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Best Stink Bait Recipes & DIY Variations for Kansas Catfish

Mr. Mc’s Magical Catfish Stink Bait is made in our facility — but if you want to mess around with DIY stink bait at home, here are recipes that work for Kansas channel cats. Fair warning: it stinks. That’s the point.

Why Make Your Own?

Three reasons:

  • Cheap — basic ingredients cost pennies per jar
  • Customizable — adjust scent profile to local conditions
  • Fun — kids love it (then they smell terrible)

That said, commercial stink bait has its place — see why at the end.

Recipe 1: Classic Cheese Bait (Punch Bait Style)

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs sharp cheddar (block, not pre-shredded — has no anti-cake additives)
  • 1 lb chicken livers
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup anise extract (optional, adds licorice scent cats like)

Method:

  1. Cut cheese into chunks. Let sit at room temp for 2-3 days in a sealed bag until soft and pungent
  2. Blend chicken livers in a food processor (use one you don’t love — it’ll never smell right again)
  3. Mix all ingredients in a 5-gallon bucket with a stick
  4. Cover and let “cure” outside in the sun for 5-7 days, stirring daily
  5. Store in screw-top jars

Recipe 2: Wheaties & Garlic (Dough Bait Style)

Ingredients:

  • 2 boxes Wheaties cereal
  • 1 can chicken broth
  • 4 tbsp garlic powder
  • 2 tbsp anise extract
  • 2 tbsp ground catfish food (sinking pellets, crushed)

Method:

  1. Crush Wheaties to powder
  2. Mix dry ingredients
  3. Slowly add chicken broth, mixing until dough-like (firm enough to stay on a hook but soft enough to mold)
  4. Form into balls, store in fridge in plastic bags

Use within a week — doesn’t keep as long as cheese-based bait.

Recipe 3: Pure Catfish Funk (Old Timer Recipe)

This is the recipe your grandfather’s brother-in-law swears by. Don’t make it indoors.

Ingredients:

  • Old fish heads (you’ve been freezing for this purpose)
  • 2 lbs raw chicken
  • 1 box of cornflakes
  • Whatever Kool-Aid packet is in the cabinet (yes, really — adds color and flavor cats like)
  • Garlic powder, generous
  • Water as needed

Method: Grind everything together. Let sit in a sealed bucket outdoors for 7-10 days. Stir occasionally. Try not to throw up. The worse it smells, the better it fishes.

🤢 About the Smell

Real stink bait smells like rotting fish + cheese + garlic. That’s chemistry — catfish track amino acids and decay byproducts. The smell IS the bait working. Wear old clothes. Use a stick, not your hands. Wash up before you go inside.

What Makes Commercial Stink Bait Better (Sometimes)

DIY stink bait works. But commercial bait — and specifically Mr. Mc’s Magical Catfish Stink Bait — has advantages:

  • Consistent scent profile — same jar to jar, predictable performance
  • Better binding — won’t fall off the hook on hard casts or in current
  • Longer shelf life — properly cured commercial bait keeps for a year+
  • No prep time — buy jar, fish
  • No basement smell — your wife will thank you

For fishing weekends or guided trips, commercial wins. For tinkering and pride of catching on your own recipe, DIY wins.

Rigs & Tactics

Whether you use DIY or commercial bait, fishing technique is the same. See our stink bait rigging guide for the right rigs and beginner mistakes.

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