I don't know about Nebraska, but here in Ohio, the best catfish gear is sold at paylakes that specialize in trophy sized blues and shovels. I use a couple of heavy 7' catfish rods with spinning reels. I bought my other half a 10' Diawa catfish/surf combo for his last birthday. The spinning reel has a bait clicker on it, which is nice when fishing in the dark. A lot of the serious cat fishermen we see prefer the 10' - 12' surf rods with baitcasting reels. We spool up with 30# Big Game mono since the lake we go to doesn't permit braid. If we're just out on our local state lake, we fish for channels with our bass gear and my husband has landed a 25" channel on pretty light gear.