Author Topic: Blood bait (Read 1810 times)

neon frizzen · « **on:** August 22, 2004, 12:46:02 PM »

I wonder if anyone here has any info on this, It's new to me.
This guy from nebraska has been bragging on his catfish bait for some time. This weekend we went fishin. Put out 2 trot lines with goldfish,shad sides chicken liver etc etc. No catfish were caught on the trotlines!
1 catfish was caught off the bank on chicken liver. Very slow fishing to say the least. 5 catfish were caught on his special bait that we couldn't figure any way to use it except his method.

His bait is cow blood (dad knows butcher). And I dont believe he knows exactly how it's made but he claims if you cool the blood realy fast after draining from buchered cow. It coagulates into the jello blood we were using. Thats just what this stuff was like jello. You take a sguare piece take a trebble hook with a leader on it. take a piece of wire and poke a hole in the delicate square and pull the hole thing through to rest on the hook. I had no luck trying to cast it. Flew right off the hook

But we had succes in the boat (after dark) drifting in the boat dragging this stuff along the bottom. It doesen't seem to fall off that way.
Of course this is where blood bait probably originated from, but if I had to choose over modern day blood bait and modern day chicken liver I would choose chicken liver every time.

Can anybody elaborate on this stuff ( sorry I didn't search)
Even if it's already been covered it oughta be covered again

Chiefgriz · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2005, 05:53:41 PM »

My friends friend just made a batch of bloodbait. According to my friend, this is what he did. Went to the slaughter house the morning they planned on killing the cattle. He took a 5 gallon bucket and waited to get it filled with fresh blood. After he got the blood, he waited for about 2 hours for the blood to coagulate. He then poured it over a large window screen to filter out the coagulated blood. The remaing liquid goes thru the screen. He let that sit for a few minutes, after spreading it out in a layer about an inch thick. He then cut the blood into 1" squares and salted the the entire top of the cubes. He then used a spatula to detach the cubes from the screen and flipped the cubes over and salted them again. Once the cubes have a good coating of salt on them, they will roll around when you tilt the screen to allow the entire cube to get coated with the salt. The consisteny is that of a very firm jello. He stores the cubes in 1 qt. mason jars. He made 8 jars from the 5 gallon bucket of blood. If anyone tries this, let me know how it worked. This guy swears by it...

John · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2005, 08:10:31 AM »

Back in my pup days we used blood bait quite alot, but chicken blood worked much better than beef blood. For some reason or another you just can't get chicken blood anymore. They used to let folks have it for bait making, but seems the EPA or somebody won't let the chicken growers do that any more.

It was poured out on some boards in pancake sized puddles to dry out, some brown sugar was added, and some feathers were put in to give it a bit more body. The patties were stored in gallon paint buckets with some liquid to keep em from drying out.

We would cut the patties in bait sized pieces while we fished and leave them out of the bucket on a board to dry out a bit. When using it we used a single hook, but when the hook was tied onto the fishing line you left about a foot and a half tag end hang off the hook and used that extra line to wrap around the bloodbait to help hold it on the hook.

The bait could be cast, but you did need to be easy with it. It would stay on pretty well till you tried to set a hook, then it was time to bait again.

It didn't work well in swift water.

jvs · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2005, 04:48:31 AM »

Cut old Pantyhose into 3 inch or larger squares and place your bait in the middle of it. Fold the corners towards the center and thread it on a hook. Baited like that, you can cast it as far as you want. After it settles on the bottom, the bait can easily give off scents of what's inside through the pantyhose.

momsworry · « **Reply #4 on:** August 26, 2005, 04:43:12 PM »

YEah, and sometimes pantyhose might have some scents as they are. Sometimes some strong fishy scents. Hee, hee.

Questor · « **Reply #5 on:** April 17, 2006, 04:59:04 AM »

The classic for blood bait is chicken blood that's been poured to about 1/4" thick in a baking sheet, then allowed to coagulate in the refrigerator. You then cut the coagulated blood into strips about one inch wide and 4 inches long. A good way to fish it is by leaving a tag line of dacron on your treble hook, then wrapping the blood carefully on the treble and looping the dacron over the blood to secure it to the hook. You can freeze the strips and they'll keep for a long time.

It works, but it doesn't last long: 15 minutes max. It works best when you're fishing for eating sized channel cats in a hole with snags in it. Pour a pint of fresh blood at a time upstream of the snags to activate the cats, then fish your blood bait. Another problem with blood baits is that it can be an ungodly mess. It's hard not to get it on your clothes and under your fingernails. It's hard to wash off of things, especially plastic coolers and such.

All this said, I still prefer cut bait or night crawlers for channel cats. They're easier to work with and they are at least as effective as anything else. Call me a catfishing iconoclast, but I don't go for the messy stinky baits. Fact is, channel cats are most likely to eat things they're familiar with, so I stick with the familiar and it works for me. It also gives me a better shot at catching some other species in the river.