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Posted

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??? :unsure:

Posted

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 : )

Posted

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 :thumbdown:

Thanks for the help.

Posted (edited)

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 by mack attack 79
Posted

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 :ranting2: Maybe I'll put more effort into getting livies.

Posted

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. :yahoo:

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