Anti catfish jew rig?

[hambo692]

Well yesterday I fished the hawkesbury for a few hours and had a lot of trouble with the catfish. I was trying a slightly modified rig to get the bait off the bottom, I don't think it really worked though.

I usually just have: braid---leader--------running ball or snapper sinker----swivel----leader----hooks

But I replaced the sinker with a sliding swivel tied to some lighter line then to my sinker, aiming to get the bait off the bottom a bit, as well as only losing the sinker if it gets snagged.

I didn't get snagged so I couldn't test that but I still caught plenty of catfish. What I'm wondering is would it work if I included a small fixed float between the last swivel and the hooks? So the whole thing sinks, then the float pulls the bait leader up away from the bottom until a stopper hits the sinker's swivel.

Braid--leader--stopper-----sliding swivel with sinker attached---swivel---fixed float----hooks

Would it work???

[PRED-ATOR]

Have you tried fishing on the drift mate? i normally only catch the catfish if im anchored down.

Stan

[hambo692]

Fishing landbased

[boattart]

To me I believe the rig itself would work however wether it solves your catfish problem I'm not convinced.

[PRED-ATOR]

I would use live bait then mate.

The catfish wont eat a live yakka (atleast i hope not)

if your fishing land based you can pick up yakkas from the boat ramp at brooklyn using small bits of pillie on a bait jig berley hard.

Hope this helps : )

[hambo692]

I would use live bait then mate.

The catfish wont eat a live yakka (atleast i hope not)

if your fishing land based you can pick up yakkas from the boat ramp at brooklyn using small bits of pillie on a bait jig berley hard.

Hope this helps : )

Yeah the aim is usually to get livies and the catfish and eels leave them alone, and the squid is always a pretty good backup. I might give the rig a go with squid. Missed out on the big trip but had a livie crushed by a good fish yesterday evening... never have any problem hooking them on squid but it's a bit harder with livies

Thanks for the help.

[rjc123]

Maybe make a longer leader. The catfish will be less of a problem if the bait is a little off the bottom. Having said that, i have had one eat a mullet which was fished with a 1.5m leader! If i could erase something from the earth IT WOULD BE THEM! Squid still isn't safe from them. Often i fish a whole large squid and end up hooking a catty every 5 mins!!

Edited April 23, 2012 by mack attack 79

[hambo692]

Maybe make a longer leader. The catfish will be less of a problem if the bait is a little off the bottom. Having said that, i have had one eat a mullet which was fished with a 1.5m leader! If i could erase something from the earth IT WOULD BE THEM! Squid still isn't safe from them. Often i fish a whole large squid and end up hooking a catty every 5 mins!!

That is not much fun when you can't catch them yourself so buy them at 18.50/500grams... In my mind the bottom of the river is 89% catfish; sometimes they'll hit it as soon as it reaches the bottom Maybe I'll put more effort into getting livies.

[PRED-ATOR]

also, please be careful when handling catfish.

dorsal spike is killer dude, ruin your day

[hambo692]

also, please be careful when handling catfish.

dorsal spike is killer dude, ruin your day

Yeah I've managed to avoid them so far. Freaked out on the weekend though because I thought one had got me on the knee... Turned out it was just the hook.