Misery blue cats bite all winter long. Never tried catching channel cats during winter.
Chumming the hole is a good play. Definitely worth a try.
Chumming will surely work once the water warms up but I'm not so sure about right now. Also, these cats may not be used to fish scraps as I fed them food pellets all last Summer up until the Fall cool down. I am hoping they will go for the fish though because I won't have to worry about the bluegill pestering my bait while I wait for a catfish to come around to it.
When I did fish for the catfish and catch them, I threw out some fish food and used some of it on a hook suspended from a bobber. One interesting thing about that day was that the fish weren't coming up for the floating food I threw out there. I always feed them at dusk so maybe they were skittish to rising during the sunny day. I did catch them with bait under the surface so maybe the food attracted them close to the dock or maybe they just hang out around there to be close for when feeding time comes.
My friend clowned on me for not being sporty but I told her it was about getting fish to eat, not so much about the challenge. When I grab eggs out of the bird hutches, I don't turn it into a challenge or a sport, lol. My fish are in that lake to harvest and eat first and foremost.
