I noticed you live in ID too.
Do you live near Boise? If so, try the old red railroad trestle footbridge just upstream from Fairview on the Boise River. It's on the greenbelt. Riverside Park is the closest place to park your car. When the water is clear, you can see hundreds of them in the hole just downstream from the bridge.
It's legal to snag suckers in ID, so get a stout pole with some heavy test line and a big weighted treble hook. Pick out a sucker, and cast so the treble hook lands upstream and drifts under the fish. Then just rip it into the fish's side and hand over hand it up. You should be able to snag all you need. If the water isn't clear, you can catch them on a worm.
They live in just about every river in Idaho, so even if you don't live near Boise, I bet you can catch lots of them somewhere close by. They eat a lot of the same things catfish do: just about anything. You just need smaller hooks, since they have tiny mouths. I use a #8 hook when fishing for them the normal way. Their lips are incredibly tough, so if you need to you can just drag them straight up the bank.
I fillet them out, cut the meat into chunks, and dice up the guts. Then I mix the guts and chunks together and freeze them for future use. Works really well, and they have super tough skin so the bait stays on the hook just about forever. Sometimes it's easier to cut it off with a pair of scissors.
Squawfish/northern pikeminnow is another great bait. Just treat them the same way.
Save the filleted out bodies, and you can use them to bait crawdad traps. Best crawdad bait I've ever used.
