New (to me) catfishing technique

[bobreeves]

Yesterday morning a couple guys showed up about an hour after I setup at my favorite bank spot. They parked about 5 ft from me and snagged my line on the 1st cast, which kinda pi$$ed me off.

Anyhow, they were both using sinkers on Y-shaped leaders, and doing pretty well (better than I was doing). Both guys were obviously experienced catfisherman. I asked them about snags, and they said in the area we were fishing they rarely experienced problems. I had one setup like that that I pulled off a tree branch somewhere, so rigged it up with a round flat sinker on the bottom with the shad off the middle. The beauty of this is I could cast out about 10 times further that with a bobber and reach deeper water. I cast out as far as I could, reeled in until I felt a little resistance (slight tension between the rod and sinker on the bottom) and waited - not long - for the bite. I was rigged with a circle hook as usual. Landed a nice blue on my very first cast, and used this setup the rest of the morning with pretty good success and without a single snag, and was catching cats much later in the morning than I usually do - it usually shuts down between 8:30 and 9:00. Gonna see Gene at the bait shop later today and pickup a couple more. He's also got some 16" diameter really fine mesh nets with 6 ft handles - think I'll get one of these for picking up shad, as my castnet is 3/8" mesh and gill-hooks too many. With my 20 lb line I should be able to use some pretty heavy weights and really get out there.

What's your opinion on this setup, Cheez? *014*

PS Wind down this morning so looks like I'll put in - for a short while before the crazies show up. Yesterday the lake was full of jet skis, mostly driven by young kids without any knowledge of common courtesy to fishermen. I can't wait for Tuesday when all the Houstonian's go back to work ;D

[cheez]

Bob that rig sounds like what I use when I bank fish. I use several different rigs depending on the situation. One is a 3 way swivel. Tie on a sinker leader about 18"with line that is considerably less poundage than your main line to one side. Tie the main line to another and tie on a hook leader (shock leader) about 12" that is much heavier poundage than the main line. The reason for the lighter line on the sinker leader is that the sinker usually is what hangs up and you can break it off without losing the whole rig. I keep several sinker leaders tied up ahead of time to shorten the amount of time to re-rig. The heavy shock leader will keep the cats "teeth" from fraying the line as bad. I have no hard and fast rules for the leader length. Sometimes it is 18" hook leader and 24" sinker leader.Catfish feed near the surface and shallow at night and then go deeper as the sun starts coming up. When the summer pattern kicks in at one of my holes we drift on a "shallow" flat which is 15 to 20 feet deep. When the bite slows we follow the fish into 35 to 60 feet deep water. Usually around 8:30 to 9:30 am.

[o2bfishn]

Bob,

I have used three way swivels setups like cheez's is using for years up north drifting for walleye and perch, they work great.


Tie a 2' or so leader with a floating plug on one side of the 3 way, a short leader with weight on another and the last to your line off the reel.

Get the boat sideways to the wind to start your drift, drop the line over the downwind side slowly untill you feel bottom let out about 30 to 50 foot more line, set your rod in a rod holder , grab a beer and sit back and relax watching your rod.

Just remember to look from time to time where the wind is pushing you or you could end up, well you know,*001* DON'T ASK OK, just check.*004*

02bfishn *014*

[bobreeves]

Some great ideas, guys, thanx. Put the boat in for a while yesterday and anchored (for the 1st time) about 100 yds off where I've been doing my bank fishing. I was using the 3-way with a 1/2 oz weight. On the 1st cast something obviously big took off with it. When I pulled to set the hook - nothing. I pulled in the line and all that was left was the top swivel, so don't know if I had a big cat or possibly a gar on. Anyhow, next cast I just put a shad on a circle hook, no weight, and cast out as far as I could. About 30 seconds and off she went - pulled in a nice 5 pound blue. It was one after another for the next 45 minutes, but none as big as the one I landed so released them all.

Stopped at the bait shop and picked up some 3-ways and weights, but they are all rigged with equal diameter mono, so I may replace the lower one that takes the weight with smaller line as Cheez suggested so if I snag I don't loose everything, although they were pretty cheap ($1 for 4 sinkers, .60 for each 3 way).

Pre-rigged 4 of them with circle hooks and will be doing some bank fishing early this morning.

One more day and it's back to normal *yay*. Jet-skis suck.

[Cathooker]

Cheez and me fish together a lot and we use basically the same drop type rig. I found a way to do it and save on swivels. This has not presented us with any problems and we have landed blues up to 48 lbs with it. It is easy and fast to tie also.

I use flourocarbon leader or Cajun Red extra abrasion resistant. I use no smaller than a 50 lb test leader. Here is how I do it. First I tie a swivel to the main line. Then I take a length of leader of approximately 24 to 30 inches and tie this to the swivel. Next I tie a a surgeons loop in the bottom of the leader. This is to hook the sinker to. I then go up adout half way between the bottom loop and the swivel and tie another surgeons loop. This is to tie the hook to. You can play with this and use different lengths of leader to make your hook loop longer or shorter. For bank type fishing I would use a no roll type sinker and for boat fishing I use bank sinkers. Get a short length of 10 or 12 lb test mono , again you can vary the length to suit your needs. On one end tie a small snap swivel and on the other end tie whatever type or size sinker that you want. You hook the end with the small snap swivel to the bottom surgeon loop of the main leader. This will allow you to easily break off the sinker if it should hang up. I tie the hook on by simply passing the middle leader loop thru the eye of the hook and over the hook and sinch it back on to itself. Here's what it looks like. We have put hundreds of pounds of catfish in our boat using this type rig.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll239/Cathooker/DSCF1024.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll239/Cathooker/DSCF1026.jpg

[bobreeves]

Yet another great idea from CSO - thanx, Cathooker. Think I'll make me up some *yay*

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

If you add one more hook about a foot higher and add the sinker to the bottom loop instead the leader and swivel, that would be my porgy and sea bass rig.It's deadly all the time.

[Dave]

Great lookin rig cathooker! I really like the idea of a snap-on light line for the sinker. Another loop above the first and it should make a dandy and inexpensive bottom rig for us offshore bottom diggers.

Dave

[Cathooker]

I got the idea for the sinker on light line from Cheez. My rig is just a modification of one that Cheez showed me. It has worked really well for us.