I�m fishing straight down in 40 feet of water. In a resorvoir with no current. Have been rigging sinker on end of line and tying a dropper loop about a foot above to keep bait a little above bottom. Catches fish, but dropper wraps around main line pretty often and is a mess to fool with. Will try using Carolina rig next week, but thought I�d ask which rig you would use in a case like this?

Thanks for that Big Pappa. Interesting. In my case, today I caught several little Channel cats, hooked up and lost two blues, about five pounders, and caught one 21-inch flathead. A real mixture. Was using 2/0 circle hooks, have no idea why the blues pulled off after getting them almost in. Had the drag tight, probably need to loosen it a bit. Might need to start using larger circle hooks? How large hook size can I use and still catch some small channels in the mix?

I'd try 5/0 Circle Hooks......

Good to know, will get 5/0 and use them next trip. Appreciate your help.

Big Poppa, do you use the rig in the video? I use the carolina rig with a float, but this rig looks interesting too.

I was running half Santee Cooper and half modified 3 way. Last trip I switched the Santee Cooper Ones over to this rig but with a slinky weight for drifting. Gonna run half my rods with this rig with slinky(s). and half modified 3 way this Winter. Running peg floats on this rig and the 3 ways......if either rig consistently out performs the other I�ll switch All rods to the catchingest rig.

I�ve learned when fishing on anchor not to use the Carolina/Santee Cooper rig with slip weight. I�ve been in 30 fow trying to cast around and let the float keep bait a few feet off bottom and before I know it the float comes up to the surface because the float lifts up the slack while the weight stays down. Makes me wonder how often I was fishing my target depth thanks to wind and slack and the float lifting bait towards the surface. For this reason I�ve started using the rig Steve Douglas describes in the video above. I use Carolina Santee style rig only if dragging but even then not sure it�s the best rig and much benefit to it. Just my two cents....

On my santee cooper rigs, I use a swivel with a clasp on it instead of a sliding weight. Easy to change weight styles and sizes and I know where my bait is.

When anchored and fishing on a hard bottom,no current, do you think a catfish can find and eat a bait suspended a few inches above the bottom better than a bait laying on the bottom?

I like 1-2 foot off bottom........

Bigger cats don�t usually root around in the mud. They are looking for Shad etc. Shad don�t hang out in the mud!!!

Good to know, appreciate willingness to coach an old guy that is switching from bass to catfish. Should have done it a long time ago.

If you are fishing straight down you might try a dropshot rig. It works great for bass in that situation.