Catfish love stinkbait, and catfish anglers love using these malodorous concoctions because they are so effective. If you don’t believe it, drop in a bait shop or discount store in catfish country and take a look in the section set aside for whiskerfish fans. There you are likely to find a wide variety of commercial stinkbaits and accessories you can buy and use right off the shelf. Each is highly effective on eating-size channel, blue and flathead catfish (not so much on trophy-class fish, which prefer a diet of fish). Nevertheless, many hardcore catfish anglers prefer making their own special home brews.

Most home recipes include some top-secret (and often noxious) ingredient the stinkbait chef swears makes his concoction better than all the rest. In fact, secret recipes for proven stinkbaits often are passed down from generation to generation with explicit instructions never to reveal the ingredients. A little hooch shared by a campfire while catfishing has a magical way of loosening tongues, however. The following are some recipes thus collected...