I started fishing for catfish when I was seven years old with my dad on the Brazos River in Parker County, Texas.  My grandparents lived there in Milsap.  When we visited, my heart’s desire became to head to the river and fish.

As I got a little older, I was allowed to take off walking to the river (about 5 miles) and camp for a couple of nights on my own .  Those were the good old days (after the earth cooled and the dinosaurs were roaming free).

Unable to tote a bunch of live bait on my hikes, it was normal practice to stuff my pockets full of P&G soap (that's Proctor & Gamble for you young ones) to use as bait.   As the years passed and I could borrow the car, or go with a friend who had a car, I started taking a seine along to catch red horse minnows for bait - I still took the soap.  It didn’t take long to figure out that my lines baited with soap were catching more fish than the ones with wormed on minnows (as well as not catching all those darn gar).

I don't remember exactly when P&G quit making the soft soap, but there was always someone around who had some homemade lye soap that I could get my hands on, so all was well.

As time went on and I was trying to make a living like the rest of the world, my fishing time waned.  After my kid was FINALLY off to college and business was thriving, time became available again and fishing was one of my first thoughts.

Having made a little money, social standing "dictated" that I have a fine bass boat and work myself to death catching the so-called "sports fish".  Didn’t take me long to figure out it was more work for me than it was worth.  I longed for the shade tree and a pole in my lap like the days of my youth.

When a friend called up and suggested that we take his flat bottom boat out and set a trotline in my favorite bass lake I thought, "what the heck – why not?"  Thus began the revival of my favorite catfishing days.

Having caught more and bigger fish in a couple of days than I had caught in a month of exhausting bass fishing, I made the transition back to trying to outsmart “old whiskers”.  The only problem I had was finding bait.  Catching shad or perch for bait was more work than the fishing.  Stink baits and dip baits made it where the wife wouldn’t let me in the house - and that "conversation" took place only if I snuck in the back after the boat had been parked downwind.

Remembering how easy fish bait was in my youth, I looked around for some lye soap.  I found some to buy on the internet and thought I would give it a try.  Big mistake!!!  It was pretty.  It was hard.  It was made with pure "essential oils" guaranteed to be great for the skin.  (I had no idea what that meant.)

After spending a night drilling holes in it where I could get the hook through, I gave it a try and did catch fish.  However, it was as much work as any other bait!  Finally, thinking myself a pretty industrious fellow, I started trying to make the soap myself.  After a lot of trial and error,  I finally hit on a formula that I liked and worked.

Clean, odorless, stores forever, of the right consistency, and most importantly-- it caught fish better than any other bait that I've tried since my youth.  It worked so well that all my friends wanted some - and then their friends wanted some - and so on.   My nephew, Mitchell (being younger and smarter than me), decided we'd make it to sell.   We put in a few extra dollars for some pretty containers and a website on the internet and so began Clark Baits, Inc.

Well folks, that’s the story!  In summary, I guess I agreed to a world of happy catfish fisherman!

Best Regards,
Al Clark