By John Phillips
My fishing friend Danny Fields had a desperate mission. One time he’d had to leave the catfish biting, because he had no bait. Earlier in the day Fields had baited with live minnows. However, when he returned to the bait shop, the owner told him he’d sold all his minnows and wouldn’t get anymore until the next day. On the way back to his fishing camp, Fields spied a possum lying dead on the side of the road.
Although the possum hadn’t yet begun to swell, it had a strong smell. “I picked that possum up, put it in a plastic bag and went back to camp,” Fields reports. “I skinned the possum out and cut-up little chunks of the possum for catfish bait. I baited the possum on my trotline and on my rod and reel and caught the most cats I’d ever caught.
Now if I see a dead possum on the side of the road when I’m driving the 3 hours from my home to my cabin on the river, I’ll pick it up and use it for catfish bait. I’ve also used dead rabbits successfully.”
If you want to learn to catfish like the pros check out “Catfish like a Pro”, available in both Kindle and print formats http://amzn.to/W900eu. Click on the look inside feature to see the table of contents and 10 percent of the book free
