We used to live close to a nice sized creek and I started going down atleast 5 evenings a week and throwing out a few pounds of cattle cubes in a nice little hole. after about a week you could go down with a a little chicken liver or bait of choice and do pretty well on channel cats. A lot of guys use soured grain to bait holes. I can say the cattle cubes are much nicer to deal with since they don't stink.