I posted a thread earlier that I miss too many fish. Many of you said get rid of the wire leader, which I have. You also suggested downsizing to a 1/4oz slip sinker or no weight at all. I would love to do this but I'm struggling with my current rod/reel combo. I use normal bait casters (curado) with a 7ft med/heavy rod. They just won't throw such a light rig.

I hang up in grass/stumps fairly often so I feel like I need at least 10 lb line. That rules out light spinning reels.

I want to be able to launch the punch bait as far as I want, but without heavy weights on it. I also need line to be strong enough to pull free from minor snags without breaking the line.

Suggestions? What has been successful for you?

I use a 3/4-1oz sinker when using punch bait. The line slides through the weight so I don't see where a smaller weight will make a difference. I do go to a smaller weight if fishing straight down. When punch bait fishing I use one rod "medium action" and hold it at all times. At the slightest bump I set the hook. I told my buddy last week if you think you are getting a bite set the hook. He started doing that and went from catching no fish to several. Hope this helps

$10 wallyworld Shakespeare Durango spinning reel with 20# braid on a 7-8 or 9ft Cabellas whoopinstick (same as uglystick) thats my favorite channel cat set up corkin or tight line but I do fish out of boat

My punch bait rig is as follows, run my 20# test through a cast net sinker, 3/4 ounce to 1/2 ounce. tie on a big swivel, make a trot line staging with doubled #15 or #18 nylon, loop this trough the swivel and the #4 trebel hook on the other end with the leader being around 12 -18 inches long. Ok a real secret here. Cut a piece of nylon deck shade screen into a small square, cut a hole in the center of it and pull the eye of your treble hook through it and let the barbs of your hook go through it. Do this before you put in on the leader. Holds more bait and the bait stays on better during the cast. As for missing bites your just not paying attention, fish one rod and be on top of it, strike as soon as you feel the slightest bite. Your still gonna miss some. Throw your baited rig out there, pull the line up snug and hold your rod. I like to use a 7 foot medium spinning rod with my ABU baitcasters.

I think that you may be overthinking it. Which can be easy to do. An H20 Mettle and Berkeley Cherrywood 7' from Academy will do ya fine. You're targeting 2-5lb fish.

When I did for channel cats I use an old quantum 1310mg baitcasting reel on a 7' med rod with a fast tip with 15 pound P-Line. Only thing I still have that's useful from my bass fishing days years ago. Works pretty good for me but I'm not casting farther than 20 yards at most and my favorite rig for channels is using a slip cork which gives it extra weight for pitching or casting. You might look into getting a spinning outfit if you need to cast for farther distance.