CatsandCarp.com

These pellets are fabulous for catching lots of catfish with the added advantage of not rotting in the trunk of your car.

When I was boy my mother used to find all sorts of horrid surprises in the pockets of my rain jacket and fishing coat: week old salmon eggs, fish belly, bugs, you name it. As a man I have enticed the wrath of my wife by forgetting cut shad and shrimp in the trunk of the car.

But the smell is not the only problem with cut shad, chicken liver, shrimp and all of our other favorite fresh baits. When you only have a few hours to sneak in a trip to the river, you don’t want to spend half that time looking for or thawing-out bait.

Consequently, I always like to carry a bag of Dynamite’s Marine Halibut Pellets, or their Carp Tech crab and crayfish 20mm boilies in my tackle bag.

These pellet and boilie baits don’t have to be refrigerated, have a very long shelf life and don’t make a mess, but just open the bag and any cat fisherman worth his salt will be able to tell they make a great catfish bait.

Halibut pellets are used with a small hook (#6 to #10) and a “hair rig” like this one.

Using pellets and boilies also helps when casting long distances. They are so tough and aerodynamic that you can cast them 120 yards easily with the right rod and not have to worry whether they will come flying off the hook mid-cast or disintegrate when they hit the water.

The price is hard to beat too. you can get a 2.2 lb bag of Dynamite Halibut Pellets for under $7 from www.bigcarptackle.com. Because of the durability I typically only use four or five pellets for an afternoon of cat fishing, so a 2.2 lb bag will last me all season. When you compare that to spending $5 on worms that lasts one day, or $6 on a bucket of chicken liver that is not allowed anywhere near my wife’s refrigerator, then $7 per year is absolute bargain!