Northern NJ Catfishing from the Banks

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by briansnat

I've had good luck with chicken livers (if I can get them to stay on the hook), night crawlers and have done really well with hot dogs of all things. Always use Kosher dogs because you don't want to lose out on a giant channel cat because it was the wrong religion.

X2 on the hot dogs. They always get me bites

[Eskimo]

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From the garbage I see on the shoreline, I would guess chicken livers are the most popular bait.

Anecdotally, I think catfishing has been slow this past spring. I usually catch Channel catfish as by-catch when I'm bass fishing in lakes where catfish are stocked, but I've hardly caught any so far this year.

Perhaps the water is still cool and the fishing will pick up as the summer progresses.


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[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

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From the garbage I see on the shoreline, I would guess chicken livers are the most popular bait.

Anecdotally, I think catfishing has been slow this past spring. I usually catch Channel catfish as by-catch when I'm bass fishing in lakes where catfish are stocked, but I've hardly caught any so far this year.

Perhaps the water is still cool and the fishing will pick up as the summer progresses.


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I always pack my garbage out with me. And yeah, maybe it's the weather up here, we were killing them in multiple lakes in NC a few weeks ago and the weather was warmer there.

[MudCat08]

Try out Spruce Run Reservoir in the summer months. should be starting up soon with the herring spawn, and will be best after all the catfish finished spawning.

Good baits there are simple chicken livers and nitecrawlers. Go at night anytime from 8pm until 3am or even later.

Spruce is a good spot to catch a catfish for the table, much cleaner than Ramapo, Passaic, or Hackensack rivers (which all also hold catfish).

I'd use the same setup you've been using, good luck out there, and post some photos once you start hooking them!

[AirborneNick94]

Originally Posted by NJSquatch

X2 on the hot dogs. They always get me bites

I've never tried dogs, I'll give em a shot. How big of a piece do you usually go with?

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by AirborneNick94

I've never tried dogs, I'll give em a shot. How big of a piece do you usually go with?

i usually go no bigger than a half inch but obviously match to your hook size.

also try throwing out a chum pot full of stinky stuff

[SaltLife1980]

Hot dogs have caught me some real nice cat fish in budd lake last year. We were BBQin at my friends house right across from the lake and had a few extra so used em and they produced