9/27/07
A new kind of catfish bait – and it works!
By Terry Madewell

TERRY MADEWELL/Manning Times

Chuck Porter with a nice stringer of catfish caught recently.

As we enter the fall fishing season there are a few things that are changing, yet there are some that seem to stay the same.

For openers, one change is that there are fewer folks on the lakes right now. One reason is likely because school is back in session and that makes a lot of folks busy compared to the summer months. Plus, and more likely the bigger reason, hunting season is in and many avid outdoorsmen are have traded fishing rods for a bow or rifle. We are in deer hunting country for sure.

Among the things that haven’t changed is that area lakes are producing lots of quality fishing during the fall. Lakes Marion and Moultrie are great places to fish during the fall months for a variety of fish species.

Specifically, the action for catfish fishing is now some of the very best of the entire year. Fishing success on this and other nearby lakes such as Lake Wateree, Lake Murray and the Wateree and Cooper rivers is outstanding right now. Whether you are interested in catching big cats or a big catch of good-sized fish, now is the right time to go. Late September throughout October are some of the best times of the year to get into quality catfish action.

One angler who has been enjoying the catfish action recently is Chuck Porter. Porter is combining chasing a few early morning stripers, chunking for largemouth and then catfishing. He is doing quite well on old Mr. Whiskers. Whether the stripers’ school or the largemouth bite, he’s been returning home with a coolerful of catfish on just about every trip he’s made.

Not only is he doing this consistently, he’s using a catfish bait I’ve never used until I fished with him recently. It works great.

“Someone told me about this and although it sounded a bit offbeat, I tried it,” Porter said. “What I’m doing is using chicken breast meat, cut into chunks. Then I’m spraying it thoroughly with WD-40, enclosing it in a sealed bag or plastic container and let it soak overnight in the refrigerator. Then the next morning when I head out for the lake, the WE-40 has penetrated the meat and is ready for fishing.”
Porter admitted the first time he tried it he had a backup plan in case it didn’t work. But he scarcely got his second rod rigged and out before the first one was nearly snatched from the boat.

“I was amazed at how quickly and how aggressively the fish hit this bait,” he said. “I literally had all I could do to keep rods baited and in the water, the catfish-biting action was so fast. Most of the fish I’ve been catching are the good-eating sized fish and I haven’t hooked any huge fish yet. But I think that’s more because I need to fish in other places for bigger fish. Right now, most of the fish are coming from flats that are in about eight feet of water that drop into creeks and ditches that are 15-to-25 feet deep.“

This bait has been working so well that Porter has even caught striper on it.

“I thought I had hooked a really big catfish but it turned out to be a nice-sized striper,” Porter said. “This is the only non-catfish fish species I’ve caught, but I think that’s fairly significant in terms of saying this is a good fish attractant. I know we used to spray our largemouth bass lures with scents, who’s to say the scent and resulting oil slick from WD-40 won’t attract other fish species. I know I’m going to at least give it a fair shot.”

“Frankly I had my doubts about the bait at first, but now I’m totally sold on it,” Porter said. “I’ve catfished a lot during my years of fishing but I would have never believed a bait this simple, or actually kind of offbeat, would be so productive. I’ve read up on WD-40 a good bit since this and I’ve learned there are a lot of other uses for this spray other than what I’d normally thought of.”

“But for now, I’m going to continue to use it for catfish and I believe that using big chunks of bait soaked in this spray will produce bites from some of the really big blues,” he added.

On the trip I took with Porter we caught mostly blue catfish, but had some channel catfish and bullheads as well. There was seldom a time when we weren’t getting a bite or fighting a fish. I know I stocked up on WD-40 the next day… and not because I have any squeaky door hinges either.

I think I’ve found I much better use for this can of spray magic.