Just Octagon or Will Any Do?

 ​     




     Working around the front pond, I would catch the fish strike the water every once in a while.  This made me go back in time, to think about my dad. He was an avid Fisherman and Hunter.  He loved both equally, but fishing was a true sport to him.  I remember, as a little girl watching him cook something in a pot and tell me we were going fishing cause the river was rising.  He would stir that pot over the outside cooker and one day I went out where he was doing that and ask him what was in that pot that had to do with fishing?  He looked me in the eye and said, "If I tell you the secret, you can't tell anyone." I was 6 or 7 years old at the time.  After that day I always helped Daddy make the "Special Recipe" for his fishing trips.  It always seemed to work, when we didn't have any other bait or even when we did, we would still use the Special Recipe.  
     Fifty something years have passed, and my dad is no longer with us, to my knowledge Colgate has quit making the main ingredient in our recipe, and I have grandchildren of my own.  What I wonder now, thinking back on all this, was the Octagon Soap, the only soap that would work, or was the "Secret Ingredient" that my dad talked about what really made it so enticing to the catfish.  I decided to delve deeper into this, just out of curiosity, and of course, I took to the internet.  Back then, we didn't have internet.  Yes, I'm the last of a special generation.  We know how to survive.
     The only thing that matters in my research was that other people use Ivory Soap and a few other brands.  The internet claims that it is actually the Lye in the soap that the catfish are attracted to.  
     My Dad told me we had to cook the soap, and the drippings from Mom's kitchen together, then we added the special ingredient, dead dried earthworms all chopped up to the mixture.  Dad had a worm bed made from our old swimming pool; they were huge. It didn't take long to dig a coffee can full.  He then would pour scalding hot water over them to end their misery before laying them out to dry in the sun.  He had a net he put over them to keep the birds from eating them until they dried out and he cut them up and put them in a coffee can for storage until we needed them.  Sometimes that coffee can reeked. He would smile and tell me to hold my nose.
    After mixing all this together, we then would pour in a sheet pan and let cool for a while before cutting into cubes to go on the hook. This process always reminded me of making fudge. I guess, we kind of were making fudge, fish fudge. He did tell me that the drippings from the kitchen helped to make the soap a little softer, so the hook going through the cubes would not break the bait off the hook.  
     I will never forget the line my dad let me pull up from the water, when I went with him a few years later to check hooks.  It had a 32 lb. Tabby on it and scared the life out of me.  The line was coming up so easy until he hit the surface and rolled.  I about fell out the boat. What a memory.  That bait sure would catch the fish.  One thing for sure, I never told Mom about almost ending up in the river, neither did Dad.
One of the best days of my life, scary or not.
     Back to the soap, I do believe that any soap with lye in it will do nicely for making this fish fudge, but I think that the dried earthworms all cut up in bits and pieces mixed all in with the ingredients is more important for attracting catfish. 
    Daddy never mixed the secret ingredient in when he was cooking fish bait with any of his buddies, I caught that one day and before I could say anything, he gave me that be quiet look.  I knew that I would be asking about this later.  All I could think of then was my daddy reminded me of a sly fox, cunning and never giving all his secrets out.  Oops, I guess at the ripe age of 57, I have let one cat out of the bag.  I can hear him laughing now!  Here's to Octagon Soap and dried worms, may they both rest in peace.  Happy 4th of July, and Be Safe!
       

---