mike, this comes from an old well driller puller who trapped in the 30s thru the late 60s, seal oil, which ya cant get in the united states anymore except in small human etable form now days, was made in more than one grade of form, the fresher kind was somewhat dark and fairly mild smelling, often used for mixing in machined oils, the best kind according to him for trapping was the dark almost black kind that had a loud stinky odor, was very thick and had no water in it, to make it even better he said it could be boiled to reduce any water in it further, much of it was shipped around in steel drums of various sizes, lure makers claim one can substitute it in formula with cod liver oil, however this old fellow said the very best substitute was pure top catfish oil, no juice, the absolute best catfish oil he claimed was in the heads, a quart jar of good catfish yeilded him about one inch of good top oil, it was black, and thick, and very loud but not sick rankish, nothing like carp juice, but plenty stinky, so if ya want seal oil thats dark and loud go render some catfish lol, ive used the catfish oil, its a terrefic base, and rreally makes some hot nelson bait.
