If you have your own catfish bait recipe that works and would like to share it, then please email it to us at Sales@castawaylakes.com and I will post it on our website.

Best Live Bait For Big Blues & Flathead Catfish

Live Bait For Blues & Flatheads: Shad, bluegills, carp, drums, crappie, crawfish, leeches, night crawlers, israeli carp, skipjack herring and bass. The list goes on but these are the most popular live baits for big catfish. Most of these baits are easy to come by at your local baitshop. Remember to check you local laws and regulations on what kind of bait is legal to use.

Check out our bait section for a great selection of catfish bait!

Homemade Bait Recipes

Homemade Bait: Several anglers have there on bait that they make them self. Some will say that is even secret. I will share some recipes below that does work for big fish. Send us your bait recipe to ohiopaylake@aol.com and we will post your recipe on our website.

Strawberry Chicken

Ingredients: • 1 lb Boneless chicken breast • 1 box of strawberry jello mix • 1 lb ziplock bag Preparation: • Cut chicken breast into small pieces, rinse with water so chicken pieces are moist • Put jello mix into 1 lb ziplock bag and add chicken. Shake the chicken and jello up so that the jello covers chicken completely. Put into refrigerator overnite and allow jello to soak into the chicken. • Makes enough for a whole days fishing. • This is really great bait for big blue catfish.

Blue Catfish Bait

Ingredients: • 1 package of Yeh Monn catfish bait (Uncle Josh pork rind baits will work also) • 2 large skipjack herring • 1 roll of plastic wrap Preparation: • Cut pork rind or yeh monn catfish bait into 1" long pieces • Slice the belly open of the skipjack herring, Tuck all the small piece inside of the skipjack herring and wrap up with the plastic wrap. Make sure the fish is wrapped good to hold all of the flavor and smell inside the wrap. • Place outside for 1 - 2 days and allow all the fish oil from the skipjack herring to soak into the small pieces you placed inside the belly. • This is really great bait for big blue catfish and works. We have tested this and have caught 100's of fish on this bait. • Also remember to use the skipjack for bait also.

Cherry Chicken

Ingredients: • 1 lb Boneless chicken breast • 2 packs of cherry kool aid mix • 1 lb ziplock bag Preparation: • Cut chicken breast into small pieces, rinse with water so chicken pieces are moist • Put jello mix into 1 lb ziplock bag and add chicken. Shake the chicken and jello up so that the jello covers chicken completely. Put into refrigerator overnite and allow jello to soak into the chicken. • Makes enough for a whole days fishing. Don't add alot of water to the chicken as you want the kool aid to be thick on the chicken pieces. • This is really great bait for big blue catfish.