Is Shrimp The Ultimate Catfish Bait? 

I just can't put a knife through a living fish. As weird as it is, I can use chicken, chicken liver, beef liver, hearts, shrimp, etc... which was alive at one point, but I just can't bring myself to use freshly killed cut bait, bait that I killed. Been catfishing for over 30 years, I could never do it. I'm soft, I know, but that's how I feel. I can't kill a fish to catch a fish. I love Melhorn's videos, but it just kills me seeing a living fish being sawed in half... alive just for bait. It's a great bait, I know, but it's not for me.

All that twang in his voice got me wanting to meet this guy. Seems pleasant

Alright guys spilling my secret catfish bait. Cut raw chicken that has ground shrimp powder on it. (can be found in a bag in the mexican spices) cut up chicken and cover in a bag like you do jello.

Love the videos and thanks for the tips. I'm reletively new to catfishing and I always find your videos helpfull.

You know, I'll be honest other than cutbait, and live bait shrimp is the one bait that seems to actually catch a nice number of fish and quality of fish. If you're in the right spot and using it right.

Fished with the rod and reel shrimp on Wylie years ago before the blues took over. Worked great for channel cats!! 25 years ago big channel cats...

North carolina here, fish the French broad river regularly and raw shrimp is my go to store bait if i dont have time to catch live bait, and its always been a pretty solid bait. Havent caught any monsters on it biggest ones are 12 to 15lb. Works about as good as chicken in my opinion just choose shrimp over chicken cause doesnt leave my hands smelling rotten haha. Have also caught a few bass floating shrimp. You can mix jello powder in the shrimp and let it sit overnight and it really firms it up. Thanks for the great videos man ive learned alot from you and youve really upped my catfishing game. Keep up the awesome work❤

Good vid. I use shrimp often along with cut and now chicken. Problem I have with shrimp is the gar stripping hooks

Caught a 40lb blue catfish suspending shrimp on the lower Susquehanna River

I use ship here in oklahoma during the spawn .. drift it with a bobber over rocks .. works like a charm!!

I use The Wrap System with shrimp and it really makes a difference keeping bait on the hook for catfish

Love your videos. I'm new to Catfish. I'm in Michigan on a Inland Lake. I use store bought shrimp and killing it. Me and the grandsons have a blast with catfish. Keep up the great job.

We only have channels and flatheads in the area lake where I grew up. But the biggest channel I ever caught was on shrimp, about 14 pounds. For flatheads I used bluegill.

Up here in Manitoba I fish cats lots and cut baits definitely work but this year shrimp was the answer for sure. Channel s and bullheads

Mmmm sounds like dinner Chicken and Shrimp 🍤 😋. Shrimp works pretty good in my shallow waters , normally channels and Blues no Flatheads for me . 1st Channel on Cutbait , 2nd Blue on Chicken 🐔 , 3rd Kitty a Channel tiny Perch bait , 4th Popped off 😔 4th Landed and little Channel cat . 5th landed and a Blue on Chicken 🐔 . 6th on CutBait and a Blue. I haven't fished much since spring started now we in summer . 7th kitty is a in drift sock but landed baby Channel. Bam kitty's on Shrimp #8 🍤 nice Channel 👌. Lol I'm keeping score lol 😆 . Another one on Chicken 🐔 a Channel kitty #9 😺. Yeah Shrimp can be mushy use bait string 🍤 on #10 a fishy 🐟. Great video 📹 as always 😀

My shrimp bites have been off for the last couple weeks. Chicken and cut have been working down here in south Texas.

yep only thing i use that and bluegill chunks. best luck ive ever had on those 2

Fished the Ohio river yesterday with momma down at RC Byrd L&D. Had a bag of shrimp in the freezer so that was the bait of the day, cought some nice channel cats right at the entrance of the lock. For that stretch of river any fish is a good fish to catch. Mommas just been begging me to take her out on the boat to fish, oh the agony of it all.

looks like you ate the bait lol funny back in the 80s fishing with my dad it was worms and shrimp….we use head on shrimp in the power plant lakes for red fish

Would really enjoy seeing more of your hunting on video as well. Rather you drop the hammer or not, a lot of us would still enjoy watching! The gear you prefer would also be interesting to see.

Richard Gene the fishing machine said to try the shrimp in the winter time when the catfish are targeting smaller baits and they will kill it.

Come on up to Ohio. The channel cats in Sandusky bay love shrimp. Never had luck chasing blues with it.

I’ve only used it once while saltwater fishing and caught one pretty quickly and kept having other fish go crazy on it but could never get them to catch the hook. Never tried it in any freshwater

try worm scented dough bait sometime. it will work

Fishing's always awesome, even when the catch'n ain't!

Its great channel catfish bait get them over 20 lbs some say stays on easier than liver

You are making me so hungry 👍💯

Shrimp is good for a lot of scenarios, I’ve done well in fresh water with them, Toledo Bend In shallow water at night, Calcasieu River in deeper water water (never caught anything big on shrimp) but the eaters will tear it up.. Caught specs and flounder on shrimp too.. Catfish on trotline, I’ve had good success with blue gill and crawfish if the turtles don’t pick it clean

It’s the ultimate channel cat bait I think but my buddy Mark Austin has caught 50lb blues near the 85 bridge on shrimp.

I've had good luck with shrimp, old freezer burned stuff and "fresh", but it seems to get turtled much faster than other baits I've tried.

Never had luck with the shrimp in WV

Shrimp from harris teeter is fresh and works well

I use raw shrimp, and it works great. Put it in a zip lock bag, little garlic salt. Different sizes for whatever hook you're using. Yes, almost all the cats are small to medium. I guess the big ones are still spawning? Fishing is fun anyway, big ones just make it more fun.

Every time I go out even with the fam I have rods in the water. Kids swimming in the back, fishing out the front.

Just depends what that fish wants that day but seems like the fish in one school will all feed on the same thing one school eats nothing but chicken the next is all cut bait and a different area is shrimp all in the same day on the same body of water

I have caught catfish with shrimp, but I'd rather eat the shrimp and catch some decent catfish. I prefer bream since I can eat them too lol.

Have you ever tried squid?

Jello garlic shrimp with skip jack oil

I went bank fishing 2 days ago and caught 2 channel cats, 3lbs each using shrimp.

It’s only downfall is it’s ability to stay on the hook as you know catfish love to chew their food. Thx for sharing and fish on!! 💯🔥❤️👍

Fish catch fish. With that being said some of those small catfish would be cutbait.

Hey Dieter, I hope you see this as I would love to see you use and do a video on "FishBites for Catfish." In full disclosure, I haven't tried them for catfish yet, but I kill saltwater fish with it. FishBites aren't some gimmicky bait that you find at Walmart. (Although, Walmart is carrying them now in Florida and Galveston.) Knowledgeable saltwater fishermen love them. I divide my year between Texas and Florida fishing the coast and everyone has a package or two in the tackle box. If you aren't familiar with it, the stuff actually looks like those strips of bubblegum kids buy these days. Looks almost exactly like that gum. It does have a like a fine nylon mesh inside of it that holds it together. It releases some sort of biological/chemical response that inspire fish to bite. It has zero scent to us, but sure attracts fish. There is not a salt water fish that it doesn't seem to attract. I've caught Bull Reds, Bull Black Drum, Speckled Trout, Flounder, Pompano, and both Spanish and King Mackerel. I actually caught a Manta Ray (which seldom eat bait, they eat plankton) with a four 4ft wingspan last summer. I've caught sting rays, but many people fish a lifetime and never catch a Manta Ray unless they foul hook it. Felt like I was reeling in a mini van on my Penn Squall! Long story short, there is nothing that won't hit the bait, and I prefer it over shrimp HANDS DOWN! There are only two downsides I see to the bait. You seldom catch a fish in under 5 or so minutes on the bait. Takes a few minutes for it to soften a bit and do it's thing. But, as an avid catfisherman myself, it's not like we aren't used to waiting a few minutes on a bite. The upside, if you are really getting on to fish one day, that damn bait lasts forever. IT CAN"T BE PULLED OFF A HOOK! I've had times when I've pulled in 6 to 8 Pompano before even considering changing that piece out. Most people I know (including myself) cut it up in a piece about an inch and a half to two inches long and simply hook it in the middle. The only downside to this bait, when you are done fishing it is pretty slimy and you have to cut it off the hook. No way you can pull it off by hand. That inner mesh is too strong. You can find it on the Walmart website by simply searching "Fishbites catfish." It's shad scented. Think it can be found on Amazon too, but I have heard the fresher it is the better. I would imagine Walmart turns it's inventory over faster than some of the little sellers on Amazon. By the way, the catfish scent has a 4 1/2 star review on Walmart. There are so many whiny people reviewing these days, 4 1/2 stars is about as good as most products can get. I have no reason to believe some of the saltwater scents might not be just as good in freshwater. I would love to see how this works out for you! I just found out that they make FishBites for catfish because Walmart doesn't stock it where I live, I'll be ordering some soon.

I live in Southeast Tx near the coast. The spawn has been over for two or three weeks here. I was catching three to four pound Blue Cats on shrimp like crazy! I guess the downside to shrimp is that you can lose a few since it's so easy for them to pick them off the hook. I never really thought about this until tonight, but since I live in a coastal area I can get shrimp much cheaper and cook them all the time. You can overcook shrimp in a hurry in boiling water. They get tough as sh*t in a hurry! Never tried this, but wonder if you couldn't boil the hell out of some shrimp in a strong garlic solution and make them tougher to get off the hook? Couldn't hurt to try!

I've used shrimp many times. But never did well. Chicken and cut bread do the best. I am always anchored

I want to see a video with trying raw bacon. Please

Shrimp is great for eater catfish but for the monsters gizzard shad and bluegill and crappie is the best

What is your opinion on the catfish sumo hangry hooks?

I use shrimp when I don't have time to catch bait to use. It works just fine better than crawlers and I can catch carp with it too

I've heard a lot of people say that shrimp works good as bait but I've always looked at this way I rather eat it. Shrimp taste to good to just feed it to fish lol

Lyle gonna be very upset with you if you use up all his shrimp!!😂

Hey! Just asking, how long were you out there during the video?

Catfish, sturgeon, stripers, and those dang crawdads that eat bait off your hook.

Shrimp, one of the baits that costs more then catfish but yet people use it to catch catfish 😂

How fast do you drift this time of the year? I am going to Lake Moultrie this Saturday for a week.

Yes sir shrimp works….just saying…. see if you can rig up a couple carp rods…should find one or two other side of old 7 Oaks bridge…

Shrimp worked great for my brother's group when they fished in Santee a couple weeks ago they did great.

Question: I have seen a few guys fillet fish while they seem to still be alive. Is it a strategy? (BTW, I am not a member of peta)

Those catfish are eating better than me!

Shrimp was one of my dad's go-to bait. We caught a lot of catfish with it.

How are you hooking the shrimp on the hook? Do you leave the shell on?

try using the whole bait fish sometime . will get you bigger fish that way

Only issue with shrimp on the Texas coast they really don’t want people to use frozen shrimp….some type of disease that can spread from foreign shrimp??

Sir What main line do you use.?

How long does the spawn last for a particular area

How can I get a guide trip with you

Channel Catfish ❤ Shrimp

Try the shrimp closer to the bank maybe. Otherwise, a little soy sauce and cornbread works real good.

Port and starboard I think you mean left and right it’s fresh water man lol

I never used chicken as a kid. However, shrimp was on every trip. Could this be a regional thing? A size of fish thing? Because we haven't got cut bait to work worth a @#&$!! 🤣

Trout love shrimp also so why not cats

Chicken livers work great and are cheap

Ultimate catfish bait? It's definitely ultimate fat guy bait. The beginning made my stomach growl...

Catches smaller fish it works

Wonder y cat fish dave don't deer🦌 hunt

Catfish are the least picky fish on earth. Aside from vegetables, I can't think of anything they won't go after.

Can't catch'em if you don't have a bait in the water!! Few of them little ones make a good sandwich.

In my area I use cut up bluegills…. And every time I see a guy in my area use shrimp think of allow lives….. I call ‘‘em welfare shrimps

Raw is always better...

Holy cows how about killing that cut bait first before you fillet it alive. Talk about in humane. I'm surprise that RU-vid allowed it. Lets talk about your Three baits. You cross contaminated your baits with all three on the table at the same time in the sun. The smell and juices of the chicken, fish, and shrimp all went into each other. You wouldn't do this at home if you were cooking . Not a good bait test.