WHATS THE BEST HOOK SET UP? AND NUMBER 1 BAIT TO CATCH CATFISH IN A LAKE?

you have a lot of great catfishing close to you. any of socal's lakes are packed with them. the number one bait here is fresh mackerel. or fresh frozen. particularly those you catch yourself. l like to cut mine into steaks about 3/4" thick and pin them on a 5/0 to 8/0 circle hook. l slide an egg sinker just heavy enough for casting up the line, separated from the hook with just a plastic bead. no swivel or leader but you can use one if desired. if we get any rain this winter, find a spot with the muddiest runoff available and fish right there. you won't require much more depth than 3 or 4 feet. this will be the hottest time of year (if it rains). otherwise, prepare to fish deep. as much as 100 feet in some of these lakes. there are some huge blues in some orange and SD county lakes. these you will use a whole fillet of your mackerel with very little or no weight. toss it out and leave your reel in freespool with the click on. summertime brings the cats shallow again. l get my casitas cats in the backs of coves just on the outside edges of the weeds. in as little as 4 to 5 feet of water. same bait. anchovies, sardines and shad also work but are not quite as good as mackerel in my opinion. you may need heavy gear in brushy water. l at times use an 8' heavy saltwater jig stick/newell 330 reel loaded with 30lb mono to pull them out of the brush in a recently filled lake. take a look at the shorelines during low water and you will see what l mean. not the state water lakes that fluctuate 5' from day to day but lakes like piru or casitas that drop for three or more years before there is sufficient runoff to fill them back up. but 15lb on any heavy freshwater or light SW outfit will work dandy.

This answer is a bit hard to answer because I don't know what kind of catfish you are fishing for so I will assume you are going after channel catfish. For channel cats I prefer a size 1/0 hook octopus style, because it gives the best hook up ratio for me. As for the topic of bait, channel cats will eat almost anything. For larger channel cats (7lb+) I would use cut bait (usually creek chubs but really any fish will work). For smaller fish I would use a size 2 hook baited with either liver or hot dog. I prefer hot dog because it is less messy and it performes almost as well as the liver. Unfortunatly I don't have a boat so I do all my fishing off the shore. I have found that catfish congregate perpendicular to cover. I f it during the day, cast out pretty far into the lake and if is dusk/night you can stay closer to the shore. Hope this helps!

For bait, they seem to use smell more than sight, so get some bait with a strong scent (chicken livers, salted pork). And make sure to change it frequently if used for too long as the smell dissipates. I've listed out a couple of references below that you should check... Hope this helps!

i use a 4 and gold fish are rusty stink bait on a treble hook

ive always used just a regular size hook. i think nightcrawlers are the best and catfish are EVERWHERE in lakes. just cast it and wait