Catfish on Palestine??

Took my 9 year old grandson to Palestine on Memorial day for his first cat fishing trip.
Since he's more "chunk and wind"(Bass fisherman), I had a tough time getting him to slow down and watch a bobber. Fishing shallow, in 1-4 feet by the spillway, he was pulling in fish after fish. Most were small, 6-12inches, but he had a blast. He wound up catching 38 and now that's all he talks about(good job, Papaw)
I got him up early yesterday morning and we went back to same spot. Could not get anything to bite. Still using Catawba worms, but the catfish were not interested..

Since my knowledge of catfish is pretty limited, maybe y'all could tell me what went wrong.

Should we have fished way deeper?
Hard for me to imagine a catfish turning his nose up at a Catawba worm...

Thanks.

I have been fishing the north end of the lake. . The water is 8 to 10 ft. I jug fish and use chicken breast for bait. Mostly I catch blues 5 to 10 lbs. I get one 12 or 15 every so often. I also bait several places with range cubes. I rod and reel fish while watching my jugs float.