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Any preferred baits for catching catfish? Any favorite lakes/rivers?

Lake Talquin has some great channel cat fishing. Sonnys channel cat bait works very well. If there is little to no current fish the deeper holes in the lake. If the river is high or flooded I like to fish near the mouth of the river where it flows into the lake. Generally i'll find a bend and anchor just outside of the current and fish the edge of the current break. As far as the lake the deeper holes are down towards the damn. Good luck and keep us posted.

I've caught them on just about anything you can imagine. It depends on the location as to the best bait. I haven't chased cats locally so can't help there.

A large bream head has generally been the best big catfish bait for me.

Little pieces of hot dog works best in the marina I used to live in. I caught two blues over 20 pounds each in consecutive casts one night on a single 1/4" thick slice of the cheapest hot dog I could find.

Guys that I know who catch a lot of big ones use cut shad as often as anything.

A large live bait (think 6" or bigger) works well for flatheads and they are mostly nocturnal.

Blue cats actually follow schools of bait so whatever the local bait fish is works well for them.

Channel cats seem to like just about anything but hit red worms/wigglers and catalpa worms the best for me.

I appreciate the response! I have yet to catch a fresh water catfish, and I am excited to try my luck this weekend.