. Sour bait is particularly effective in early spring, when catfish are naturally feeding on other fish that have died over the winter.

Anglers typically use single hooks for live bait. But treble hook rigging is also possible.

As for stink baits, they come in a variety of pastes, dips and nuggets. If you’re adventuresome, you can experiment with making your own, or they can be purchased.

Dip baits require a special lure, which is usually a treble hook equipped with a sponge to absorb the stinky bait. Paste baits are typically squeezed from a tube into a soft plastic lure that’s attached to double or treble hooks. And of course, nuggets are threaded directly onto single or treble hooks. Limburger cheese is considered a type of stink bait!

Stink baits can be placed on a leader behind a swivel and a sliding sinker. Alternatively, they can be placed off a three-way swivel or dropper loop above a weight, or simply on the main line with split shot. The variety of rigs, swivels and weights used is basically the same as those used with live bait.

Then, of course, you can enjoy the best of both worlds and double your chances of success by dipping live bait into stink bait! Then you’re likely to catch a load of fish and the big one. Many locales allow using multiple fishing rods or multiple-hook rigs, so you can even use stink bait on one rig and live bait on the other to experiment with which is working better at a particular location.

Beyond stink bait and cut bait, some anglers use dough bait. They may roll white bread into dough balls or include cereal flakes or flour in homemade stink bait recipes. Carp are attracted to dough baits, and catfish sometimes school with carp.

Some anglers have reported catching big catfish on nothing at all–just a shiny hook! Shiny lures and spinners work, too.

Catfish are also attracted by chumming, but this method is not legal everywhere. Chum can be purchased in cans, blocks or bags. Other effective chum includes cheap canned cat (as in feline) food, finely chopped bait, ground-up fish innards or even road kill in a weighted burlap sack.

So whether you use live bait or stink bait depends on whether you want to land that trophy fish or need to feed an army of people! For more great tips on catching big catfish, check out the blog below.

To read more great catfishing tips check out this site Catching Big Catfish

“sam”

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Eating Oily Fish for Health

Fish Oil supplements such as Cod Liver Oil, together with Omega-3s and Essential Fatty Acids are extremely popular at the moment for their health benefits and their usage in improving the symptoms of many different diseases and disorders.

However, many of these same benefits can also be received from eating oily fish such as mackerel and herring. Oily fish are the richest source of Omega-3 essential fatty acids so we should make them a regular part of our diet.

Compared to Mediterranean diets, where fresh fish are regularly caught from their shores as well as being surrounded by olive groves, fruit trees and vegetable harvests, we typically do not include a good intake of oily fish in our diets.

Studies have shown that Mediterranean’s, like the Eskimos who survive on large amounts of fish and marine animals, have far lower rates of heart disease, eczema and psoriasis and better levels of general health compared to other Western countries.

A diet rich in essential fatty acids in the form of fish and vegetable oils, together with fresh, unrefined fish, fruit and vegetables is responsible for good health and well being. These foods are abundant in rural areas of France, Greece, Italy and Spain and scientists believe it is the combination of these natural foods which accounts for the good health of these nations.

Other nations, such as our own, tend to favour meat over fish with meat containing higher levels of saturated fat which, in large quantities, will increase the depositing of cholesterol in the arteries, raising the risk of heart attacks and thrombosis. Moving to a diet rich in fresh fish, fruit and vegetables and low in animal fats reduces or eliminates this risk substantially.

Buying or selecting fresh fish can be difficult in our supermarkets and shops as not all fish contain the essential fatty acids which are so beneficial to our health. Pre-packed foods and ready-made meals containing fish just wont provide the benefits of fresh fish. It is worth the effort to visit a large supermarket or fishmonger who will have a much larger selection of fish which contain the fats we need.

A range of Oily Fish which provides the Omega-3s so beneficial to our health include;

Anchovies

Bass

Carp

Cod

Haddock

Halibut

Herring

Lake trout

Mackerel

Mullet

Rainbow trout

Red snapper

Salmon

Sardines

Sole

Sprats

Squid

Swordfish

Tuna

Note that Tuna should be bought fresh and not tinned, as the fish oil is commonly drained off and replaced with refined vegetable oils.

The best way to gain the benefits of oily fish is to eat the fish raw and if you are a fan of Japanese cuisine, you should enjoy this Sushi style food. If you are unable to eat raw fish or just don’t like eating fish in this manner the next best method is to bake your fish before eating it as this will preserve the Essential Fatty Acids in the fish more effectively than grilling or frying.

By making fresh oily fish a regular part of your diet you will be improving your health and reaping the benefits of the Omega-3s and Essential Fatty Acids they contain.

For further advice on Omega-3s, Fish Oils and Essential Fatty Acids, visit the Healthy Fish Oils website.

For advice on how Fish Oils can help Psoriasis, Eczema and Acne visit the Fish Oils for Psoriasis, Eczema and Acne web page.

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