I've never baited or chummed for catfish, mainly because I never rod and reel fish for them. We always trotline. I've been reading and researching about it and it seems pretty straight forward and easy to do. My question is, how often or how many days will yall chum before fishing the area? Any advice will be appreciated. Looking to do some trotlining and rod and reel fishing in a few weeks with some buddies and wanted to try and bait some spots in advance.

If I lived on a lake I would chum the same spots several times a week. You can almost train them. Because I don't I do chum when I fish a likely area where I expect them to be and usually within an hour they show up if I chose the right area.

As noted, if you fish there daily or several days a week, your chumming can keep them in an area for a long time. Frequency would depend on several factors, one of which is how much chum you put out originally. If you're just heading out for a day on the lake, I would suggest chumming 1-5 spots. Then go back and start fishing in the first spot you chummed (maybe 30-45 minutes after chumming). Try that area for a bit and move to spot 2 if that didn't produce, repeat until you have tried all spots or found them stacked up and biting. You can always go back to spots that produced a few bites to see if more cats moved in. I would caution you not to over-chum an area because the cats will gorge on that and may not take you offerings as easily. Some like to toss out range cubes by themselves, it works, but others like to use some sort of mesh bag (like laundry bags) so the fish can't get to the big stuff as easy. That helps with putting out chum odor and allowing small bits (if using range cubes) to break lose vs the cats scooping up big chunks of chum and getting full. Milo and other chums work great too.

Some great advice. What depth do y'all usually chum?

I haven't fished for channels in a while but I believe the answer is all depths. I have chummed 1 to 40' and caught fish depending on weather and time of year.

Look up Catfish edge web sight about chuming! Chad furgason is a Texas catfish God. All catfish are not the same channel cats like chum , Blue cats are shad eaters and yellow cats like live baits . what kind of cats are you trying to catch? Good luck fishing

Guys, I really appreciate all of the tips. We will be going to the lake on a friday morning and leaving on sunday afternoon. My plan was to get out and bait 4-5 areas as quickly friday as possible and maybe try and fish em friday evening and see what happens. then, re-bait and try again saturday morning. Seeing which areas give us the best bite. I just didn't know if there was a good rule of thumb to let the bait site sit before fishing it. Sounds like, if in the right location, it can be good not long after baiting though. We really aren't targeting anything specific. I know that bait sites will produce mainly channel cats and that's fine, we'll need those for the fryer. Hoping our trotlines might produce a trophy blue or flatty.

Cats train easily. I usually have good success after a couple of days chumming a spot. I like to do my chumming late in the day right before dark. On day three I hit it early in the morning and only put out a small amount and start fishing. Works great for banking. A weighted laundry bag full of cattle cubes will last several days. Don't let anyone see you put it out or they will take over your spot.

You hit the nail on the head. We catch blues and channels off our baited holes. Don't let anyone see you do it, they will fish it and then tell a friend.

Ok I doubt Chad would want to be known as catfish God but he is indeed a very knowledgeable guy on catfish. Now I like to chum my catfish spots once per week then I also chum them when I start fishing on them. Now winter time success depends on this in my opinion.

So, I think the day you chum the small catfish show up first. So I like to dump a half bag of cubes and give that a soak for a day before fishing the location. Now this could also be because Lake Fork has such a huge population of catfish. I think Lake Fork is probably one of the best catfish lakes around. Of course the bass guys are swarming the lake and you hear little about the catfishing.

I grew up running trot lines with my dad, until I went out with Tom Whitlock (Mr. Whiskers Catfish Guide Service) a few times back around 1998 and we started doing it ourselves, after my dad went overboard with a hook in his hand on a trotline on a windy day, we simply stopped the trotlining and started the chuming and rod and reel fishing, it's much faster, and a heck of a lot more productive, catfish simply bite better on a windy day. It works at every lake. The more consistant you chum out, the more they come to be creatures of habit to your area. In the early summer its a blast to do it in the shallows on a bobber, I like to pick a rocky shoreline in the wind, just flip your punch bait out with a bobber and let it drift down a bank and bam. In the hot part of the summer 20 to 40 feet is normally the ticket, just drop straight down overboard to the bottom, then one reel up. Here is how I find em on a new lake, Go to spot #1, throw out a couple of coffee cans of soured wheat, drive to spot #2, throw out a couple of cans again, then spot #3. Then I go back to spot #1, and start fishing, you will get bit within minutes, once it slows down chum it one more time, then once it stops the 2nd time, chum and move to spot #2, fish it the same way, then chum before you leave and go to spot #3. then start the whole process over, about 2 times thru spending about 1 hour at each location, you should have a limit. The thing that you need is a good place to tie up to, its that simple, throw out the chum and they will come to you. Yea if you a creek channel near by that's good, but its not really necessary. Consistancy is what you need.

It is. Everything gets big there.....EVERYTHING

Question about soured milo/grain. So you let it sour in a bucket with water for a week or 2 in a hot place. Then it's ready to use right? I know this may sound like a dumb question but does it ever spoil? Obviously the goal is to spoil it but does it ever get to the point where its unusable? Does it ever get to a point where its just goo that isn't "spreadable"?

I'm asking because I don't want to make a big batch and not use it fast enough.

it never spoils, I have some that I add to monthly so there is some in there that has been aging for a year, but it still draws them in.. Never leave home without it.