(note: this obviously doesn't apply if you're fishing straight down from a boat or pier)

Most of my bank catfishing is with a Carolina rig. 50 lb braid, 1 1/2 oz barrel, with about a 24 inch leader of 8 or 10 lb. clear XT, and #4 treble with DK's or CJ's and a shot of attractant. If the channels are there, this catches them. However, I've used a Santee rig a few times, where you put the floater about 3 inches above the bait, to hold it off the bottom, and caught them with that as well. I haven't observed any difference, though. One thing I do with the Santee is use a clear float instead of that bright day-glo orange; I'm sort of a fanatic about keeping rigs as invisible as possible.

In any case, I was wondering if any of you had any loyalty to one rig or the other, or felt like there's any difference in hookups.

The bite feel on the Santee is kinda spongy compared to the Carolina rig. Less bite definition. I get less bite feedback from a Santee


My catfish tackle can be considered light weight. Shimano Sellus rods 7' 1" with a cast rating of 3/4 ounce. 3000 sized Daiwa Ballistic MQ spinning reels. 20# braid for the main line. With 1/2 to 3/4 ounce tungsten weights being the range I use.

Santee 99% of the time for me. I ran the Carolina Rig for 15 yrs but the last 20 yrs I’ve run the santee every week. Less snags better presentation. Contrary to popular belief catfish are not just bottom feeders the majority of the time. Their eyes are positioned on the top outside of their head which benefits them feeding up. Think of them as liking to be on or near the bottom but move up to attack or feed. Their mouths are not positioned to feed on the bottom either. When marking fish on the graph catfish are only bottom hugging on days they are lethargic and not feeding hard like high pressure no wind days or north front days in the winter. Getting your baits up off the bottom orients your baits in a way that catfish are more likely to see and more likely to feed on.

I think I have a better hookup ratio if I throw it out with a little slack in the line - just a little - and don't sit the rod in the holder with the line tight. If it's tight, the cat is more likely to feel the resistance when he picks up the bait and will spit it out. If there's a little slack, that allows the cat to swim a little and get it down inside his mouth a little more.

Interesting

I like the Carolina rig better because I fish for catfish mostly on the bank and I have had not much luck with the Santee rig.

I use the Santee rig almost exclusively. The exception is when I suspend drift which is not very often. I have been running 2 suspended lines this spring and summer to see if I could get bit. I had one decent fish in all that time. The bite for me is on the bottom and on the Santee. It just makes more sense to me to hold the bait up out of the mud the weight kicks up when moving. Sometimes I use a peg float, sometimes I use a spook, but I always have a Santee rig when I am fishin for Blues...

^ Wot Tim said (hell, he taught me everything I know so no surprise there lol).

Also to add, the Santee Rig as well as being very effective, also helps prevent your hook from snagging the bottom so it's a win win all round.

I have now swapped my balsa floats for rattle floats, they also lift the bait but have the added benefit of making noise to attract the fish. Do they work? I dont know to be honest, I have caught blues on both, butbthat rattle's aren't cheap at $8 a pop, so now getting snagged and losing rigs starts to add up $$$$$ (I'm retired).

If you’re losing rigs then get you some Carolina Lake Weights Bob. They are better than any dragging weight on the market by a long shot. I’ve lost 9 rigs the entire year and when I was with Bonetown which looked identical to the naked eye, I would sometimes lose 9 in one trip and 100 per year. Before that I tried Dirty South, draggin stix, santee drifters, Larry muse, firewater marine, and lost them all at fast rate. I used to make my own before that and that’s too time consuming and wasn’t cheap. There is nothing on the boat that saves me money like a Carolina Lake Weight.

If I fish with punch bait, I fish simple carolina rigs, fairly similar to what you do. For cut bait, especially when casting distance matters, I’ve switched to knocker rigs. Trying to cast a Carolina rig a great distance with cut bait sucks, and a Santee is even worse. I use the knocker rig with 3oz egg sinkers directly on the leader line for max casting distance. Made the switch a couple weeks ago, and had good hookups.