EGGS FISH CAN'T RESIST.

Byline: Jim Matthews Special to the Daily News

An ancient Paiute Indian bait keeps Al Hadeler's frying pan filled with trout and catfish all year long.

But the bait is not really a secret. In fact, the 74-year-old Bishop angler is more than happy to share what he's using to catch his stringers full of fish.

"When people ask me what I'm using for bait, I always say the same thing: 'You won't believe me if I tell you,' " said Hadeler, while casting for catfish at Fisherman's Retreat in San Timoteo Canyon just south of Redlands.

Then he tells them: ant eggs.

No, not salmon eggs. Ant eggs.

"Oh, they're really tough on the hook. What I think draws 'em - after studying them for a lot of years - is the formic acid," said Hadeler, who squeezed a couple of eggs to illustrate the liquid that fills them.

He believes the trout and catfish are attracted to the smell and taste of the eggs. They seem to work; his fish-catching prowess at both at Fisherman's Retreat, where Hadeler winters, and in the Sierra is well-known.

"I've been coming to Fisherman's Retreat for eight or nine years, and last year, for two months here, I caught over 100 catfish on ant eggs," he said.

His biggest prize was a 10-1/4-pound cat caught on four-pound test. In the Sierra, his success on trout, especially wild browns and brookies, is impressive. He has caught a 7-1/2-pound brown while fishing ant eggs on the bottom of a backcountry lake.

"I'll catch browns up there when no one is catching browns," said Hadeler, who noted that he averages two or three limits of trout per week when he fishes in the Sierra.

The individual eggs are about -1/4-inch long and Hadeler puts several on a No. 8 or No. 10 baitholder hook. When fishing lakes for trout or catfish, he uses a sliding sinker rig and usually slips a small marshmallow on the hook and up onto the leader before baiting up with the ant eggs. This floats the bait up off the bottom a little.

Hadeler uses a longer leader - about 18 inches - for trout, which feed higher off the bottom than catfish, and a 10- to 12-inch leader for cat.

The bad part - or maybe this is a good part - is that the bait is not available for sale. You have to gather the ant eggs yourself.

Catching the bait is an elaborate process for Hadeler. The first week of May each year, he drives the telephone-pole lined roads above 7,000 feet near his Bishop summer home, where the ants build their hills on the southeast side of the sagebrush.

Hadeler has noticed that the worker ants move the eggs up or down in the nest depending on the time of day. With rubber gloves on to protect his hands from the stings of the red and black ants, he opens the nest and puts a couple of handfuls of eggs and ants into a paper bag, always leaving some of the eggs so he can come back year after year to the same spots.

"I've hit the same nest eight or 10 years in a row," he said.

After he collects eggs from 10 or 15 nests or more, he takes the bags full of ants, eggs, and debris back to his home, where he dumps them into a large, empty water tank. He places sheets of cardboard against the side of the tank, and the ants sort out the eggs for Hadeler by taking them out of the sunlight and putting them in the shade.

Later he scoops up the eggs and puts them in a 3-pound oats box to freeze. "I only use cardboard to freeze them in - no metal, glass or plastic because they sweat and ruin the eggs," he said. His year's supply of bait is secure.

While Hadeler was telling the story about gathering the eggs, his rod tip jumped and he was interrupted from his tale. He was obliged to reel in a 2-pound catfish.

Ken Henry of Mira Loma and Al Middleton of Sumner, Wash., shook their heads as Hadeler brought in the fish. There were three other cats in his wire basket already. No one else had landed a thing.

"I've been in 42 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and I've never heard of this before," Middleton said.

But like most people who fish around Al Hadeler and try the ant eggs he freely shares, they are now believers.