Catfish will eat just about anything and bait for them is tremendously varied. Everything from rotten meat to cake soap will catch them. I used to get chicken guts, put them in a jar and let them "ripen" for a day or so before using them for bait, thinking the smell would bring in the cats. It did but it also was very unpleasant to use. Commercial catfish bait, liver, cut fish, earthworms, maggots, dough balls and other baits also work.
My favorite bait, as mentioned, is a small live bream or minnow. We used to seine around the edges for two inch bream to put on our hooks. Catfish seem to love them. They were also fun to catch and clean to use. I would much rather my hands smell fishy than smell "rotten chickeny!"
Catfish are easy to clean by skinning them. A pair of skinning pliers will allow you to clip off the back fin, hold the fish with two fingers under the belly around the two remaining fins and pull the skin off. For bigger cats, I used to nail them to a tree and pull the skin off using both hands.
You can find catfish in a lake, stream, river, pond or creek where you live. Find where they live, pick a good bait for them and go enjoy catching them.
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