A channel catfish is the Toucan Sam of the fish world. Except where Sam can only follow his nose, or beak, Mr. Cat has scent glands and even taste buds on his whiskers and all over his body. Therefore, it makes good sense that whatever an angler strings onto his hook can make a very large difference in the number of cats he catches.

Jeff Samsel listened to the author's advice and used the "buffet" method to catch this sleek channel cat. On some days, the fish prefer one bait more than another; let them tell you which it is. Photo by Jeff Samsel.

Catfishermen are notorious for using a big range of bait types; a former world-record blue cat, for example, was caught on Spam! And multi-species anglers know that an occasional cat will hit everything from crappie minnows to bass plugs. Still, certain types of bait will outshine the rest. Here, we've handpicked five of the very finest channel cat offerings.

CHICKEN LIVERS
Before another word is said, it's important to note that if an angler is going to fish with chicken livers, he'd better have a hand towel or two nearby. The same is true, to some degree, for most catfish baits, but none more so than livers, which are packaged soaking in their own sticky, stinky and distinctively brown juice.

The very qualities that make livers messy to handle, however, help make them extra-attractive to catfish. That goo is not stinky at all to catfish. In fact, it smells like a meal -- a fine high-protein meal -- and the scent is one that channel catfish have a very difficult time resisting.

The biggest challenge that comes with using livers as bait is that they can be somewhat difficult to keep on a hook, especially for the initial cast. Using a treble hook helps substantially because the liver can be wrapped around the hook shank and hooked separately with all three points so that the bends in the hooks actually support some of the bait and help hold it in place. Another key from a rigging standpoint is to add enough weight to the line that the rig can be cast effectively with a gentle lobbing motion and thus need not be cast really hard.

Once a chicken liver has been put out successfully and the rig has found bottom, there's little risk of the bait coming off the hook unless a fish steals it. Livers toughen up on the hook. Anglers need not worry too much about fish stealing their bait, either -- unless bluegills or other small "nibblers" are the culprits. A catfish that finds a chicken liver typically will take the bait decisively, and any angler who sits ready to set the hook when the rod tip goes down will hook most of the cats that take his bait. In fact, setting hooks relatively quickly is a good idea with chicken livers to prevent deep hooking, which can be challenging to remove with those treble hooks.

Two very nice things about chicken livers are that they are relatively inexpensive and available from virtually any grocery store. Anglers are wise to get a couple of tubs, except for very short outings, because the bait can go quickly when the cats begin to bite well. A couple of things to be aware of during the day are to keep the bait tub out of the hot sun if possible and to keep the container closed and the outside wiped off if there are ants in the vicinity.