Catawba / catalpa worm for eaters

Haven't been catching any big cats on my 'local / easy to run' trotline - but still a great hobby that I love

I did get a 1.5 lb channel day before yesterday that changed how I fish my yoyo's on my fishing pier

It was really windy on Monday so I didn't really fish much for bream (bait) cause I did not plan to bait the line - so I only had 4 bream (compared to more than two dozen when I went after them yesterday).

Sidebar: I usually catch plenty of little bream for my trotline by fishing my brush pile late in the afternoon (just before time to bait) - the golden shinners / shad that were easy to get with cast net last year are not showing up very well - so far. I'm still feeding / throwing out presoaked dog food n range cubes - every day

Well at 8PM the wind just stopped and I was really mad that I didn't have much bait so I cut the bream in half - used a few 'stink balls' from previous day ( made by mixing corn meal - vanilla extract - garlic powder - chopped up catawba / catalpa worms. Then I decided to use some catawba worms by throwing them in lake water as I baited - they worked great - they didn't have time to 'rot' turn black and mushy and stayed on hooks very well - and I got two channel cats (one was the 1.5 from trotline that I gave to neighbor - the other was smaller one on my yoyo on fishing - and a snake must have got it during the night - it was swollen up - especially the stomach and it was almost dead (died later and I was afraid of it) (another possibility is that it swallowed the hook at first and was bleeding into it's stomach but I couldn't see signs of this i.e. hook was in it's mouth

Last night I waited until time to bait and used catawba worms on five yoyo's on my fishing pier - at 10:30 - I have a small channel and I almost kept it for neighbors but it was less than a pound so I set it free and re-baited the three missing baits

At 3 AM - I used spot light to check yoyo's - afraid a snake would get any I had on yoyo's - and yep - I had one - so I had to go get it off yoyo - It's just barely big enough to give to my neighbors

BTW: One way to fish with catalpa worms is cut off head and use kitchen match to turn them half way inside out - so the green 'gook / smell attracts the catfish. But another way I use is to use the catfish hook to tear a hole in the in the side of the worm to let out some of that good smelling gook :)

BTW: I have a 'I hate to clean' catfish rule - if the fish is not over 2 lb - I do NOT clean it (and sometimes I change that rule to must be over 4 lbs :)

End of ramble - moral of story - be careful how you use catalpa worms from last year's crop (freezer) - do not thaw out until ready to use.