Bread on the Red

[scotty B]

A couple of days ago i caught a 10 pound channel on a piece of bread,i was wondering if in everybody's experiance if this was a fluke, or if this is common catching bigger ones on breadball's?

Regards: scotty b

[Steve Foss]

Cats will eat grain. I've cleaned some smaller ones I caught near a grain spill, and sure enough they had barley in their bellies. And have caught a 15-lber up at Lockport while fishing with corn for carp.

The three best all-around baits for cats of all sizes on the Red are goldeye, sucker and frogs. Frogs can be caught in lots of places. Goldeye are caught below dams and rapids, like at the old north dam or the Point. Worm or minnow on a hook couple feet under a bobber in the current, lots of goldeye.

Goldeye also stay on the hook really well. You cut them crosswise all the way through into 1-inch slices, like you see salmon steaks in the frozen foods section of the store. Stick the hook through the top (part with the backbone) and make sure it comes back out the skin. Skin is like thin leather, and many is the time I've caught cats when most of the meat had melted away and the skin was almost all that was left. Tough stuff.

Suckers I cut in half (six-inch suckers) and drive the hook through the skull, which keeps it on great.

No need for fancy store-bought food for bait if you can find any of the big three. All are native to the Red, and while cats will bite on many things (except maybe steak, as you found), as a rule it's the small fish that experiment. The big ones (12 and up or so) know what they like and like what they like, and mostly what they like is natural bait.

Doesn't mean you can't catch them on other things, just means your best odds are natural bait.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 08-03-2003).]