As far as I know, they only do this in Louisiana. Every video and article I could find on the subject is some coonass (a coonass is a Cajun version of a hillbilly; true salt of the Earth people).

The traps sit on the bottom of a shallow body of water and create a habitat for spawning catfish. The females enter and lay eggs, then are joined by a male. The traps don’t use any kind of bait like wire or slat traps, and don’t really trap the fish at all. It’s just a hole that the fish can easily get through.

Pic shows one made from a repurposed Freon can, which seems to be a popular choice. Commercial fisherman are using these as well as plastic buckets like in the video. They lay out hundreds of them. I think a recreational license only allows five of these, but I’m not entirely sure. I know it only allows five slat traps, but a slat trap can catch a dozen catfish and is a whole different animal.

Here’s a video I found of some guys making them using a bunch of catfish buckets (also called catfish pipes).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pWyE-l7C9PA