The fishing rigs we use, are all about bait presentation, and bite detection. Unfortunately there isn’t one catfish rig that works for all situations. A sliding sinker rig may work great on clay or gravel bottom lakes, but if you fish a spot with weeds you’ll want to switch to something like a Carolina rig or a slip bobber. It is important to educate yourself on a number of different rigs, so that you can get your bait in front of the fish and detect the bite.
In this article, I’ll start with the three most useful and universal catfish rigs. Then I’ll go into a few less common rigs so that you can find which one will work best in your situation.
Sliding Sinker Rig For Catfish
This is probably the most useful rig to have in your catfish arsenal. It works in almost all situations and is a rig that every catfish angler must know. The sliding sinker rig is deadly for catfish and here’s why…
Catfish do a lot of their hunting on or near the bottom. The sliding sinker rig is designed to keep your bait in that feeding zone. The rig also allows for maximum transfer of energy so you can better detect when a fish is messing with your bait. Better bite detection equals better hook-ups.
How To Tie The Sliding Sinker Rig
- Thread the sinker onto your main line. If you are fishing in a lake or pond use an egg sinker. If you’re fishing in a river use a flat sinker.
- Next thread on a bead. The bead is there to protect your knot and to stop the sinker from getting stuck on the swivel.
- Now tie a swivel on to the end of your main line. Use a high quality swivel if you can. When you reel in your bait it may spin, and you want a good swivel to prevent that spinning from twisting up your main line.
- Tie a 12 to 18 inch leader to the other end of the swivel. If your leader is too long it will be difficult to cast. If your leader is too short, the catfish are more likely to feel the weight of the lead and not swallow the bait.
- Finally, tie a hook onto the end of the leader. Use a 3/0 to 8/0 hook depending on the size of catfish you are after. This rig works with all hook types and baits.
When a catfish bites your hook, the main line is able to slide through the sinker which transfers the energy of the bite strait back to your rod. This is great for detecting softer bites and having better timed hooksets.
You can use the sliding sinker rig in lakes ponds and rivers. But if you are fishing in current it is best to use a flat sinker. A flat sinker will lay flat on the river bottom and allow current to pass over it rather than tumble it downstream.
Downsides To The Sliding Sinker Rig
There are a couple of downsides to the sliding sinker rig. First off, having your main line run through the sinker exposes it to increased friction. Over time as your line slides through the sinker you’ll begin to notice some wear and tear. This can be noticeable within a single day of use.
There are a few solutions to this. The cheapest is to just check your line often and cut out the worn part and re-tie.
The simpler solution is to use steel sinkers that have a smoother hole for the line to slide through. Remember though that steel doesn’t weigh as much as lead so you’ll have to use a bigger sinker.
The Third solution is to use a sinker slider. This is simply a plastic tube with a snap attached to it where you can snap on whatever size sinker you need. This is a great solution because not only does it reduce the wear and tear on your line, but it allows you to quickly and easily change out to different sizes of weights. This isn’t as important when fishing still water lakes and ponds. But when you are moving up and down a river, you’ll want to change weights often depending on the different currents.
The downside to a sinker slider is that it is more likely to tangle up your rig, rendering it less effective. Personally I prefer to use an inline weight like an egg sinker for fishing still waters. On the other hand, if I’m fishing rivers I’ll go with the sinker slider for the ease of switching out sinker sizes according to the current.
When To Use a Sliding Sinker Rig
As far as catfish goes, the sliding sinker rig will almost always work in almost all situations. So I’ll talk about the situations where it’s less effective.
Don’t use the standard sliding sinker rig when fishing in underwater weeds and grass. Obviously the sinker will take your bait with it down into those weeds making it harder for the catfish to find. The Carolina rig aka Santee Cooper rig is an adaptation to the sliding sinker rig and much better in these situations. I’ll go in to that rig next.
Don’t use the sliding sinker rig when you want to cover a lot of water. If you aren’t sure where the fish like to hangout, then you want to cover a lot of water until you find them. The sliding sinker rig pins your bait down to one spot while you wait for a fish to come swimming by. A bobber rig is a much better choice if you need to cover a lot of water. the bobber can be drifted around in the wind, reeled in slowly, or pulled around by your live bait. I’ll get into bobber rigs below. But first let’s talk about the Carolina rig.
Carolina Rig For Catfish
The Carolina rig is also known as the Santee Cooper rig because its extremely popular in the Santee Cooper lakes of Carolina. This rig is just a simple step away from the sliding sinker rig, and has a few more benefits.
The Carolina rig is a bottom rig that fishes the lower water column. Your sinker is still anchored to one spot on the bottom, however you are able to lift your bait off the bottom from a few inches to a few feet. This can get the bait right up in front of the catfish’s face.
How To Tie The Carolina Rig
- Thread the sinker onto your main line. Make sure the sinker is big enough to sink your float. Any type of sinker with a hole in it works. But if you’re fishing in a river it’s best to use a flat sinker which won’t tumble in the current.
- Next thread on a bead. The bead is optional but is there to protect your knot and to stop the sinker from getting stuck on the swivel.
- Now tie a swivel on to the end of your main line. Use a high quality swivel if you can. When you reel in your bait it may spin, and you want a good swivel to prevent that spinning from twisting up your main line.
- Tie a 10 to 48 inch leader to the other end of the swivel. If your leader is too long it will be difficult to cast. I recommend using about a 12 to 18 inch leader. Using a 12 inch leader you can still fish 5 feet off the bottom. I’ll talk about how to do that below.
- Slide a cigar float onto the leader. A cigar float is best due to it’s thin profile and the ability to easily adjust it up and down the leader.
- Tie a hook onto the end of the leader. Use a 3/0 to 8/0 hook depending on the size of catfish you are after. This rig works with all hook types and baits.
- Finally, peg your float in place about 3 inches from the hook. You can adjust this distance slightly, but if it is too long it increases the chance of tangling your rig. If it is too close to the hook, then it can get in the way of your fish eating the bait.
Benefits To The Carolina Rig
Catfish aren’t always eating food off of the bottom. In fact if you look at the design of the catfish it doesn’t have a mouth on the underside of it’s head like a sucker or sturgeon does. The mouth is straight across the front. And naturally, the main diet of the catfish is other fish which aren’t laying on the bottom… So if you can get your bait up off the muddy bottom, it should be more natural to them.
This rig also has the benefit of being more snag resistant than the standard sliding sinker rig. With the hook lifted up off the bottom, the only thing left that can get snagged is the sinker. If you find yourself snagging a lot in rocks, you can try using a sinker slide with a drift sinker or slinkey weight. It’s not a no-snag guarantee but it will help.
A third benefit comes when the bottom of the lake is covered in weeds. You need to keep your bait up out of those weeds for the catfish to more easily find it. If the water is less than 10 feet deep then you can accomplish this with a slip bobber rig which I’ll talk about further down. But if The water is deeper, it is easier to suspend your bait from the bottom up.
Downsides To The Carolina Rig
No rig is perfect and the Carolina rig does have a couple of downsides.
For one, this rig isn’t the best in stronger currents. When fishing the Carolina rig in a river, the current will push the float down to the bottom, defeating its purpose. On top of that, the float adds a lot of drag. This requires you to use a heavier sinker to keep your rig on the bottom.
Another downside is that you have more junk on your line. The more complex a rig is, the more likely it can fail. This failure can be in the form of weak points or a greater likelihood of getting tangled. Having more stuff on your line can also make pressured fish more cautious about biting your bait. And lastly, when you are reeling in a fish, you have more things on your line that can get snagged in bushes, logs and rocks.
When To Use The Carolina Rig
Use this rig when you suspect the catfish to be feeding slightly off the bottom. Or when you want your bait to be suspended in the water column but still be anchored to the bottom. A bobber will suspend your bait but drifts freely around with the wind and currents. Not good if you want to keep your bait right near a snag.
Here’s a Cool Trick With The Carolina Rig
One really cool trick with the Carolina rig allows you to fish up to 10 feet or more while still being anchored to the bottom. Of course you won’t be able to cast a 10 foot leader, but here’s what you do…
Make sure your float is big enough to keep some tension on the line. Cast out and put your rod in the rod holder. Reel in the slack until you feel the weight of your sinker dragging on the bottom. Now, if your leader is 2 feet long then you know your bait is about 2 feet off the bottom. If you want to fish 3 feet off the bottom, leave the rod where it is but pull 1 foot of line off the spool. The Float will pull up the slack you just gave it and your bait will be off the bottom about 3 feet now.
You can give it as much line as you need to reach the fish. But there is a point that is too far, and you won’t have good contact to detect bites if you get too far.
This trick only works in zero current situation. And you may have to use a bigger float and heavier sinker to keep proper tension in your line.
Slip Bobber Rig For Catfish
Fishing with a bobber aka float is very different than using a bottom rig. With a bobber, your bait isn’t anchored to one spot. It is allowed to drift around with the wind or current. This can work for or against you.
A bobber rig allows you to keep your bait suspended in the water. This is important because catfish aren’t always feeding off the bottom. They may be feeding 10 feet off the bottom or even feeding near the surface. As anglers, we need to put our bait at the same level in which the fish are feeding.
The standard bobber rig where the bobber is tied or clipped onto the line is great. However, it can only get your bait down to about 4 feet deep. If your leader is any longer than that, it becomes a pain to cast.
That is where the slip bobber comes in. A slip bobber is threaded onto the main line and is allowed to slip up and down it freely. You control the depth by using a bobber stop and a bead. You could even set the bobber stop as far as 30+ feet up your line and that will allow your bait to sink that deep in the water. This rig is a favorite of catfish anglers targeting channels and blues.
How To Tie The Slip Bobber Rig
- Slide your bobber stop onto your main line. If your main line is braid, then use the string type bobber stops that come pre-tied on a plastic straw. slip them off the straw and onto your line and tighten the knot. If your main line is mono or fluoro you can use the little rubber stops.
- Slide a bead onto your main line. The bead is to prevent your bobber from sliding over the bobber stop. Use the small beads that come with the bobber stops, or buy bobbers that have a small enough hole that you don’t need a bead.
- Slide your bobber onto your main line. You’ll need a bobber that has a hole running all the way through from top to bottom. These are called slip bobbers or slip floats.
- If you want to add a small weight, slide it on now. A small egg sinker can help you to cast farther as well as keep our bobber sitting upright. Just make sure your bobber can still float with the combined weight of your sinker, bait and hook.
- Add another bead below your bobber. This is optional, but if you notice your bobber getting stuck on your knot, then this bead will prevent that from happening. This bead doesn’t have to be so small.
- Tie a swivel onto the end of your main line. This swivel will act as a lower stop to keep everything on the line. It also allows for easy connecting of your leader.
- Tie on a mono leader of 12 to 24 inches. You can’t fish shallower than the depth of your leader. So if you want to fish a depth of 2 feet, then don’t use a 3 foot leader.
- Finally, Tie on your hook. This rig works with any type of hook and bait.
Benefits To The Slip Bobber Rig
Bobber rigs in general are great when you want to cover a lot of water. If you aren’t sure exactly where the fish are, then you can cast out and let the breeze drift your bobber around. If there isn’t a breeze you can still reel your bait closer every 5 minutes or so to cover more area. When fishing with live bait, the bait will pull the bobber around. Eventually your bait will drift in front of a catfish and… BOBBER DOWN!
The slip bobber has a couple advantages over the standard bobber rig. As I mentioned above, it can allow your bait to reach down to almost any reasonable depth. If you know the fish are feeding 30 feet down, you can still reach them with the slip bobber.
The bobber stop is easy to adjust. If you are fishing from the bank, or don’t have a fish finder, you can make quick depth adjustments until you find the catfish.
Lastly, a slip bobber will greatly increase the power in your hook-sets. With the standard fixed float, when you go to set the hook, you have to plow that bobber through the water which takes a lot of the energy out of your hook-set. With a slip bobber, your line will just slide through the bobber giving a much better transfer of energy directly to your hook point.
These points combined make the slip bobber a killer catfish rig! It is especially useful for bank fishermen who want to cover a lot of water but don’t have a boat to do so.
More Catfish Rigs
The three catfish rigs above will cover pretty much any type of catfishing. They are really the only rigs you need to know. But if you like experimenting, there are a few more rigs that can be useful in the right situations and some can be combined with the rigs above.
If you feel satisfied with the three rigs above then go ahead and stick with those. These are just a few bonus rigs incase you want something more.
High Low Rig For Catfish
The high low rig is a popular rig with surf fishermen, but works fairly well for catfish.
This rig allows you to fish with two hooks at two different levels. It also keeps your bait up off the bottom.
One great benefit to the high low rig is that you have great sensitivity since there isn’t a sinker or bobber between you and the hooks.
The biggest downside to this rig is that once you hook a fish, it will be dragging that sinker along the bottom. If there are a lot of rocks and snags down there, then you risk loosing the catfish. It’s not such a big deal when surf fishing because the bottom is just sand.
One solution is to use a light line between your bottom hook and the sinker. This way if it gets snagged, the light line will break and you’ll usually be able to recover the fish. But this gets expensive as you lose your sinker.
Hair Rig For Catfish
The hair rig is more of a way to bait your hook than a complete rig. It works best combined with a slip sinker rig. The hair rig was designed by carp fishermen in the UK. It allows ultra cautious fish to feel the bait in their mouth without feeling the hook. Once the fish realizes there is no hook sticking out of the bait, he’ll suck it in hook and all, and you got him.
Catfish are generally not as cautious as highly pressured carp in the UK. But the big benefit of the hair rig for catfish is that you can keep the hook fully exposed rather than clogging it up with a big bait. This improves your hookup ratio.
The image below is of a hotdog that closes up the hook gap. this will prevent you from hooking the fish. Use a bigger hook, or a hair rig.
The image below is of a hotdog on a hair rig. See how the hook is fully exposed for the best chance of hooking up.
How To Tie The Hair Rig
- Tie a small loop in the end of your leader material.
- Slip the other end of the leader through the eye of the hook. Pull it through until you have the desired hair length sticking out over the bend of the hook.
- Pinch the hair and hook shank between your fingers and wrap the long end of the leader around the shank and hair 7-8 times. Use tight wraps starting from right behind the eye and moving back towards the bend.
- Now thread the leader back through the eye of the hook, and pull everything tight. You have just tied the knotless knot with a hair.
To put bait on a hair rig you’ll need a baiting needle. These are hard to find in the US, but you can make one out of a sewing needle and piece of wood. Just cut into the eye of the needle and stab it into a wooden handle.
When you are ready to bait your hair rig, stab the needle through the bait. Hook the loop of your hair rig onto the needle and pull it through the bait. then find a small twig or matchstick to put through the loop of the hair and pull the bait tight against the stick.
This works really well for keeping softer baits like spam and hotdogs on the hook. It also works well for hard baits that can’t be threaded on the hook such as fish pellets and boilies.
Controlled-Depth Live Bait Rig
With the Controlled depth live bait rig you can determine how deep you want your live bait to be. If you use live bait under a bobber without this rig, there is no way to control if your bait swims down to the catfish or stays up near the surface.
If you know the catfish are suspended 10 feet down then you can set your bobber stop to about 10 feet up the main line. The sinker should be heavy enough to pull the bait fish down to depth and hold it there. The three way swivel allows the bait to swim circles around your line with out tangling it.
