Peeled shrimp, nightcrawlers, chicken livers all work well for catfish. I've also caught pond-raised channel cats on soft plastic lures during the day, pumpkinseed/chartruese bass assassins.
If it is a private pond you can get a can of nibblet corn and throw about half of it into the water. Wait about 15 or 20 minutes and put the same corn on a hook and toss it in. You will get a lot of catfish in a hurry. This is called chuming and is illegal in most bodies of freshwater but ok in private ponds. Check the local regs to be safe.
The biggest catfish found in the River is 7 foot.One theory is that there is a enthusiast of nature catfish that eat the dead cadaver thrown into the river by the aboriginal as part of their tradition.