For Catfish. Work got in my way so I can't try different baits now. When the job over I going to try hotdogs with koolaid and garlic.

… might catch Wolfdog with that

… fresh cut bream from the body of water you’re fishing is hard to beat

Channel and blues, I mostly use cut bait or worm minnow/chub on a circle hook. For flatheads, I like live chubs and black perch.

I like large creek chubs and stone rollers, 4 to 10 inches long, for big catfish in the rivers.

Keith

Creek chubs for catfish are like candy to a kid. I wish that I could catch chubs on a more regular basis.
I do like how a sunfish of any description keeps the rod tip throbbing when hooked behind the dorsal fin with a circle hook though.

Cut up fresh bluegill or shad works well here.
Jim

What kind of catfish? Appaloosa’s like live bream. Channels we do good with cut bait or chicken livers. Mudcats like cut bait or a gob of worms.

Have only fished for channel cats.
Frogs, chicken liver, worms freash/ 3 day old cut bait.
Can change almost daily what works best.

I caught a sunfish and cut it in half I caught a small mouth bass with it ,that was in the Wis. river.

Crawfish and grasshopper.

Earthworms in the early summer. Then move to yellow grasshoppers in mid summer. By late summer and fall, spring frogs are incredible.
Come winter, when the rivers run cold, beef liver and cutbait catch a lot of blues and big channels.

Whole different arsenal if trying to catch yellacats only.

Traditional west coast catfish bait is chicken liver

Cut shiners. Cut and kill em' right before you bait. Red horse or sucker or any kind of oily rough fish work well too. That's for channel cat.
Don't fish for flathead anymore but if I did would use live small perch.

I have to buy a net to throw in the river for bait fish.

Don’t overthink it, use shrimp cut bluegill or worms. If you want to almost eliminate non targets then use bluegill or other cut fish. You could buy some chicken gizzards or liver from the store. Use a treble hook with livers or cast lightly with a single hook

Chicken livers if you've got the patience to deal with them... also hard to beat in minnow traps set for bullhead/killie minnows around here.

SSS from Farmington Iowa. It was called Sonnys Super Sticky he past and now it is just SSS.

Nightcrawler

Chicken liver

blue gill heads seem to do the best for me , no waste in that as you can fry the bodies and eat them

tails being second

worms 3rd