Terminal Tackle

[mudd_catt]

Hey guys, I been thinkin about a method of riggin that I have been reading and have tried with no success. I read articles about rigging the line on a carolina rig with a foam crappie cork between the swivel and the bait. As I said, I have tried this with almost no success. I usually have the best luck with a bottom bouncer, weight on bottomn with one or two hooks tied directly with a loop knot about 6 inches to two feet above the weight. Any ideas? Let's hear from the Santee boys, as this is where the articles came from. ;)

[Catfish]

Never heard of that rig before .. What purpose does the float have ?

[mudd_catt]

Supposedly holds the bait off the bottom while driftin.

[Nikonos]

Also popular in much of europe with carp and giant wels fishermen to keep the bait just off the bottom. I've seen it used on rigs, but I myself have never tried it. Sorry to be of no help:)

[jfo]

The Spring 2003 Insider had a section on float rigs...some of them look like contraptions...
Phil King in Corinth Tn uses a two hook bump rig like you described and he wrote it up in the 2002 catfish insider. When I fished with him at Pickwick a few years back, he had modified it adding the two regular swivels described below and the additional swivels help prevent tangles. He did not use the floats. LOTS of swivels are required to make it work right and its pretty much gotta be mono from the first swivel down or it'll knot up. I'm posting a derivative of his rig that I use in the spring current. I'll work from the the reel side going down toward the hook.
Tie a three way onto the mainline, space off the HEIGHT you want your hooks to be vertically separated and tie another three way, then space off the distance you want the bottom hook off the bottom and attach a sinker line of that length. Be SURE the sinker line is lighter weight than the mainline and use the mainline strength between the two three ways.
Go back to the closest three way to the reel and attach a mainline strength mono that's 1/3 the distance to the second threeway (below this one). Attach a regular two way swivel to that short stub of mainline...if you want a float put it right in front of this regular swivel. From that swivel, attach another short mainline segment (same length as the one just prior). Put the top hook onto there. Repeat this process on the lower three way. Total is 2 three ways, 2 regular swivels, 2 hooks, 1 sinker and a segment of lightweight sinker line.
One of the keys to making this mess work is that the top baited hook must end up above the second three way and the bottom baited hook must end up above the sinker. If there's no current, or if the boats not in motion I have never been able to make this work even with the swivels but with a medium current you just put it into the water slow and the baits trail down-current and everything's rosy. Using this in no current is a disaster.
Also, check your regs about multiple hooks. Sometimes the regs don't allow multiple hooks and other times record fish are not allowed from multi-hook rigs. Another mod Phil King had made to his rig shown in the mag was that he used a snelled double hook on each end rather than a single.
Hope this is helpful...jfo

[Catfish]

Thansk for the post and explanation ... Seems like this could get complicated if you break off alot ..

[jfo]

Yep. For me its only for when the money's on the line in the spring current and the extra hook-count is needed. I use a simple carolina 90% of the time...jfo

[Catfish]

JFO -- When I know that a certain type of rig is all that is going to work for me in a certain situation and I also know that break offs due to the bottom structure is going to happen -- I like to tie some up ahead of time ... I take a piece of card board and make slits in it , this allows me to keep them seperated ..

Have you fished any of the SCA tournies ?

[jfo]

Agree completely with you on the prebuilds. The SCA is too far west really for me, I mostly fish Kerr and the Dan/Staunton/James rivers here...jfo

[TXPalerider]

Instead of a crappie float, try on on those little foam ear plugs just above the hook.

Also, Carolina rigs are the predominant way we fish. I have gone to using a product called a Carolina Keeper almost exclusively. It reduces the number of knots, allows faster rigging, eliminates the need for a swivel, increases sensitivity, and allows you to change the distance from the weight to the hook very quickly.

To put a Carolina Keeper on you fishing line or adjust the leader length, you simply squeeze the CK with needle-nose pliers. You slide a weight on your line first. The CK has a slit that opens when squeezed, and you simply place the line through the hole and release the pliers. Then just tie on a hook. Since the keeper can be easily adjusted up or down the line, you can change your leader length, change hook sizes, or re-tie after a terminal knot becomes frayed without changing your whole rig. If the CK slips, adding a second keeper will keep the weight in place.

[MUDHOLE KID]

I've Used The 3-way Rig And The Inline Float Rig,and Like Most Of You Men I Perfer The Good Ol Carolina-rig.the Guides At Santee Use The Float Rig Alot ,but These Guys Drift Most The Time.i'm An Anchor Down And Cast As Many Rods As You Can Man.i Couldn't Ever Keep Hooks On Using The Drift Float Thingy. I Know It Works Because I've Seen The Results.i Just Don't Know All The Little Secerts.

[mudd_catt]

I fish a LOT of the same water that Phil fishes, and for me the extra swivels are just too much in the way and to much of a mess to tie on, cause we fish the rock ledges and drops so we tend to lose quite a bit of terminal tackle. But, he fishes with a lot of liver if I am not mistaken, and usually catches more big fish on R&R than we do. With as much drifting as we do, the carolina rig just doesn't produce as much in current as the drop rig.

[Yellarcat]

I don't do allot of drift fishin.....like yall have below pickwick, but I'am not that big on 3 way's and Phil's rig seems like to much work and im not really very fond of multiple hooks on one rod......I think that's a MS thing........I usually use two swivels tying one to my main line with a short leader and hook, and the other slides above it with a longer leader and weight, and about 2 beads in between em.

I like to drift without current or much wind allot......I use the same rig, and also weightless carolina rigs.......those floats on the leader usually tend to make a bigger mess for me than do any good, if your fishin verticle it wants to wrap up in your main line.....if you have some angle and steady movement it works fine.......I dont really believe that fish will pass up baits that are laying on the bottom if their hungry.

[jfo]

One thing I forgot to mention about Phil's rig is that when we went with him on Pickwick, we caught nice fish so its not like a makeup for an article, it worked. One was my Dad's biggest cat at that time...Phil did us a great job....jfo

[mudd_catt]

He does catch a lot of bigger fish than we do, but he has been at it longer and more often. One of these days I am gonna break down and go with him.

[Hawkeye]

That drift Rig JFO described sounds a lot like what we use when we slow-troll (2-2 1/2 knots) for stripers with plastic shad bodies for bait. The only real difference is the 4 oz. lead-head jigs and the 24 oz. + trolling weights we use on the bottom... tying the rigs is something I do in the evenings while watching TV or otherwise wasting time. It doesn't take all that long once you get the hang of it. I don't drift fish all that much, so it's hard for me to see the value in going to all the trouble of using a float inline and tying all the rest of that mess on. Like Joe said, I think a catfish will hit just about anything edible when it's hungry.

[NightTrain]

Was buds with a Santee guide and when fishing Moultrie we'd use the 3way rig with a crappie cork and a big blueback....fished with a driftsock from over near the Power Co. rec area all the way across to the dam....Also,there used to be a good place to eat on the north shore near the dam,in a doublewide trailer that served killer homestyle lunch!

[NightTrain]

I think the trick to putting the float in-line is that you have to have a pretty good drift speed goin'on or the leader does get tangled as described by Mike(Yellarcat).