well my boat is out of commision... im working on the carburetor. so im going out with my buddy in his HUGE canoe at about 4am friday morning. we wanna catch catfish! we are goin out into a bay  that the average depth is about 13 foot with some channels that go down to about 22 foot. there are a few stump feilds and grass flats out there too.

what should we do? where should we fish for them? what should we use?

I would just stick with worms or chicken liver...   Rig your pole kinda like a C-rig and have at it.  Just make sure your sinker can move up and down your line and your spool open.  If the catfish feels tension then most of the time it wont take the bait all the way...

bwell has some good advice. For channel cats, I like to bait with frozen whole raw shrimp or frozen squid purchased at an asian supermarket . If you have sandy flats, I'd search there. Next, upcurrent on the lip of dropoffs. Keep the bait on the top of the lip. Happy catfishing!

thanks for the advice ya'll! very helpful. i went out at 3am yesterday and fished until about noon. i took jugs and rods and reels. we caught 6 on the jugs and 4 on rod and reel. we put them out along the outside edge of a stump feild where the water goes from about 4 feet deep to about 9

I've found the decent baits on my resevoir to catch them on, now my only problem is just plain finding them. Do channel cats go deep most of the time? Or do they really sit in open shallow areas where it's sandy?

Have you heard of a "molly grub"? What is it and where do you usually find them?