I believe the style is called drifting? I was fishing from the bank with a 1 oz slip weight above a 12" steel leader and #4 treble hook. I got bites all night but no fish on that set up. I had 1 pole with almost the same set up except for a 24" leader below the 1oz slip weight. I got 3 fish of of this extra long leader. 1 problem was that I had 1 fish that I did not even know was on the line with the long leader.

Is a 12" leader to short? I usually keep my line tight but dont know if the short leader is causing to much tension when the fish try and take the bait so the leave it.

Also I think the heat was causing very light bites.

I think I am needing to improve my hook set also. Instead of keeping my line tight and waiting for the fish to take it I think I need loosen up the slack until they suck the bait up and then set the hook. I seem to have lost a lot of fish waiting for them to hook themselves.


Finally there are a lot of weirdos out in the middle of know where at 2 am. LOL

I dont read any problem at all for banking it. Start using a clicker on your reels and that will get rid of the tension problem. Use a circle hook - Team Catfish Double Action are by far the best hook you can get, dont let others tell you differently. They are extreeeeeeemely sharp and penetrate immediately. Super wide gap too.

How deep is it where you are casting to? Might be too deep - below the thermocline so there are no fish or oxygen down there.

Drifting is done in a boat and covering a lot of area - "drifting" with the wind and having your bait drag on the bottom.

Try to stay in the shallow areas, below 14-17' deep right now.

Some days they like a 36" leader, others an 8" leader, I change depending on the bite.

I did catch the fish up close to the bank, id say 10-15 feet of water. I had other poles out abut 100yards and I did not get any bites on those so that makes since.

In the winter you want deep water (my choice anyhow) but right now there just arent any - or many - fish down there.

Another thing you can do if you dont have clickers is to take a lot of slack out and pull it to the ground and use a small stick to hold it there, a fish will pop it lose and you can get to it that way.

good advice for me to i love to cat fish but have really cheap equipment so i could use the stick idea

If you use that method then I assume you are using a rod holder. Get your slack right out of the reel so the line off the tip of the rod is still up. Hope that makes sense. Pull it form the reel down to the ground and sit a stick on it.

I bank fish with three way rigs and 90% of the time the fish hook them selves. The key is to use a 5 or 6oz weight and a sharp hook (TEAM CATFISH)!!!

use a crappie float also to get your bait up off bottom ... in soft mud the mud will envelope your bait and it's hard or impossible for fish to get to your bait but if it's suspended up off bottom a few inches or a couple feet then they can take it easily and any bluecat of 2 lbs or bigger will take your bait and run off with it and you won't have to worry bout bird dogging your rods ... it'll look like something grabbed hold of the end of your line and jumped off a cliff when a nice sized blue grabs hold of your line or channelcat either one.

I use Tiney's bottom float fishing rig only with an 8'0 circle hook, I use it bottom fishing and drifting, it works good for both!!!
http://www.catfishing.tv/Main/tips-section/TipsSection.html

Just wondering, why the steel leader? Do you have a lot of gar trouble where you fish?

Was wondering the same, i never use a leader but sure agree on the circle hooks

No, theres not gar ,its just what I was told to use many years ago and stuck with it.