Also known as chitlings or chitterlings. The average price in my area for a 10# bucket is $6-$7, but I can usually find them for a couple of dollars less. First, cut them into bait-sized pieces; the exact size will depend on the size hook you plan to use, and the size fish you are fishing for.

The best scent to add seems to be garlic, but shrimp is pretty good, too. To add the garlic scent, I spread out a bunch of the cut-up chitlings and sprinkle a heavy coating of garlic powder on them. Then I put enough of them for a fishing trip into a ziplock bag and seal it. For the shrimp flavor, I put the chitlings into the bag, then add the contents of flavor packets from shrimp flavored Ramen noodles. Roughly 3 packets per pound.

I've got some anise to try, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. On Lake Dardanelle, the garlic chitlings outproduced both cured chicken livers and frozen skipjack, both in numbers and size. The largest channel was about 5#, while the largest blue was about 8#-10#. We had 26 keepers for 2 days of fishing.

I'm not saying this will be the absolute best bait you can use, because I'm a firm believer in fresh bait; it may very well be the best backup bait you can carry, though, for the times you can't get fresh bait.