Trying a new idea/rig...

[Selmer]

...okay, so it's probably not new, I'm sure someone here has done this. For cats I fish the MN river near Montevideo. We have a good channel cat population and my girls have a blast catching them over the side of the boat tied up to a log jam. Anyway, I've been experimenting with ways of suspending the bait above the bottom a few inches (4-8"). I tried 3-way swivels last time we were out, they worked, but tangled up very frequently due to the proximity of the lines to one another. I was thinking about cutting apart some crappie rigs and using the wires available there to keep the lines apart, and then it dawned on me that a bottom bouncer might work well. So to get the weight to the bottom of the "leg", I melted the bottom bouncer weights off into my casting pot and slid 2 1 oz. egg sinkers onto the wire leg and bent it up to hold them on. And I took a length of 15 lb. mono to make the hook rig where you would normally attach the walleye spinner. Has anyone tried this? Does it work well? I was having trouble snagging up in the bottom with a regular egg sinker slip set up. I also figured I could use it to try to pick up walleyes with a spinner rig in the current with a minnow, leech, or crawler. Crawlers catch everything in this river! I'll be out with it later this afternoon and give back a report on how it worked or didn't work.

[ec30_06]

I have seen people using gapen bait walkers with good results

[tunrevir]

How about trying a straight drop shot rig? You can either tie the hook right to the main line or run a short lead off the mainline to the length you desire.

Tunrevir~

[smallie_hawgin]

Could use a diver rig like they do in alaska for salmon... OR as mentioned the drop shot with crimp on pencil weight

[JimBuck]

It seems like drop shot rigging in some heavy snags would be a pretty efficient way to really work an area over when fish aren't moving much or holding tight to cover. Sounds like a blast.