Catfish: Fresh or Stink Bait?

[TubeDude]

Hard to follow Pat's comments, but i'd second, third or forth the notion that fresher bait works better for me... Like Pat mentioned the freezer seems to reduce the effectiveness of my carp chunks, but they still work.. not as good as fresh from the same trip or the day before never frozen..  I used to use the nasty stinky crap and I just hated catfishing, or at least baiting up... With fresh bait it's just like fishing worms, so I enjoy it again...  One other thing Pat was probably thinking but forgot to mention, is mice work pretty well for catfish as well... I have a bunch of mice that like to raid my chicken coop feeder, so I can set a bucket full of water so the mice can get up to get a drink and quite often they fall in and drown... I may or may not have used these in the past, and they may have caught some of my bigger fish of the season... possibly... But then again they aren't very fun to put on a hook...  Later J

Yep.  Cats eat mice...and voles...which are kinda mouselike.  Down around Utah Lake a lot of them get in the water and drown during the annual mating frenzy.  And the  local kitties dine well.  There are so many other baits that work well I don't ever feel the need to set a mousetrap just for bait.