Catfish rig setup

The bait will slowly float along the bottom, around the perimeter of the most difficult. To act as an adjustable stop, tie a five-turn Uni knot around your mainline using the same or slightly heavier line. Palomar Knot is one the most difficult fishing knots. The three-way rig can also be used to separate the bait and weight. This article will cover the most popular ways to set up a catfish rig. The slip sinker rig is very popular for a number of reasons. This allows catfish to pull the line with little resistance from the sinker.

This basic setup uses a sinker on the main line. Fish lack eyelids so they are very sensitive to sunlight. They tend to gravitate towards the bottom during high sun periods. This rig is the most versatile and, as you can see from the pictures, the easiest to assemble. It can be used with small fish as well as large trophy-class cats.

The Carolina rig is similar to the Texas rig but has the weight attached above the hook and not sliding down. This rig is ideal for beginners.

This rig was created to assist fishermen in catching bottom-feeding fish, especially bass fish. However, the most common is the Zoom Brush Hogs, Speed Craws and them, once the mainline is in place. The Carolina rig is suitable for fish in both aggressive and calm modes.

The circular motion attracts aggressive fish and will get their attention. The floating drift platform is one of the most used drift platforms in flowing water to catch fish. Although the slinky drift platform bounces apples down, it is generally slow. The raft allows anglers to accurately balance the water level. The raft encourages anglers to consider a floating option.

Anglers suspect that fish have taken the lure , or are hung on bottom. There are some great tips for catching big numbers of channel cats here. Slip Bobber Rig — Great for channel catfish and occasionally blues and flatheads also! Three Way Rig — A versatile catfish rig for all species of catfish and can be fished with a traditional setup using a three-way swivel or a modified three-way rig as well.

I spent a lot of time testing and had some amazing results catching trophy blue catfish using their X3 Big Bertha Rattler and XL Rattler.

This lead to much more extensive testing and me teaming up with Whisker Seeker Tackle to build another product, the Catfish Versa-Rattle. You can read more about rigging and fishing these rigs here. They can be added to any catfish rig you choose in any configuration which creates a catfish rig that produces noise and vibration. There are much more details here on the Versa-Rattle , why I designed it, how to fish with it, and more.

The following catfish rigs are less commonly used and apply to more specific situations. If you need to get more precise with your presentation or change things up a bit these catfish rigs might fit the bill.

Traditional Bobber Rig — Great for specialized techniques like one of my favorites for blue cats, splat fishing! Double Hook Rig — For targeting big trophy-class cats with big pieces of cut bait. This can be used with virtually any setup and helps reduce issues with short strikes on big baits. Drop Shot Rig or Zero Rig — Two options that can be used if longer leaders are causing short strikes and missed fish.

These are also excellent options for targeting cats in and around tight cover. But it's unparalleled for slipdrifting on big rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio, and for drifting wind-blown flats in large reservoirs like Santee Cooper. The three-way rig consists of a dropline some 6 to 24 inches long, anchored by a bell sinker of sufficient weight to keep the chosen bait near the bottom.

A half-ounce sinker is sufficient in still water, but 3 to 8 ounces may be needed to drift around the tips of wing dams for blue and channel cats or for anchoring livebaits in a heavy tailrace for postspawn flatheads. Three-way rigs also excel at extracting fish from areas where other rigs can't hold or return. Let's say you're fishing for channel cats over a broken-rock bottom below a low-head dam.

Use a three-way rig with a pound-test main line and a pound-test leader. Secure a 2- to 4-ounce bell sinker to one ring of a barrel swivel or the bottom ring of a three-way swivel with 6-pound-test line. Cast this rig into place, and the sinker hangs on the bottom and holds the rig in place until a fish strikes. Big cats often grab a bait hard enough to hook themselves and quickly break the light dropper line.

When a smaller cat hits the bait, a sharp hookset will break off the sinker so the rig and fish can be landed. The paternoster rig is a sort of three-way slip rig well worth the extra time needed to tie it in many situations, particularly for presenting livebaits to flatheads.

The low-frequency vibrations produced by a struggling baitfish attract catfish by stimulating their sensitive lateral lines. Livebaits of all sizes must first be wild and super lively, and second be presented in ways that allow them to advertise these seductive qualities. Begin with a terminal leader as you would with an improved slip rig a inch section of monofilament or dacron with a hook on one end and a barrel swivel on the other. Before tying the swivel to your main line, though, add a lead dropper consisting of a slightly lighter piece of monofilament with a bell sinker on one end and a swivel on the other.

Thread the dropper swivel on the main line so it slides above the leader swivel. The length of the bottom dropper determines how high the bait will suspend off the bottom. Paternoster rigs are most effective when you can maintain a to degree angle on your line, from rod tip to sinker. Fishing the head of a hole from a boat anchored slightly upstream; or fishing the edge of a flat from the sandbar on an outside river bend; or fishing the scour hole behind a bridge abutment from the top of the bridge all are top situations for paternoster rigging.

Designed for surf casting, this rig includes an impact shield, a small plastic clip that holds the hook during the cast. This, says Breakaway's Nick Meyer, keeps the leader from tangling and increases casting distance by 10 to 25 percent.

The rig is ideal for tailraces and other distance-casting situations. This rig is a top choice when the situation calls for placing a big bait in the lair of large fish and waiting them out. Editor-In-Chief Doug Stange credits this rig with the biggest flatheads he's caught during the last several seasons.

The fish were taken from large eddies just behind huge piles of snaggy timber lining deep river holes. With either a 7-inch bullhead or inch wild sucker as bait, Stange tosses the offering into the middle of the eddy, just away from any snags. It also is effective when you're set up on a shallow point in a reservoir, in the corner of a big pond, or somewhere in the back end of a creek arm.

Prod the float from time to time to keep the suspended baitfish swimming. Float-paternoster rigging employs a slipfloat, so to make the rig, begin as you would a standard slipfloat rig slipknot, bead, then slipfloat.

Unlike a standard slipfloat rig, however, the sinker rests on the bottom, and the float need only suspend the weight of the bait and keep it swimming. This allows for the use of a smaller, more-sensitive float. Next, add the lead dropper, bead, and leader. Adjust your floatstop for a little play in the leader, allowing the bait to swim a big circle and slightly off to the side.

A tightly tethered bait doesn't swim so vigorously as a bait that believes it's going somewhere. Release rigs aren't terminal rigs, but a way to deploy terminal rigs based on the limbliner's approach.

Master catman Ed Davis has used this system to catch the North Carolina state record flathead and blue cat, and several line-class world records. Davis uses multiple rods to cover several areas and experiment with different baits. Say you had 20lb test mainline, I would cut it in half and use 10lb for your dropper line. You want enough strength for your dropper line to hold up on the cast, but break it off if it gets stuck. The 3 way rig is best used in heavy current areas, rocky areas, and times you want to maximize casting distance.

The way the swivel is setup, it eliminates tangling. Unlike the carolina rig, the 3 way rig is all attached at one point. This means your leader can not be separate from your weight by the fast moving current. It is much easier to cast further with this rig rather than the Carolina rig. Often when casting the Carolina rig, your weight and leader can be separated mid air.

This will create more drag, and also land your weight in a much different place than your bait. You can make this rig with a shorter leader to keep your bait off the bottom, or make it longer for live baits. I usually match my leader line length with my dropper line length.

This has worked the best for me in my river system. Channel, blue, and flathead catfish can be caught in this rig. My favorite species to use it for is flathead. You can easily fish this rig in heavy cover and current, and not worry about breaking off. The Santee Cooper rig is a modified Carolina rig. This rig uses a peg float, spook, or demon dragon, to float your bait off the bottom. This rig is a sliding sinker, barrel swivel, and leader with float attached inches from your bait.

This is a very versatile rig, as you can tie longer or shorter leaders to float your bait to different depths. Sometimes there are days this rig with outperform the simple Carolina rig.

If you can put your bait in the perfect spot in the water column, you can get the bites. The Santee rig works very well with blue, channel, and flathead catfish. For flatheads it can help you float your bait off of the rocky bottom.

The best places to use this rig are usually slow moving rivers, lakes, and ponds. In faster water it can be harder for your bait to stay upright on the bottom. The purpose of the rig would be pointless as it will just be swept to the bottom with fast current. This is mainly used with dead bait but, I have also seen it used with live bait.