I always like to play around with different catfish baits. I had a block of Cheddar cheese that was a bit green...I melted the cheese in a old pot on the stove.. I poured in some Oil of Anise. Then I took some cattail pods tore piece of fiber off the pods.. I mixed that right into the cheese and oil of anise concocting... See the cattail fibers makes it stay on your treble hook...
Slide on a egg sinker on to your line.. about 18 inches from the end place a split shot then tie the treble hook at the end. Put a glob of this fish bait with the intermingled fiber on the treble hook. Your all set...Heave that baby out there into the river..
There was a time when you could use two poles and one hand line... I don't know if that is legal anymore but way back when it was. I took an old fly reel with the sinker set up referenced above and heaved it out into the Susquehanna river.. I place the fly reel on a strong stick pushed down into the bank... set the drag loose and activated the clicker.. Nice your sitting there fishing with your two poles... Then you have the clicker set on your fly reel...Out of the darkness you hear.."click click click click then clickclick clickclickclickclick.. You run and set the hook on the hand line... I got some nice size 24 inch Channel cats in the River at New Cumberland Pa using this formula and just a hand line...
