I've been getting a lot of pm questions from folks so I thought some of you might like to see the questions and replies.

question:
I heard you are the man to ask about rigging for cats on the bank, I have been using a 1/O hook belowe a sliding 1/4 ounce weight, I heard a carolina rig is my best bet but I don,t know how to tie a leader to my main line, would it be ok to make a drop loop and tie my leader off to that or would that be too much of a stress point?

Answer:
in my oppinion, carolina rigs are the worst rigs you can use for catfishing unless you're using them with live bait that can swim around and carry the weight of the hook up off bottom but even then it's not a great rig to use because they allow your bait to sink down in the mud/weeds/rocks or whatever. here's a for instance

I went out fishing one day and was going to catch a carp or buffalo for bait and go ahead and run on up river to do some fishing ... I stopped out in a mud flat where I seen some carp and other fish working and threw out a couple of nightcrawlers ... instantly I caught two bluecat .. I decided to go ahead and fish there for a while so I rigged up again with some cut shad ... again I instantly reeled in two bluecat again. there was a man and his kid out there that seen me pull up and was within shouting distance and he hollered at me and asked what I was using for bait ... I said shad ... he said well that's what I'm using ... so again I threw a couple rods out and caught two more fish kinda south of where the guy and his son were ... again I caught a couple more fish ... this guy pulls up anchor and heads over to where I caught those last two fish and throws his anchor out and starts fishing there ... he's catching nothing ... then I have to throw to a different spot ... caught two more fish ... he up anchors and moves to the spot I just caught those fish ... I'm getting tired of this guy messing up my fishing and I throw one rod to where he just left and one out the opposite direction ... I caught a fish on the rod that I threw out from where he'd last anchored then before I even got it in the other rodd took off so I had to set the first rod down and set the hook on the other one and then went back and reeled the first one in and then got the other ... this guy couldn't take it any more so he up anchored and came over and ran smack into my boat ... he said hey ... can I borrow some shad from ya ... I said there's shad flipping all around our boats ... yeah but I don't want to have to dig my net out ... it's laying right there on the floor behind you ... well I meant I didn't want to have to get it out ... I said that woulda been easier than coming over here and running into my boat and asking if you could have some of the 20 or so that i have left ... I'm about to have to catch some more my own self ... how many fish have you caught since you've been here ... about 10 I guess ... how big were they ... bout 8 to 10 lbs each ... well I've been out here all day and we've only caught three small fish ... so you're using shad huh? yep ... you can see the shad heads I've still got on the rod I reeled in ... well I'll be he sez ... the only difference in what we were doing was I was using a bottom float rig and he was using a carolina rig that allowed his bait to settle down into the mud ... using a carolina rig on any lake that has a mud bottom is pretty useless and you'll only catch a few fish per day compared to 20 or 30 you might catch if you were to float your bait up off bottom ... you can see this bottom float rig and how to tie it up on my web site at the link below ... click on my logo and that'll take you to my web site and then click on catfishing tips ... scroll down to the "rigs" section then click on "float rig" and that'll show you how to tie it up and what sized line you should use as terminal gear line.

I caught 10 fish in about 45 minutes that afternoon and he'd been out there since 8am and caught only 3 fish between him and his boy. people hardly ever consider what the bottom is like when they're rigging up those carolina rigs and just what happens when their carolina rig hits bottom ... I've seen what happens when they do ... your bait is instantly covered in silt mud when it hits the mud.

Do you have any pictures of the float rig set up?

yes, it's on my tips section

What's the name of your website ?

the address is www.catfishing.tv but you can click on my logo and it'll take you to the same place ... the logo is the one that says "tiny's guide service" on it. the other logo takes you to teamcatfish.com

Tiny. a lot people do place a float about 6 inches from the hook on Carolina rigs. I've tried it and had success in down to 10 inches of water. WIll your float rig work in such shallow water?

yes but it needs to have the dropper tied short in that shallow of water so that the float will hold it up.

a carolina rig with a float on the leader is a santee cooper rig and normally used for drift fishing. casting a santee cooper rig doesn't work too well if you've ever tried it ... got a lot of helecoptering going on with casting a santee cooper rig.

that's the advantages of the bottom float rig ... you can cast it a really long way (handy when you're needing to cover a lot of water from an anchored position) also the santee cooper rig will float all the way to the top if you're not tight lining the rig and the idea behind the carolina rig is to allow the fish to hit without detecting the weight ... if you're tightlining then they're going to detect a lot more than the weight. which to me is a null point because bluecat of 2 or 3 lbs and larger ain't going to care too much about resistance but you get my meaning.

I use the bottom float rig in as shallow as 8" of water and I just tie it a little different when fishing that shallow. I put the float under the dropper loop in that situation and only have about a foot of line from the dropper loop to the sinker and the dropper loop itself will only be about 4 to 6 inches in length ... that way the bait is hanging about mid way about 6 inches to 4 inches from the surface.

but if you can cast a santee cooper rig far enough then by all means go ahead and use it but I've never been able to cast a santee rig very good because the sinker slides around on the line, the wind catches the float some and starts helecoptering the bait, in effect killing the casting distance and with my style of fishing it requires me to be able to cast nearly 100 yds and there's no way to do that with a santee rig but a santee rig is 1000% better than a standard carolina rig because it is at least getting the bait up so that the fish can detect it and get to it easily.

I have no prejudice against any kind of rig because I use a carolina rig for downlines but that's about all I use a carolina rig for ... sometimes I'll use them for live bluegill but not very often ... I normally use a free swimming rig on my bluegill unless there's current and then I'll put a sinker on the rig because a free swimming rig is just a hook tied on the end of your mainline and that rig in current will just cause your bait to rise to the surface and flop around on the surface.

all I'm trying to get across on this is to get people to think about what their rig is going to do for them and what it's not going to do. ain't no need to be bias towards carolina rig just because you used one all your life ... everyone switching to a bottom float rig doesn't benefit me either nor does it hurt me except in the event that I fish a tournament somewhere where I might get beaten by some of my own information. there's also drawbacks to getting a higher percentage of folks using a float rig like people being more successful at fishing and their techniques improving to where there's more effective fishing pressure on a lake. this could be a problem if people don't catch n release. for instance if 10% of the fishing pressure on tawakoni or any other lake started using a bottom float rig and their catch rate increases 1000% which is very likely compared to carolina rigging then comes the responsibility of practicing catch n release so that everyone can enjoy fishing this lake without hurting it's fish population.

some folks will view this as an insult to their carolina rigs also because they've used them for so long and think "I've done alright with them all my life and I'd rather take a beating than give them up" I'm not talking to those guys ... if you think carolina rigs are better than a bottom float rig then by all means keep using it ... all I'm doing is trying to show what works for me and works quite well in almost all situations. I also don't rely on any other bait besides natural baits .. shad is what I use 99% of the time and when I'm feeling a little spunky I'll go out and go through the trouble to catch some bluegill but picture this. out of near 50 trips this year from jan to now ... I normally quit fishing may 17th because the blues are gone from the lake but I had two bookings after may 17th and the last one is the only trip I didn't get my 50 lb minimum guarantee ... I couldn't have been half that successful with a carolina rig or a santee cooper rig because when I locate fish out on those mud flats I gotta cover water and ya can't do that with the sliding sinker rigs. I'd go broke using a carolina rig too ... that's how much more effective the float rig is compared to the carolina rig but what do I have to gain by telling anyone this? nothing, other than maybe the satisfaction in helping others ... some folks get involved with helping our soldiers when they come back from the war ... others help orphans ... others help in various ways ... I help people with catching catfish and that's all I get out of it. I'm just going off on this speel to let you know kinda what my motive is for trying to help ... it's mainly because I don't like seeing people waste their time or become dissappointed or frustrated at fishing because it's a whole lot more fun when you're catching fish.

Tiny, I was looking at your drift rig and I have a question.
I am thinking about doing some drift fishing in Lake Conroe next week. The surface temperature is 94 degrees and the thermocline seems to be at around 12 to 16 feet. I was thinking about a rig with a float on top with the bait at around 16 feet down. I will be using a drift sock if the wind is blowing . Since I will be following along the old river channel edge, the water depth is from 20 to 45feet(if you drift off into the channel). I am trying to keep my bait in or just above the thermocline. Any suggestions? tks

you can just hang the baits down from your rod holder to 12 and 16 ft and run planer boards if you have them and also balloons but balloons that aren't dragging a sinker on bottom are a pain in the portal, sometimes. I'd think the best way to hover is with downlines but you don't cover a ver big path like that but you usually don't cover a very wide path anyhow when drifting unless you do use planer boards and surge your baits out away from the boat with the trolling motor ... kicking the trolling motor on for a short period then turn it off and start drifting again. that will make the planer boards send the baits out quite a ways from the path of the boat.

Tiny,
I learned some valuable info on rigs for bluecats from a guy on Lake Marion, SC. I will PM you and ask what you think about it before I post on here. It worked there but that was the most unique lake I have ever been on and they had to make adjustments to even be able to fish.
Thanks
FishHauler

Thanks, Tiny. I was not defending the santee cooper rigs, just wondering which is better in shallow water. I am going to be making up several rigs tonight and was wondering if I needed to include any santee cooper. Sounds like all I need to do is shorten 1 or 2 for shallow fishing and I'm good to go. I like your Ruthless Cut Bait Rig the best, since I'm only baiting my own hooks. I got a needle point needle set. They were next to the crochet hooks, but since you mentioned the eye, I knew you were really talking needle point. Have a good day, and again, thanks.

Yoo hoo MODS! Why dont we add this one to the one on catch a bluecat on any lake? Looks like chapter 2 of the book to me!

Tiny, thank you very much. Another question, do you have a book out on catfishing? I agree with others, if you do not, please write one.

Tiny,
Been looking at your tips for a while and I have a question on this rig. If you don't tight line and the float isn't visable, how do you detect a bite? Do you just watch the line? Seems it'd be hard to do with mulitple rigs out. Unless the hook themselves.

Thanks in advance.

That crochet needle seems kinda gay when your buying it, but thats the best rig I have used in a long time. Tiny, I love your float rig. I'll take a picture of mine in a little bit.