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Unbelievable (but True) Bait Secrets

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Finding the best fishing lures and bait is an art. 

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Fish and Cut Bait with These Strange Lures

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For eons, we humans have raided our gardens, pantries, and tackle boxes in quest of foolproof fish bait. Read on to hear some truly unbelievable bait stories from the Deep South…

The Man Who Put His Heart Into Fishing

Find them a stack of Bibles, and some Alabama fishermen will swear that Toad Smith once used a piece of his own heart to catch a blue catfish. 鈥淲hen he had heart bypass surgery, Ol鈥 Toad asked the doctor to save a piece of heart that had been removed, 鈥 recalls John Phillips of Fairfield, Alabama, author of Masters鈥 Secrets of Catfishing. 鈥淲ell, Toad put it into a jar with some Berkley’s Strike, a real strong-smellin鈥 catfish lure. As soon as he was well enough, he baited up a couple of hooks with pieces of his heart, and before you know it, snap, a blue cat takes the bait. Toad bragged for years he was the only man in America to catch a fish with his own heart.鈥

Fish Tales from the Road

Have you ever run out of your usual fare while the fish were still biting? Take a hint from Danny Fields of Oak Grove, Alabama. Dejected but not defeated, he scooped up a dead 鈥榩ossum from the side of the road near his cabin, cut the freshly killed marsupial into bite-size chunks, and baited his lines. 鈥淒on’t you just know the 鈥榩ossum meat caught more and bigger catfish than any of his regular baits?鈥 Phillips says.

Like Fields, highly-rated fishing guide Lomax Dunham found himself without bait one day on Alabama’s Lake Martin. 鈥淲e ran out of minnows and crickets, but I had a bag of marshmallows on the boat,鈥 Dunham recalls. 鈥淲e baited our lines with marshmallows and caught lots of fish.鈥 Dunham has been known to catch boatloads of catfish on unusual baits.

The Cleanest Way to Fish

Dunham is also a believer in Ivory Soap as bait. He says he  鈥渃ut it up in small cubes and left it in the water on our weighted lines overnight.鈥 But Mike Bolton, outdoors editor of The Birmingham News, says that Ivory Soap pales in comparison to Palmolive Gold when it comes to catching fish. Bolton went fishing with Jimmy Bedwell, a barber from Livingston, Alabama, who melts down whole cases of the fragrant golden soap in black, cast-iron pots in his backyard. 鈥淵ou have to get the soap soft enough to sink your hooks into it. Put out your lines, and when you come back the next day, they’ll be full of catfish,鈥 promises Bolton.

You must remember that there’s plenty of salt in the sea to take with the tales your fellow fishermen tell. 
鈥揓ohn Hersey, American author (1914鈥93)

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About The Author

Gita M. Smith

Gita M. Smith is a writer, first and foremost. She writes short fiction and has won several awards. Read More from Gita M. Smith
 

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