catfishing

just looking for any catfishermen to talk about what baits work the best when is the best time to fish for them and what gear do you guys use

ive caught a catfish before, lol,
but i honestly dont know much bout catfishing,
hints maybe

i know they rely a lot on smell and what not

thanks for the reply !,ya i get alot of small cats on night crawlers but i get most all of the big ones on liver in bait mesh(spawn nets/sacs)

Almost all of the channel cat I've caught this year have been caught on 3-4 creek chubs, 2-3 inch bluegill, or 2-3 inch bullhead. The tricky part for me is finding a good spot to catch all of this bait consistently because I'm out fishing for channel cat at least every other day. I actually found a good spot to catch all of my bait about 2 days ago, but it is about 30 miles from where I live. I took an old quart sized ice cream pale and filled it up with chubs, blue gills, and bullheads and used what I needed for bait yesterday, then put the rest in the freezer. As long as you don't freeze, then unfreeze, more than 2-3 times the bait won't get soft on you.

I fish for cat whenever I have the time, but I've definitely found that right before nightfall is when I have the best luck. I do a lot of my fishing near the Cedar River dam in Waverly, IA and the cat move up closer to the dam come nighttime.

I used an Abu Garcia spin cast reel with a 6 and 1/2 foot medium action rod with 12 lb test Stren "super knot" line. I like to use the 2/0 size Octopus Circle hooks with a 1/2 ounce sinker and a small split shoot simply to keep the bigger sinker away from the hook. I fish the bottom during the daytime hours and I bobber fish for them at night, setting my bobber about 2 and 1/2 to 3 feet deep and casting towards the face of the dam.

Happy cat huntin'!