I'm new here, but not to fishing. But I just haven't been succesful with catfish. I live in the Northern suburbs of Chicago near the Des Plaines (about 10 miles). I've gone for cats on the Fox and landed carp, drum (not crazy about drum), bullhead (especially on the Des Plaines; I have a spot by lake Sterling that has provided me only 1 bad day and a regular catch of 6 plus pan size yellow bellied bulls, but I don't really want bullhead and eating fish from the Des Plaines can be like sucking rat poison in some places). I've also had bass strip stinkbaits, pulled out snapping turtles on doughs and cut baits (a 15 pound snapper gave me one hell of a fight and took my hook), set the hook on what ends up being a diving water fowl, and even a muskrat (cut the line on that one), as well as one decent sized bull snake (those things get pretty big and nasty). But no cats. I don't need a real monster cat, any channel cat past 4 lb. would be "big" for me. So, my question isn't quite "what should I do?". My question for those people who find no challenge in catching a decent cat is simply "What do you do"?