I like to hit the water at night during the summer and just drift for catfish.  I never can make up my mind what to use for bait though.  Usually will rig a couple of rods with a couple of hooks each and stick on different stuff looking to see what they hit.  I've use just about everything at one time or another but can't seem to make up my mind on the best one or two baits to use.  Night crawlers are almost always good and I like chicken livers a lot.  Sometimes stink baits seem to work great but other times they won't touch them.  I've not had much luck with cut baits or live fish either one.  Then there's the 3742 different flavors of doughballs.  If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have two catfish baits what would you use?

We have a brand here called sonny's works good or cut shad, but I like jacks idea if I'm stranded

sonny's works good or cut shad,

I usually like fast fishing such as bass and panfish better and rarely ever fish catfish in the day time.  It's nice sometimes in the summer though when it's hot and sticky to head down to the water at night and just kick back and take things easy.  This isn't a type of fishing to do alone though.  A buddy and a beer or two, ok, maybe a six pack or two, ok ok, a case or two, on ice.  Sit back and lie to each other and drink the beer.  If a catfish decides to break into the conversation so much the better, but if they don't no one really cares.  That's catfishin'. 

I too use sonnys its the bomb! I also make my own dough balls for carp and catfish and cut shad work good.

Wow, I haven't catfished in years now. Use to be some stuff sold in some of out local bait shops called "cat attack". The stuff was great and I don't recall a trip that didn't catch some.

Chicken livers is second in line I guess but chicken "hearts" stay on the hook better.

A few you don't hear to many fishing anymore, that I know work are, catawba worms and live threadfin shad.

Buzzbait

My favorite dough bait used to be Bee-Jay, but I haven't seen it in the stores for quite a while.  The best home made stuff I ever used was a mix of hamburger, wheaties, and limburger cheese.

Next summer I'm going to try some different dip baits for channels. I tried a couple this year from Walmart without a bite, but I'm going to try other places.

the best I,ve used is homemade doughballs

it includes beef blood,anise oil,and garlic  add a little flour to thicken it to doughball consistancy

it will get some very large cats

ive caught some in the 40 pound range