sandilands

I catch mine on shrimp...... look like crayfish I guess. And I also use sucker and goldeye as cut-bait

coorsdrifter1

I use shrimp and shad normally,but big blues and channels have been caught on anything from Ivory soap to Spam.Old time trotliners have used just a cotton ball soaked in Anise oil.As for flatheads you can't beat live bait,I use a 4-5in bluegill or shad

stretch56

for the bigger cats I like to use shad.
for nice eating size use a couple different store bought stink baitsor night crawlers
6 1/2 foot med. heavy rodswith Garcia bait castingreels
12 to 15 pound test line.

Oneshot7

4 to 5 in bream for both blues and flatheads on a 6ft. stand up rod and 80 lb braid with a 50 lb mono leader

sandilands

leopard frogs in the fall. I'm using a med heavy 7' + rod. 20 lbs mono and 20lbs mono leader.......... all tied by ME. 4/0 to 7/0 octopus hooks. And always enough weight to stick me to the bottom, 3-6oz.

Who

Well I have a bucket cooking in the back yard. I was told that if it doesnt burn out your nose hairs and curl you toes at the same time its not good catfish bait. Then again I was told if you want to catch BIG catfish you need to use BIG catfish bait.
I cant wate till July. I want to catch one that will pull my brother-in-laws boat around. Maybe that will change his mind about catfishing.

mwaite

My favorite is freshly netted shad, about 3 inches long, on the bottom with a 3/4 oz sinker. It will catch cats of all sizes. And if your lake has any wipers or stripers, they might hit it also. I once had a 20 in largemouth chase a channel cat that I was reeling in all the way to the bank and just hang out there, so I re-baited and lobbed it out and gave it a few twitches. It was all he could take, and he now resides in my freezer awaiting a hot-oil bath.

Lanse couche couche

I like to use nightcrawlers for cats in the small river in my backyard. Even if the cats aren't biting, the smallmouth bass are.

I also like to limb line for cats and use live bait like minnows, rainfrogs, or small crawfish.