i am lucky enough to live within a mile of the ohio river.....and want to get into BIG cats this year......hopefully....i saw that every year....just never make it for the bigguns.....but i found a creek by my house loaded with 2-4 inch chubs.....i heard theyd make PERFECT cat bait.....how do you rig them? dead or alive? cut? where do you hook them? anything will be helpful....i think theres more channel cats then flatheads....but there is both out there....our flathead record is only like 34lbs i believe....i would love to beat that....i know theres bigger out there......when do the big ones start feeding? where should i look to target big ones?? i have 2 lock n dams close by also....heard they hole up there a certain time of the year.....do you fish the downstream side or the upstream side of the dams?? thanx guys.....i love catfishing.....i want to tie into a few nice ones this summer.....

What I do is what you call shiscabobing the chub. Take a peice of mental fencing wire 6 to 8 inches long and bend one end into a small loop or hook. Usually you would like to have a wire leader on your line. Then take the swivel of the leader hook it to the loop of the wire. Then take the other end of the wire stick it in the chubs mouth and push it lengthwise throught the body of the chub until it comes out the tail. (Your wire for your shiscabober is strong enough to do this) Then pull the leader through to the tail. Then you unhook the shiscabober and hook a trouble hook. The pull the chub back down the line so that the trouble hook is barely sticking out from the tail.
Since you sould be fishing a river it would be wise to have a some wieght a little bit up the line to sit it at the bottom. In my opinion your best bet for big cat is fishing below the dam. The problem with that is the numerous snags. Hope this helps.

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I would go with chubs. Chicken livers are also really good bait for cats as well.