Purchase a 55 gallon barrel with a lid if you can. Clean it completely of whatever was previously inside. It's best if it was not a chemical drum. The blue or white plastic drums that dairymen get soap and iodine in are excellent. If it's plastic, use a saber saw and cut out the top.
Go to a feed store and buy a 50 pound bag of milo or corn. Pour this grain into the drum. Fill the drum 3/4 full of water and tie a large piece of cheesecloth across the opening to keep out flies. [the idea is to make chum, not grow maggots] Let the contents sour for at least two weeks.
Use this chum by broadcasting the sour grain into the water where you intend to fish. Use it at the rate of 1 quart at least 1/2 hour before dark, then replenish the chum 1 pint at a time whenever the bite starts to slack off. Don't use too much, or the catfish will eat their fill and stop biting.
Fish-based chum
This chum recipe is a little more messy, but works best in moving water.
Use dead shad, minnows, and/or perch for this one. Any rough fish you catch can be included, as well as the remains of cleaned fish. You can include finely chopped chicken livers if you like. Chop into very small pieces with a knife or use a coarse food grinder set aside strictly for bait grinding. The wife will never again let it into the house, so store it in the shed or barn where it can be exposed to the air. It can be used fresh, or allowed to "season" for a couple of days.
Ladle the chum into the stream so that the current will carry it past your baits about once every 1/2 hour starting 1/2 hour before dark. Keep the chunks small so that the catfish will smell it, but have trouble finding it.
