"We use hot dogs, Spam and chicken livers to catch channel catfish," Cross said. "We go out on the lake at night and use ocean-fishing tackle because there are really big fish out there."

The pair uses a lantern to illuminate the water so the fish can be seen during the battle and to make them easier to net. Most of the time, they catch a few fish, and occasionally catch over 20 catfish in a single night's fishing.

Progress Energy and the Wildlife Commission recently partnered again. In January 2005, seven biologists and technicians collected 175 Christmas trees and placed them at existing fish attractors around the lake. There are 25 fish attractors consisting of Christmas trees and PVC pipe frames which hold plastic fruit juice barrels sawed in half lengthwise. These fish attractors are likely to hold both channel catfish and flathead catfish. They were marked with new buoys when the trees were placed.

"We placed 75 trees within casting distance of the fishing dock that can be accessed from the boat ramp parking lot," Barwick said. "The rest were placed at existing attractor sites. We arranged the trees near the fishing dock to create casting alleys so anglers can cast between them."

One of the best places to catch catfish is from the fishing dock. The old Catfish Creek bed makes a curve near the dock and anglers can reach it with a long cast.

There are all kinds of fishing gear on the dock on a night when catfishermen are there. Trolling reels, baitcasting rigs and freshwater spinning reels can be seen. But the most successful catfish anglers use surf rods. They use heavy surf sinkers so they can heave their baits as far as the Catfish Creek channel.

A No. 3 heavy-shank hook is great for reeling in the fish. A hook that size will hold a 20-pound flathead or 15-pound channel catfish, but will still straighten out if it becomes caught on a log, root or submerged Christmas tree attractor weighted down with a cinder block tied to the tree with electrical wire.

A lantern is a necessity for landing fish, baiting hooks and tying on rigs. It also helps to prevent spilling a chum bucket. Saltwater anglers have adopted chumming as a prime technique for luring big catfish near the public fishing dock. But it is a good idea to stay upwind of their preferred mixture of catfish lure.

Bait shrimp past their prime, shrimp heads and catfish remains are placed into a bucket and left in the sun for a day. The chum is covered with a tight-fitting lid and transported in a pickup bed to the dock. Every so often, a ladle or scoop is used to toss some of the stinky goop in front of the dock. Day-old catfish offal may smell awful, but it sure does the trick.

Fresh shrimp, cut mullet, cut shad, squid, hot dogs and chicken, beef or pig livers all make great baits for channel catfish, whether fished from the public dock or from a boat. Occasionally, a flathead catfish will be caught on one of these channel catfish baits. But anglers who want to target flathead catfish will have to adjust their baits and tactics to be successful.

Channel catfish are gregarious. That's why chumming is so effective. Channel catfish will travel long distances to follow a scent trail to its source to find food. Anglers who want to avoid too many hang-ups in the stumps and submerged logs at Sutton Lake can find a deep hole along the dike or old creek channel and drop chum blocks to the bottom or drop chopped chum over the side. Just putting the baits over the side can attract channel catfish from a great distance when the angler is in a boat along one of the deep channels beside a dike because the water is constantly flowing, carrying the scent to channel catfish.