I am at my parents place and my dad stocked the pond in July 2009. He really wants to catch one to see if they are at a good eating size. We just dont know what would be a good bait. Can anyone help us... Also do we just bait a hook and let it hit the bottom?

try some stink bait, any flavor should work if it aint never been fished before, and yea just put it on a trebel hook and let it hit the bottom and sit and wait. something is bound to happen, if you need help catching them just let me know i will gladly help you catch em

Go by feed store and get ya some floatin catfish food throw a couple cups out every day that way should see size and how many in there after few days should see um boilin the water

Tie a 1 oz weight about 6 inches above a #6 treble hook, dip it in some Danny King's punch bait, throw it out there and let it hit the bottom. If there are cats in there you will catch one.

Get a sack of off brand fresh frozen corn
A pack of #1-#2 crappie snells,1/2oz slip sinkers and some 12lb line.

Then wear that *** out! Pond cats are suckers for fresh corn
the can stuff is cooked and very mushy so dont bother useing it.

Easy fishin . . . . .

Throw a cast net. Use a pipe bomb. Electricity is killer. It's a Private pond do what you want right?

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!

Pond cats can be caught on Earth Worms, Shrimp, Stink Bait, Liver, lures etc etc. Lots of fun and great when you can catch a few and have them cooked and on the table with family in an hour or so.

Thanks guys.

I forgot to mention. We dont have any catfish bait. All we have is the food in the fridge. What do you think about hot dogs and maybe some cheese?

well you could put a hot dog on a single prong hook and drop it down to the bottom. i have done this at a local pond by my house.
hope this helped.

I used to catch catfish and carp on hotdog all the time in the local pond back in New Jersey. Don't see why it wouldn't work here.

Ditto what chad95 said, hotdogs work well in ponds. here's a coupla recipes found after googling 'cheese bait recipe'

http://www.whiskerkitty.com/catfish_bait_recipes.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Fishing-Bait-Recipes-Including-Catfish!&id=257219

good luck, & Happy Easter!

on most the tanks i can remember catfishing we used prepared dough bait's,nightcrawlers & shrimp. we fished on the bottom a lot, but some tanks are so darn nasty & thick with dead vegatation & mud, that i think its better off fishing bait under a float. I love cut bait for catfish, but the turtles do too. the night crawlers & pre molded dough bait turtles dont seem to mess with, just the catfish.

if the tank is never fished, almost any kind of bait is gonna produce! i would think that the fish are still fairly small if they where fingerlings just stocked a year ago! good luck... and like an earlier post, i would be more than happy to assist you in the population evaluation!!!!!!

Got any chicken livers in the freezer....works every time...

if you have garlic put some of that on the hot dogs before you go fish.