Michael J. Bush used a chub to catch this giant Missouri River blue. The Greenwood catfisherman said that big cats also take minnows, shad, bluegills, carp and other live baits. Photo courtesy of Michael Bush.

When Nebraska anglers set out to catch some catfish, they have two choices to make: where to fish and what to use for bait. Polling fans of the whiskerfish, we found the menu offered cats almost as diverse as the waters serving up the tasty quarry.

Dave Timms of Columbus likes to use chicken livers or bacon for his channel cat fishing, but he gives the bait his personal touch. "Neither one of the baits stay on the hook very well," said the 50-year-old house painter, "so I lightly fry both of them to toughen them up a bit."

And it works!

"My brother, Kevin, who lives in Montana, thinks he's the family catfish king," Timms continued, "but the next time I see him I'll show him my three Master Angler certificates for channel cats I caught from a nearby sandpit last summer. They include a pair of 16-pounders and one weighing 12. I think it will make him pull in his horns a little over who's the catfish king in the family."

"Hotdoggin' it" ranks high on the catfishing agenda of Matt and James Watson of Omaha. Both used hotdogs to catch big channels at the Two Rivers State Recreation Area last summer. Matt caught a 37-incher on July 2 and another 37-incher on July 18; James caught one measuring 35 inches on July 16 and a 36-incher on July 24. The sandpit lake they were fishing at Two Rivers is total catch-and-release on the channel cats.

Ryan Greenough of Hastings was fishing a private impoundment on July 23 last year with a friend, Garret Montee of Minden, when he put the steel to what he thought was a big channel cat. "I got excited when I set the hook," Greenough said. "When I felt it move, I figured it was a pretty big fish. To shorten the story, I finally landed a big leatherback turtle.

"Not too long after that, I felt something pick up my bait, gave it a little slack and set the hook," said the Hastings angler. "Same deal -- it felt big and basically went where it wanted to for a couple of minutes and then more or less stayed deep. We both thought it was the dang turtle again, but it finally surfaced and we saw a big channel cat. It took about 15 minutes to finally corral the cat. It measured 33 inches and weighed 17 pounds, 8 ounces."

Greenough said his favorite bait for channel cats is shrimp. He uses the shrimp anyone can buy in the market.

"I use the fresh shrimp, stick it on a size 6 hook and use a small bell sinker to get it down," he said. "I fish a couple of private ponds, as well as Harlan County Reservoir. The shrimp works good at Harlan, too, but if the action is slow, I sometimes use dead shad. The 17-pounder is the largest cat I've caught. A fish that size is fun, and gives a pretty good account of itself."

Kevin Kriss of Comstock uses shad to feed the channel cats at Calamus Reservoir. Some of the big ones he caught included a 13-pound, 14-ouncer, an 18-8, a 19-8 and a 35-inch, 23-8. He caught the fish from late March through September.

Sometimes catching trophy fish has more than just a "touch of luck" involved in it. Craig Peterson of Bertrand doesn't lay claim to any catfish titles, but he did beach a 15-pound, 9-ounce channel while fishing for white bass at the inlet to Johnson Lake in May of last year.