Around here we use alot of stink bait, but the majority of your fish won't be that great in size. Channel cats will bite great on this type of bait. I don't usually catch to many blues, but the ones that I have caught were on nightcrawlers and were fairly small.

When we use bait fish (shad, minnows, goldfish), we usually catch less fish, but the size is alot bigger. Shad heads, fillets, and guts are the best if you catch them fresh, although frozenshadworks butnot as well.

If you need a good pole, go to Wal-Mart and they have several good catfish rigs there. I have a Shakespeare (a Contender I think) from Wal-Mart along w/ a Rhino pole with a Zebco 33 reel on it for some smaller cats. I also spent a little extra money and bought a Cat-Maxx from Bass Pro and has handled all the cats I have asked it to.