Sometimes a mashed whole chub is better than a piece of cut sucker. Just put your boot heel on it to juice it up a bit. I have used both, and have never seen a preference for a cut piece of meat over a mashed whole shiner or chub. I have seen a preference for whole bait over cut bait. The trick is to beat the bait up real good just before you cast it out.I have not fished flatheads much, mostly channels in the Mississippi, Snake, or St Croix Rivers. Flatheads do not live this far north.
For any hardcore channel catfisherman I definatly suggest coming up here to Manitoba (Canada) To fish the Red or assiniboine rivers in the Red you can catch 30 or more channel cats over 34" a day it's absolutly amazing alot of guys up here get bored catching so many lol We have strict regulations only allowing an angler to keep four cats under 24" so the big girls all get released to get bigger.... I won't even get into the massive walleyes in the red cause thats a whole nother topic