Catfish Rigs For Channel Catfish

Catfishing is a fun way for people to get involved in fishing and is becoming more and more popular across the country as anglers recognize the opportunities that they have to catch catfish in their local lakes and rivers. With opportunities to catch blue, channel and flathead catfish and catch good numbers or fish or even a monster trophy class fish, there is no guess as to why it continues to grow in popularity.

Fishing for channel catfish or “channel cats” as some may call them is a great way to get started catfishing and learn the ropes before you start fishing for blues or flatheads.

Once of the first steps to take to get started fishing for channel cats is to choose the right catfish rigs. There are many options available to anglers when it comes to catfish rigs and understanding them and their functions can be critical to your catfishing success.

In this article, we will take a look at two of the more popular catfish rigs for channel catfish.

The slip bobber rig – Slip bobbers or slip corks are a very effective way of rigging for channel cats. They are very sensitive and help detect what can often be a very light bite and also provide a visual bite indicator to help you recognize when you are getting a bite. They slip bobber rig also has a tremendous advantage over many of the other bobber setups because it is easily adjustable for varying water depths. This is best suited for anglers that are going to hold their fishing rod and wait for a strike.

The slip sinker rig is also a popular setup for channel catfish and a “go to” rigging for many different species of whiskered fish but can be very effective for channels as well. The slip sinker rig is often referred to as a Carolina rig by bass anglers or anglers who target other species of fish but catfishermen most often refer to this setup as a slip sinker rig. This can be fished with the reel engaged and a tight line, which is often referred to as “tight lining” but can also be fished in combination with a bait clicker or line alarm.

The bait clicker is a function on the fishing reel that when used with the correct catfish rigs can be very effective for catfishing. The reel is disengaged and the bait clicker is turned on. This allows the line to spool freely and when the catfish strikes it can run free with the fishing line. The reel handle is turned to engage it and then the angler sets the hook on the fish.