Rednecks Catfish Bait Soap History
Hello, my name is Chad “Redneck” Ferguson and I am the owner of Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap. In addition to manufacturing catfish bait I am a catfish guide owning and operating North Texas Catfish Guide Service. I manufacture juglines called Redneck’s Juglines, and also operate several catfishing websites including Learn To Catch Catfish and the Texas Catfishing Resource.
Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap is an old fashioned lye soap catfish bait used for jug fishing, jug lines, trotlines, limb lines, bank lines and rod and reel fishing.
My bait is a true homemade product that is handmade one batch at a time in Saginaw Texas by Chad “Redneck” Ferguson. We pride ourselves in being a small business and the quality and care that goes into making our homemade catfish bait soap recipe.
I have been selling Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap to the public since 2001 and fell into the catfish bait business by accident.
In late 1999 I started a website called the Texas Catfishing Resource to create a place to share catfishing information with other Texas catfish anglers and the website drew a huge following in a very short amount of time. I had never built a website before so I just learned as a did it and although it was rough around the edges it had a lot of visitors and message board members. I had just started running North Texas Catfish Guide Service and was doing a lot of jug fishing for catfish on my own and I broke out my families old catfish soap recipe and started to make a batch of to use for my own fishing.
After numerous failed attempts at making it from what was then an almost 65 year old recipes I was about to give up and finally one day my wife had a brainstorm and realized what I was doing wrong. Within days I had my first successful batch of catfish bait and was out catfishing with it.
I was using the catfish bait for my own personal use and through word of mouth people started asking me for it and I was giving it away. It didn’t take long before I realized that I couldn’t afford to keep giving away my homemade catfish bait so I started telling people no when they called and asked me for it. Within a few days someone I had turned down called me back and offered to pay me for it so I agreed to sell them some, and the whole thing kind of went downhill from there.
After I started selling my catfish bait locally in North Texas I started selling it online through the website a year or so later. For years we shipped bait from our living room until it got to the point that we could no longer operate from the house and keep up with all the customer service aspects of selling bait.
For the time being we have stopped taking online orders and are selling exclusively through distributors. At some point we will probably start taking online orders again but right now we are focusing on making bait and keeping it on the shelves and in our customers hands, which is difficult to do when you are constantly answering calls and shipping packages etc. Even keeping up with the stores and keeping product on their shelves is tough at times as we have some retailers who can sell hundreds of packages of bait each week.
I do hope to be back up and running with online ordering some day but for now you can always call Olsen’s Pro Am Fishing Shop at 817-625-0831 and order by phone and they will ship it to you. They do a much better job processing orders and shipping packages then I would be able to do at this time.
If you had told me 15 years ago I would have a successful catfish bait business today, or would even be in the catfish bait business at all I would have told you that you were CRAZY. It’s funny how things like that happen.
I grew up catfishing at Possum Kingdom Lake and Eagle Mountain Lake in Texas and have been fishing for Texas catfish all my life. The Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap recipe is now over 70 years old and is made today just exactly like my family made it way back when, we just make a lot bigger batches than used to be made back then. I do get a lot of laughs though when people see me starting to make bait because they expect me to go fire up some machinery and start cranking out bait but it couldn’t be further from that, in fact most people would be shocked when they see how manual the process is and the fact that I don’t use even one piece of electric equipment or even any machinery at all when I make the catfish bait.
I make it one batch at a time, and I personally make every batch of catfish bait with my family there helping every step of the way, and occasionally a close friend. Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap recipe is a closely guarded family secret and when we start mixing the catfish bait soap ingredients there is never anyone around to watch.
We take great care in keeping our recipe in it’s original form because it is a proven recipe that has been catching catfish for over 70 years now. It is clean (no pun intended), cost effective and easy to use and it catches catfish. The best part of it is that it DOES NOT STINK. Most people actually like the way it smells. It doesn’t contain any smelly ingredients like cheese because I know how catfish bait soap is supposed to be made, JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN OUR FAMILY WAS MAKING IT 70 YEARS AGO.
Some of the benefits of catfishing with soap are:
- It is clean and easy to use
- It stores well and can be kept for extended periods of time
- It stays on the hook, and will NOT fall off.
- It can be fished on a plain straight shank hook
- You don’t have to hassle with catching bait
- Each bar will make at least 75 pieces of bait but we have some customers tell us they get as many as 275 pieces of bait from one bar
- It is TRASH FISH PROOF, the turtles, gar, carp, bass and crappie will all leave it alone, it is only the catfish that like it.
History Of Fishing For Catfish With Soap
People have been fishing for catfish with soap for years, but it really gained popularity during the great depression when people used to fish with a soap commonly known as P&G Soap which was made by the Proctor and Gamble company. Fishing with P&G soap was probably the first soap that was very well known as being used as a catfish bait. It was also very common during this time for people to make their own soap on ranches and farms and this was just part of daily life, and I guess somewhere along the way folks figured out that homemade lye soap would work as a catfish bait as well.
The P&G soap of years ago is no longer in production and has now become Ivory soap. Like many other items, mass production and changes throughout the years have changed the soap and made Ivory soap ineffective as a catfish bait. While there are some anglers that claim to catch catfish with Ivory soap, I have personally tried it on many occasions and never had any success catching catfish with Ivory soap.
If you talk to any “old school catfish fisherman” you will probably find that they know something about fishing with P&G soap or homemade lye soap. It is very common knowledge, especially among “old school catfish fishermen”.
Even former Texas Governor Ann Richards made mentions in her book about wading in creeks when she was a kid catching catfish on soap.
In recent years with the popularity of the internet, and Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap gaining so much popularity it has again become very common knowledge that you can catch channel catfish and blue catfish with soap.
We hope that you will give our homade lye soap catfish bait a try on your next catfishing trip, and be sure to send us your testimonials and pictures of catfish that you catch using our product. If you send us something that impresses us, we might just send you a free package of Redneck’s Catfish Bait Soap or a free T-Shirt.
You can get more information on ordering our products here and find stores that sell it here if your looking for catfishing tips and tricks make sure you read our blog at Learn To Catch Catfish.
Website Links
Learn To Catch Catfish – Catfishing Tips and Tricks
Redneck’s Juglines for Jug Fishing Catfish
