Help a newbie rig his pole.

[Oldtyme]

Hello everyone. First post in the catfishie forums.

I begun hanging out in Panfish, then bass, & since the cost of gas has increased I've recently discovered how cool (and cheap) it was to fish from my local river. (from shore)

And who knows better about river fishing then you great catfish people

The problem I'm having is rigging up my gear.

What I've been doing (only been out twice now) is start with an 1.5oz egg sinker, then a split shot to keep the egg up the line. Next I've done a couple ways, last night I added a small ice fishing bobber before tieing the hook on. I "thought" the bobber would keep the bait off the bottom. I've also went without the bobber.

Now the questions, is this "OK" to use on the river or are there better ways? I fish the Mighty Saint Joe River here in South Bend,IN and it has a healthy current. The 1.5 oz'r keeps 'er down, but I've been fishless. (using leeches last couple times as St. Joe has a variety of species from catfish to walleye)

I have some 3-way swivels, but don't know how to tie them on(I only know the palomar knot). Is this the preferred method?

What about the "bobber" I added? Is this a good idea? Or should I just skip it? What about a floating jig head instead of the bobber?

Anyways, if you could help me at least rig my gear properly I'd feel better while I was fishing at least knowing I'm doing it right....I'm sure the fish will come.

Thanks,

Brian

[hanson]

OldTyme-

Welcome to the cat forum! You live right in the heart of some pretty good catfishing I'd imagine.

I think you are on the right track with your basic rigging. I noticed a few things that may help you out though but I'll first just mention how I rig up.

First I slide my weight on my main line followed by a bead and then a barrel swivel. To the barrel swivel, I tie an 8-12" leader with a hook on the end. Thats it.

The bead helps to 'protect' the knot from the weight hitting it. Your egg sinker will work fine but they tend to roll around in the current. What many of us use up here is a sinker called a No-Roll. Its pretty much an egg sinker that has been pounded flat. The flatness helps the sinker hold bottom much better.

Now, you mentioned attaching a little fishing float to suspend your bait off the bottom a little bit. That is a good technique but I would go and use a Foam Walker from Todays Tackle to accomplish this.

In my rigging example, I would replace the sinker with the Foam Walker. You than attach your weight to the bottom of the Foam Walker. The buoyancy of the Foam Walker helps keep your line up off the bottom. You can then add a dropper line between the Foam Walker and the sinker to suspend your bait higher off the bottom.

A floating jighead is most definitely an option on the business end of your rigging.

Hope that helps you a little. Feel free to fire some more questions too.

[Oldtyme]

Thanks Hanson.

I'll have to look around for the no-roll sinkers. I checked both my local stores today & they didnt have any.

I'll have to start using the barrel swivel though, I was having problems with my splitshot sliding. That would end the problem for sure. I'm just not sure how to tie it properly. I only know the palamor & it seems you would have to use another (after I post I'll read up on some diff knots)

I went & got some crawlers for tonight. See if anything in the river likes them

Thanks for your help.

[DTro]

You can still use a palamor. Use a piece of line a couple feet long. Tie your hook to this line, tie swivel to the other end of this line (adjust where you tie the line or cut the line to length)at this point you can tie the whole rig you your main line (of course have your sinker and bead on before hand ). You should be able to use a palamor for every knot. You will have to pull the whole rig through your loop, but it will work.

Use the search function or just go back and read posts. There's a ton of info here for you.

[Mr Special]

You can get the No-Rolls for Scenic Tackle from this Forum. There molds are very clean, and very well priced.

Now for the rig setup

1st. I cut off the desired leader length (8"-18")

2nd. Tie one end of the leader to your swivel, ***"don't tie on the hook yet"

3rd. Pass your main line through the sinker and bead, then tie on your swivel/leader section.

4th. Tie your hook to the other end of the leader, and your done.

For bait wise try cut bait such as suckers, bullheads, "sunfish" if legal. Frogs should work great in the fall

Good luck and take pictures

[Mr Special]

Here's an old post I found

Scenic Tackle has No Roll Sinkers in stock in sizes 1-5oz. We also us an oversized pin to keep the holes cleaner.

--------------------

Scenic Tackle

We also make custom fishing tackle and private label products! Contact us for pricing.

[email protected]

Scenic Tackle at TackleCity.com

Later

[Steve Foss]

oldtyme, here's how I rig mine. Like Hanson sez, and here's the no-roll sinker. I used a mold bought in N.D. to cast these sinkers. Not sure if they're the same shapes as the no-rolls by Scenic.

You'll see a few other typical cat sinkers thrown in for good measure, as well as a circle hook. The no-roll sinker (which is about 1/4 inch thick - hard to see in the pic) and the circle hook is one of the most snag-free setups known to catfishing.

The no-roll lays flat, even in strong current on a hard flat bottom, and you can always double them up if you have to. The circle hook has such a small gap that it's hard to snag on wood or rock.

The longer your leader, the more the bait will travel around in the current. That's good for active cats, not as good for neutral/negative cats, and the longer your leader, the more likely you are to snag.

Circle hooks work, contrary to what you'd think, very well, but you can't give it a sharp hookset. The fish takes the bait in its mouth and begins to swallow it, swimming off and tightening the line. As the line tightens, the hook works its way along the side of the fish's mouth and its shape dictates that it gets caught in the corner of the fish's mouth. The fish itself will set the hook if your bail is closed or your spool locked. If you're running a baitcaster with a clicker on freespool, you lock the spool and let the line tighten up, then slowly sweep the rod back to the side, tightening as you go, then start reeling. Nine times out of ten you'll find the fish hooked in the corner of the mouth and the hook easy to remove. Once in awhle an aggressive fish will be hooked right through the bottom lip, but not often. Set the hook hard on a circle hook and you'll lose the fish almost every time.

I did my catfish time on the Red River near Grand Forks N.D./East Grand Forks Minn., and this was my main rig.

Fresh cutbait or frogs are best for channels, with flats going for the livebait.

[Oldtyme]

Thanks everyone.

I just finished rigging up the way you guys do with the swivel/bead instead of the splitshot. While I had the right idea it was a real pain in the butt to keep that splitshot from sliding down the line on the cast.

While I don't have the no-roll sinker yet my 1.5 oz egg will have to do for now.

Thanks for the advice on leader length, I'd say I was keeping my line(from splitshot) at around 2-2.5 feet. I got it at about 13.5 inches now.

Also I am using just a regular eagle claw baitkeeper hook for now. I have some hooks that look like a circle hook, but I like the longer shaft of my baitkeeper.

Now if I could just catch some cats instead of all those darn rockbass. I havent fished the river in over 10 years but I never remember catching those....they're like a nusaince fish . On my med/heavy rod sometimes it's tough to even know they're on my hook.

And yes, I do keep a disposable camera in my tackle box....just in case.....

I'll have to search past forums about cutbait, I'd like something a bit larger to avoid the smaller rockbass bite, but I have no idea what cutbait is or how to use it

Again, thanks everyone. You've got me in the right direction for sure.

[hanson]

Oldtyme-

Circle hook or not a circle hook is a totally different argument all together. It can be very situational depending on the bite. I wouldn't worry about it right now, your baitholders will do just fine.

Up north here, alot of us catters like cut bait for channel cats. Basically, I would tell you to head to your local bait shop and buy some sucker minnows in the 6-8" long range. I would then cut the sucker minnow up into chunks about 1" to 1 1/2" long. So you would end up with 3-4 pieces of 'cutbait' per minnow. Put a chunk of that on your hook and you are good to go.

We have various bait up here that might be a little more regionally specific than you have, and vice versa. Sucker minnows work good, but cut goldeye is really good on most cat waters. Now that fall is coming, frogs are really good for channel cats also. Perhaps in your area, cut shad might be very effective??? or even bluegill/sunfish/bream if they are legal for bait???

[Steve Foss]

I don't know what's legal in Indiana, but cut bait is simply strips or chunks of fish cut up with the skin left on and put on your hook. You'll likely have shad and sucker down there, and they work really well. Smaller fish (to 8 inches or so) you can cut off a fillet like you're filleting a fish and leave in the ribs and skin, then hook one end of it so it waves in the current. Fish bigger than that, up to 1.5 pounds or so, I cut into steaks, a steak being a cross-section cut that looks like the salmon steaks you see in the fresh fish department in the grocery store. Up in ND and Minn, there are shad-like rough fish called goldeye and mooneye, as well as tulibee (cisco). They grow to about two pounds and make great cutbait. Down south I know shad are widely used. I'd head to your nearest bait store and ask the folks there what the cat anglers use for bait and how they cut it.

If bait stores sell suckers for bait, there's another way to use them, as well. Get the ones about 6 to 8 inches long and just cut them in half, then punch the hook through the skull of the front half and near the tail of the second half and you've got a nice chunk of cut bait on the hook and oozing all that goodness into the current.

Don't know the size hooks you're using, but I'd go a 3/0 at minimum. The picture above is of a 6/0. If you're in Indiana, it's also likely you might tie into the odd big blue or flat, so a big hook is a good deal there, too. Plus, if you've got a big chunk of cut bait on the hook, you want enough hook so it'll stick out far enough through the bait to hook the fish. Even a 10-lb channel will smack a big bait (I've had them hit on half of a 1-lb goldeye before), and the bigger the bait, the less you'll worry about pesky rock bass.