BEST CATFISH BAITS AND RIGS?

Here are 5 good baits my dad uses
Arguably, no bait is more closely associated with catfishing than a chicken liver. The reason is simple: livers produce catfish and lots of them. With their strong, meaty smell, chicken livers draw cats from broad areas. Once the cats find the bait, they have trouble resisting them.

DIP BAITS
Some folks make their own dips from well-guarded secret recipes that have been passed from generation to generation. Others have favored commercially manufactured blends that they buy by the case. Whether home brewed or store bought, dip baits are gooey concoctions that usually smell horrible, but catfish absolutely cannot resist them.

While all dip baits smell bad, a foul odor is not enough to make a tub of bait attractive to cats. A dip must have a cheese base or some kind of protein content. Dough balls, no matter how sour or smelly they are, do not offer much appeal to most cats.
A bait’s consistency also is critical. A good dip is soft enough that it breaks up gradually, but solid enough that it does not wash away quickly. In current, where dip baits are really at their best, that can be a delicate balance.
Stringing a worm on a hook is the essence of fishing simplicity. In fact, it almost seems too simple. That said, night crawlers remain some of the finest baits available for coaxing catfish into biting. They smell natural, because they are natural, and they seem to taste mighty good to catfish.
Generally speaking, the rule for night crawlers and catfish is, the bigger the better. Even small cats like big, juicy worms. It is generally a good idea to wad two or three on a hook if you only can find small or medium-sized worms. Unlike other species, catfish typically do not care how night crawlers are strung on the hook. They feed mostly by smell and taste, not by sight, so the more worm that is wrapped around and sewn onto the hook, the better your chances are of hooking cats that bite.
Crawfish rank among the best baits of all for fishing in creeks and small rivers. You can either bounce live crawdads near the bottom in the current using split shot rigs or add a little heavier weight and fish crawfish tails right on the bottom. Dead crawfish produce mostly channel catfish. Live ones — especially big craws — also attract modest-sized flatheads. Anglers who specifically want flatheads should put baits close to the thickest cover they can find and be ready to pull with everything they have upon setting the hook.

Crawfish are not purely stream baits, though. They are important forage in many ponds, lakes and reservoirs and, therefore, make great catfish bait in waterways of all sizes. Fresh crawfish, whether dead or alive, work great for putting cats in the boat whether they are placed atop rocky points or humps on summer nights, or fished in the deeper open water along the edge of a grass bed.

A live crawfish can be hooked through the base of the tail from the bottom up. Some anglers like to remove the pincers, but the cats probably do not care either way. Anglers using dead craws often pinch off the head and string the body on the hook, inserting it under the tail and impaling as much of the crawfish as possible. This kind of rig can spin in the water if there is any current, so adding a swivel between the weight and the hook is a good idea.

RIGS

PATERNOSTER RIG – Use in river with current or lake. Use for live bait. Similar to the float rig described above. I use a bullet shaped float and a bell sinker on a sliding dropper to keep the bait at the right depth and allow the cat to run a short way before setting the hook. The movement of a float keeps the bait lively.

THREE-WAY RIG – Tie a heavy-duty three-way swivel to end of your braided line. To one ring tie a 24″ leader and 6/0 to 8/0 hook. To the other tie a 12″ lighter weight leader with a sinker. Use suitable size bell sinker in lakes and slower rivers or a pyramid sinker in faster current. The lighter leader on sinker is so you won’t loose the fish in case of a hang up on the bottom. Use for dough, stink, cheese bait, and cut bait or live bait.

BAIT WALKER OR BOTTOM BOUNCE RIG – Use in river with current and rough bottom. Especially good when you are drift fishing from a boat. The bait walker is an L-shaped wire with a weight that allows you to “walk” your bait along the bottom without hanging up. Tie your braided line to the ring at the elbow of the L and a 24″ leader with 8/0 or 9/0 hook. Used when fishing live or cut bait.

FLOAT RIG – Use in river with current or lake. Use to drift live or cut bait past likely looking snags and undercuts. I use a bullet shaped float and a split shot dropper to keep the bait at the right depth.

SLIP SINKER RIG – Use in rivers or lakes. Good for cheese, dough, or stink baits. Thread suitable size egg sinke

i take a treble hook, put stink bait on it, then about a foot up i put a single hook on (u cant put a treble hook on it, it gets tangled up bad) on that single hook i put on some live bait or something similar. then i put a sinker up the line a ways. its works nice, cus u can get 2 baits out there, or u can add another single hook and get 3 ect…