Well I was thinking about channel cats today, and different baits I've tried for them. Live, dead, and stuff that smells worse than dead. I was just curious to see what you fellas like to use the most. My best producers are canned sardines packed in oil tied in the mesh you would use for making egg sacks. I also put in a small piece of sponge that has been dipped in the extra oil in the can. The second one is a doughball I make with pureed liver, garlic, and fish oil. This last one attracts and catches channel cats like flies. Only problem is I dread making it. Love fishing it though.
-Will

My best baits for Channel Catfish are dead/cut Gizzard Shad, Mooneye Filets and Chicken Livers. I have experimented a lot with different types of cutbait, and have to say that Carp and Drum aren't all that great. The Shad, freshly killed and sliced a few times to release scent, is my top Channel Cat bait. ~andy

Yeah fresh shad work ok for me too. The shad I find are pretty small, maybe 1 1/2 inches, so I'll put 2 or 3 dead ones on a hook. I do the smae thing except I cut the bellies slightly.
-Will

I have had more luck with dead shad than anything else so far. I have caught plenty on crawlers, but when I started using shad more, I caught more consistantly. I have not tried liver yet, but have a buddy from missori who grew up fishing with them, so he'll give me a primer.

Depending on the location, I have different results. Oddly. However, overall I've used crawlers and chicken liver with the most success. Each has it's pros/cons. When I lived in Arizona, we had more types of bait allowed (goldfish, etc), and I experimented with several items. In some cases, a nice fat stinky shrimp worked wonders. But then you get into the "Bait costs as much as the target" type deal.

I agree with you guys on channel baits for lakes, and I've caught a lot of channel cats with cut shad in large bodies of water. Oddly though, I've never done well in a pond of any sort with cut shad. I use ham chunks or hot dogs. I buy my ham chunks from grocery stores in the lunch meat section. They're tough enough to hang on a hook all night without tearing off, and the catfish love them.

Hot dogs are deadly. I only mention them here because the only rig me and my fellow pond fishermen around here have ever managed to keep a hot dog on is pretty much lethal. Hot dogs tear extremely easily, and just threading a hook through one is a good way to lose a chunk of bait on a cast. What we finally found to work was a slinky rig with a 6" 30lb test leader tied to a #2 treble hook. We could thread the leader through the dog chunk, and the thick line wouldn't slice through the meat while the treble hook held it and supported it during the cast. Unfortunately, it's about a 50/50 chance that the hook isn't coming back out of that fish unless you set the hook the instant you see a hit. Because of the mortality rate, we've moved pretty much entirely to the ham chunks.

Great topic. Here's some short observations:

The ultimate bait I've used is Shad. My biggest Channel so far is just over 18 lbs.

Spring on the river means that earth worms work really well -- but that's in the spring. I don't have that great of luck later in the season with worms for Channel.

I have had little luck with Fresh Water Drum - but I have been told by multiple people to use the tail section when fishing Drum cut bait -- the theory being it is more oily. Like I said, I've had little luck.

Shad is definitely the ultimate natural bait.

I usually use cutbait - goldeye, sucker, and tullibee have brought the most success for me.

As an alternative, shrimp works very well too.

Cutbait all the way. Shad has been best for me, but mooneye and goldeye are pretty good too. I also like suckers cut into 1" chunks or filleted and threaded on the hook. Or use the head, and step on it to get the juices flowing. Drum has never worked for me.

Chicken guts (intestines) are dynamite on smaller rivers and lakes, and I think they work best during the warmer months. Thread a whole gut onto your leader, and ball up the last couple inches on your hook. The scent trail lasts for quite a while, and the gut will stay on the hook for a long time. Smells great, too...

I don't have so much luck with cutbait in lakes. I use livers or guts or stinkbait. I think it has a lot to do with the slow scent dispersal in still water.

I'm a cut bait man. Used chicken liver and it seems to produce more hit, but many drops too. I'd also say the chicken liver fish tend to run on the smaller side of things.

Cut sucker/chubs is my goto.

Best bait hands down is fresh cut shad fished directly on the bottom for both channel cats and blue cats..

Flat heads prefer there food still swimming...

Meadeo

For bullheads nothing beats night crawlers

In that vein, I've had a lot of good luck with a mongrel pork bait I use.

Shoulder pork is pretty cheap ($1-2/pound) and the fatty portions of it are well loved by channel cat and bullhead. I'll cut strips of the fat off and freeze them, salted, and as I use the pork and other meat (mostly cheap steaks I get for my dogs' Sunday dinner)I'll pour the juice into the frozen container. When the fatty strips thaw, they absorb the juices and steep in them all day or night. A lot of plate-sized channel cat really dig that stuff.

-David

Dead shad seem to work the best for me. I cought a 20lber on some this past summer. Caught all my sturgeon on shad too.

Channel cats have in my opinion differnt tastes at differnt times of year, and at diffent locals. Early spring cut shad is great. Later on fresh cut bait works wonders. During late August and through September frogs get the nod.

Another thing I would like to add is using smaller baits durning unprime hours. Don't give'em a quater pounder when all they want is an oreo.

I forgot about frogs... they're great during late summer / early fall. If I see frogs where I'm fishing, I try to get at least a few into my bait bucket.

Good point about downsizing your bait. My personal best (a 15 pound channel) hit a postage stamp sized chunk of sucker meat at about 2:30 in the afternoon.

Frogs. Of course! I guess I have seen plenty of dead frogs after ice out on lakes, so rivers ought not be too different. But your still talking summer. Do think they key in on frogs as predators or simply enjoy the free meal...like chicken livers?
Do you fish them dead or alive?

It's the same thing on the Red River during late summer / early fall - the channel catfish really start keying in on migrating frogs. At that time they can be a dynamite bait, but I don't like to use them.

There can be a noticeable preference as to what type of cutbait they want through the seasons. As a general rule around here, in spring they seem to key in on suckers, in summer they prefer goldeye, and then by fall they turn onto tullibee.

As far as dead or alive. Most times dead with a few cuts in it. I used to feel bad using frogs. But I have a 6 year old boy who is a frog hound and keeps me in a steady supply.

<-- backs away slowly at the mention of using frogs for bait.

chicken livers can't be beat. but it is so much more fun to drift a large minnow down in the deep holes in a river from a yak!