So, you haven't tried fresh cut fish? That's the best catfish bait there is, IMO. It's all we use on jugs after trying everything imaginable.Pulled the 4' long cylinder net trap, not catching anything and it is a $200 trap. I think I need to make the net openings partially open. Yesterday, put in trot line with sections baited with dough bait, cheese, chicken livers. garlic/koolaid hotdogs and chicken breast strips. Also put in a pyramid trap and a hexagon trap with entries in the side (put in all of the above bait and some chum). Running from 30 F to 55 F so cold. Today, the lake owner was too tired but asked me to check the traps and trot line to make sure no bass was caught. The pyramid trap (in about 30" of water) has a single 3-4 lb channel cat. The hexagon trap (in 6' of water) had about 25 small channel cats. The trot line has a lot of empty hooks. On one side, I saw a 1 lb channel hooked but on the other side a fish had pulled the trot line into a fish habitat structure. Not sure how many cats we have on it but a lot of empty hooks. Going to pull the traps and trot line tomorrow and count our catch. Let you know how each bait did. Also I like the idea of previous posters to tie on the bait. Anyway for cold weather, we think we did good. Thanks for all the advice.