One very effective and often overlooked method for catfishing with worms is to suspend a worm beneath a float, hanging the bait barely off the bottom. This works really well when cats are holding around stumps, the bases of flooded trees or beside downed trees along the edges of rivers. The float allows you to present a bait precisely and move it around easily to locate cats that are using cover.

Night crawlers also work great when fished on the bottom with Carolina rigs, bounced just off the bottoms of tailwaters or other swift rivers with three-way rigs, or dragged across points or flats at night when the cats move shallow to feed.

Because they do not have to be cut up and are not quite as messy as livers or dip bait, night crawlers also make a terrific bait choice for trips with youngsters. Children quickly learn how to string worms on hooks so the bait will not come off. Also, cats tend to slurp in night crawlers, so hook-up ratios tend to be good.

Another great thing about night crawlers and other worms as baits to use during family catfish outings is that the children can dig their own worms, often from their own backyards and sometimes from the lakeshore when there's a break in the action. There is an indisputable extra pride that comes from catching a fish on a hand-dug worm -- somewhat akin to the pride of a fly-fisherman catching a fish on a hand-tied fly.

CRAWFISH
If chicken livers are the best known of all catfish baits, crawfish may be the most overlooked. All major species of catfish feed on crawfish, although most flatheads caught on craws weigh 20 pounds or less.

Crawfish rank among the best baits of all for fishing in creeks and small rivers. You can either bounce live crawdads near the bottom in the current using split shot rigs or add a little heavier weight and fish crawfish tails right on the bottom. Dead crawfish produce mostly channel catfish. Live ones -- especially big craws -- also attract modest-sized flatheads. Anglers who specifically want flatheads should put baits close to the thickest cover they can find and be ready to pull with everything they have upon setting the hook.

Crawfish are not purely stream baits, though. They are important forage in many ponds, lakes and reservoirs and, therefore, make great catfish bait in waterways of all sizes. Fresh crawfish, whether dead or alive, work great for putting cats in the boat whether they are placed atop rocky points or humps on summer nights, or fished in the deeper open water along the edge of a grass bed.

A live crawfish can be hooked through the base of the tail from the bottom up. Some anglers like to remove the pincers, but the cats probably do not care either way. Anglers using dead craws often pinch off the head and string the body on the hook, inserting it under the tail and impaling as much of the crawfish as possible. This kind of rig can spin in the water if there is any current, so adding a swivel between the weight and the hook is a good idea.

Some bait stores do sell live crawfish. However, anglers who want to bait up with fresh craws generally have to catch their own. Simply turning rocks can accomplish that in some streams. In many rivers and most lakes, anglers have to put down some type of crawfish trap, which can be baited with chicken parts.

Catfish purists should consider one warning about using crawfish -- especially live crawfish: Virtually everything that swims likes to eat crawfish, so expect to sort through a bunch of bluegills, bass and other "undesirables" between prized catfish bites.