catfish/missouririver

Question
i plan on taking a weekend trip with my in laws. i was wondering if you had any suggestions on bait and gear for catfishing the mo river during this time of year.

Answer
I dont know anything about the 'mo' river, but if you take some live creek chubs, chicken livers, and nightcrawlers you should be fine.  I dont know if the river you are going to fish is predominately blue, channel, or flathead catfish. I would assume blues would be the most abundant.  This is good because they will bite all of the baits i mentioned, whereas flatheads would rarely eat anything other than the chubs.  As far as gear, well i really dont know what kind of tackle you already have, so ill just tell you what i use.  I have two baitcaster reels (abu garcia c3) mounted on 7 foot medium heavy uglycat uglystick rods, these are the best catfish rods and not very expensive.  I have another pole (forget what brand, some custom type) that is 8 ft rigged with a big spinning reel.  I have 25lb Trilene Big Game on the spinning reel and 50 lb Spiderwire braid on the baitcasters.