Let's go fish:
Two Easy Catfish Rigs Everyone Should Know
In this video, our friend and crew member Austin Higgins of Rock Bottom Cats demonstrates how he ties two easy catfish rigs that everyone should know – specifically the famous Carolina Rig and the great Santee Cooper Rig. He’ll reveal how to set up both rigs, when to use them and in which conditions (bank fishing, boat/kayak fishing, etc) and he’ll also go over the type of sinker he usually ties to his rig.
Have a question? Let us know in the comments below and Austin will reply. Let us know what topic you’d like us to cover for the next video! If you like this video, leave us a comment, like, and subscribe to: Catfish Conference’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/catfishconf… Rock Bottom Cats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7fA…
These are the two catfish rigs you should know because they will make your life easier
For our audience needing the transcript of this video, here it is here below. Let us know if there is anything we can do to publish in a different manner to accommodate your needs. We mean it.
00:25 common rigs and they can be used in a
00:28 variety of
00:30 different fishing environments and you
00:32 can kind of customize them to that
00:33 environment so i’m going to go over some
00:36 of the ways you can customize them and
00:38 we’ll talk about how to set up these
00:39 rigs as well so you guys stick around
00:42 and let’s get started all right guys so
00:44 the first rig i’m going to show y’all is
00:45 the carolina rig
00:47 this is probably one of the most popular
00:49 rigs and the probably one of the easiest
00:51 rigs when it comes to a catfishing rig
00:54 i’ve got two rigged up here that i’m
00:56 going to show y’all
00:57 i’ve got them rigged up for two
00:59 different types of fishing and the first
01:00 one here is my suspend fishing rig
01:04 as far as that rig goes i’ve got it snel
01:07 no not snail attaching a 10 ounce treaty
01:09 cat tackle circle hook
01:11 i’ve got about a 12 inch
01:13 uh leader well 10 to 12 inch leader this
01:17 80 pound mono i’ve got it attached to a
01:20 barrel swivel with a palomar knot and
01:22 then before you attach it to your main
01:23 line this little short line here is
01:25 representing that you’re going to want
01:26 to take your weight
01:28 and a bead and drop on that main line
01:30 and then i take another power lamar knot
01:33 and connect to that swivel
01:35 now the reason i call this my suspend
01:37 fishing rig is one i’ve got a pretty
01:39 short leader line on here since i’m just
01:41 gonna be dropping this straight down
01:43 and two i use egg sinkers whenever i’m
01:46 suspend fishing this particular one is a
01:48 eight ounce and i usually use eight to
01:50 ten ounces uh depending on the current
01:54 or wind if i’m kind of getting blown
01:56 around a little bit out there or if
01:57 you’re or if you’re drifting
01:59 what this is going to do is help hold it
02:02 straight down that way
02:04 if you’re getting any type of movement
02:05 or current it’s not pulling your your
02:08 weight up like this as you’re moving
02:10 which then makes it hard for you to
02:12 control your depth that you’re
02:14 suspending this so that’s my suspend
02:16 fishing rig i’m using a carolina rig
02:19 now the second carolina rig i’m going to
02:22 show you is my
02:23 live bait setup
02:26 and it’s basically the exact same thing
02:28 except i’ve used a different weight
02:30 and i’ve added an extra little piece to
02:33 it and use a longer leader line this
02:36 particular one i’ve got a little bit
02:37 bigger hook on here i’ve got a 12 ounce
02:39 team catfish circle hook
02:41 then you’ll see there we go i’ve got
02:43 some beads on here and i guess y’all
02:46 probably hear this you can hear a little
02:47 rattle on here i have after that what
02:49 that’s going to do is give me some noise
02:52 as that live bait is out there swimming
02:54 around hopefully he’s going to make that
02:55 rattle
02:56 make some fuss down there and attract
02:58 some fish with it the other thing
03:00
different i’ve done than what you saw
03:02
with my spin fishing rig is i’ve got
03:04
about a i don’t know two foot leader on
03:06
here and i’ll usually do anywhere from
03:08
two to three feet for that leader line
03:10
depending on there’s a variety of
03:13
circumstances but rule of thumb do at
03:14
least two feet in my opinion um got it
03:17
attached to a barrel swivel the exact
03:18
same way and then one other thing that
03:21
i’ve done here is i’m using a no roll
03:23
sinker instead of the egg sinker uh the
03:26
no roll sinker is going to sit on the
03:29
bottom of the lake or the river that
03:30
you’re fishing a lot better than that
03:32
egg sinker
03:34
if you’ve got current or anything it’ll
03:37
definitely
03:38
lay down there and hopefully not move as
03:39
much as that egg sinker but
03:41
that’s really the only
03:43
the weights the leader and the sinker
03:45
that’s the only difference how you set
03:46
it up is the exact same thing and you
03:49
don’t have to put beads and a rattle on
03:51
here if you’re using the carolina rig
03:53
it’s just something extra you can do to
03:55
hopefully increase your odds
03:58
one thing i do want to talk about is the
04:01
point of having
04:03
the
04:03
what does the carolina rig kind of do
04:05
for you as far as having this
04:07
weight sliding freely on your main line
04:09
versus a weight attached with let’s say
04:12
a three-way
04:14
swivel or something so for me i use
04:17
clickers a lot and one thing i don’t
04:19
want to have is resistance when that
04:21
fish grabs it because i got to run over
04:23
there and set that hook
04:25
and
04:26
what this is going to do with the when
04:28
it starts pulling the clicker it’s going
04:30
to start pulling this line and you can
04:32
see it’s moving the weight stay in my
04:34
hand is it’ll keep on going which
04:36
obviously the clicker is going to add
04:38
some resistance but it’s not near as
04:39
much as what a five or six plus ounce
04:42
sinker is going to add plus you run the
04:44
risk of this getting hung up and there’s
04:45
a lot of resistance then fish is going
04:48
to fill that and he might spit the bait
04:51
um so that’s why i like having something
04:53
that has very little resistance and this
04:55
can slide up through here
04:57
um another thing that this
05:00
has benefited me as far as in river
05:02
systems when i have current if my weight
05:04
gets hung up sometimes i can let some
05:06
light out and the current will pull the
05:08
bait and if the hook the weights hung it
05:11
might pull the weight loose the hooks
05:12
hung it might let the hook hook float
05:14
free so it gives me a little bit of play
05:16
there to help get unsnagged so that’s
05:19
just a that always work but that’s
05:20
something beneficial about having this
05:23
free moving weight as well so that’s the
05:25
carolina rig as you can see you can do a
05:28
lot with just a little bit and change it
05:31
up depending on your needs but overall
05:33
super simple to do all right so for the
05:36
second rig i’m going to show you it’s
05:37
going to be the santee cooper rig i use
05:40
this for probably 90 to 95 of the time
05:42
when i’m bank fishing or if i’m casting
05:44
out from a kayak or a boat
05:47
and all this rig really is is the
05:48
carolina rig with a peg float attached
05:51
to it it’s just going to give you a lot
05:53
better presentation of your baits in
05:55
certain situations so i’ll go over how
05:58
you set it up real quick and kind of
05:59
explain why i like to use it
06:02
as far as how you set it up just like
06:04
with the carolina rig i snell a circle
06:06
hook on to about a this case 18 to 24
06:09
inch leader you can go a little bit
06:11
longer you go a little bit shorter just
06:12
depends on how high you want your bait
06:14
up off the bottom got it attached here
06:16
or with a palomar knot to a barrel
06:18
swivel in this case i used a sinker
06:22
slider with a a coin sinker and i’ll
06:25
explain why about that in just a second
06:27
as well
06:28
so how this works
06:31
get this here let’s assume this is the
06:32
bottom you’re going to cast out this
06:35
float’s going to float your bait up off
06:37
the bottom and the reason i like this is
06:39
where i fish it’s extremely rocky i
06:41
don’t want my baits falling down any
06:43
type of rocks just makes it one harder
06:45
for the fish to find and it kind of
06:47
hides the scent a little bit so this
06:49
right here is going to float it up off
06:50
the bottom give you a lot better bait
06:52
presentation and help get your scent out
06:54
there another thing with this you can
06:56
use it for live bait but i use it for
06:58
cut bait more than anything and if
07:00
you’re fishing any type of
07:02
slow to moderate current this is
07:04
actually going to give you some nice
07:05
movement to give you a better
07:06
presentation and hopefully help track
07:09
the fish
07:10
obviously if it’s really high current
07:12
you’re probably not going to use this
07:13
because you might have this out there
07:15
just thrashing around and that’s not
07:17
going to be ideal either and it also
07:19
might pull your sinker up off the bottom
07:22
so
07:23
you don’t always want to use this but if
07:24
you’ve got slow to moderate current you
07:27
do get that extra benefit of having some
07:29
movement from this now as far as the
07:31
sinker goes
07:33
the reason i’ve got this coin sinker on
07:35
a sinker slider is
07:37
i can use this setup for two different
07:40
types of fishing
07:42
pop this off and i can grab one of these
07:45
drifting weights right here this
07:46
particular one is made by jimmy smith
07:49
with santee drifters
07:51
and i can attach it
07:54
i can get it to go on
07:56
there we go
07:58
and now
08:00
i’ve got my dragon set up ready to go
08:02
super simple didn’t have to do anything
08:04
else to it and way this works is when
08:06
you throw it out there this is going to
08:08
be set up for dragging weights behind a
08:10
boat or kayak
08:11
when this falls on the bottom the lion’s
08:13
dragging along it’s going to keep this
08:15
pulled up and it’ll pull it over any
08:17
type of rough terrain underneath there
08:19
and hopefully help keep you from getting
08:20
snagged you want to run this with a
08:23
santee rig because you’re going to want
08:25
this float to keep your hook and your
08:27
bait up off the bottom so that’s not
08:28
getting snagged so
08:30
that’s a that’s the main reason why i
08:32
like to use these sinker slides versus
08:35
one of the inline weights like the no
08:37
roll of the egg for this particular
08:39
setup because i can i can use it for two
08:42
purposes and the swap takes me about 10
08:44
seconds or less to swap out so all right
08:47
guys so those are the two primary
08:49
catfishing rigs that i use when i’m
08:51
fishing
08:52
obviously there is a ton of different
08:54
rigs out there that you can try
08:56
uh just for me i prefer these for a lot
08:58
of reasons but mainly because they’re
09:00
easy to set up easy to use and i can
09:03
change them depending on the type of
09:05
environment that i’m fishing
09:07
if you guys enjoyed this video do me a
09:09
favor hit the like button if you have
09:12
questions about either one of these rigs
09:13
you can leave them in the comments below
09:15
i’ll be glad to answer them for you and
09:17
if you want to see more videos from me
09:19
check out my youtube channel rock bottom
09:22
cats i’ve got a lot of fishing videos
09:24
and i’ve got some other gear videos up
09:26
there that i’ve posted and there’ll be
09:28
more coming while you’re at it check out
09:30
the description below there’s going to
09:32
be a link down there for the catfish
09:34
conference website it will announce any
09:37
upcoming events they might be having and
09:40
if you’re not doing so already check out
09:42
the catfish conference youtube page they
09:45
are posting a ton of great videos
09:48
i’m contributing some plus they’ve got
09:50
catfish conference videos from
09:52
the events in the past and they’ve got
09:54
other special guests on there that are
09:55
going to be creating some videos for you
09:57
guys as well so make sure you check out
09:59
their channel and subscribe as well
10:01
as always i appreciate you guys taking
10:03
time to watch the video and i’ll catch
10:06
you guys next time
10:22
[Music]
10:34
[Music]
10:38
so
10:40
[Music]
10:45
[Music]
10:55
you
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