Blue Catfish Setups andRigs You Won’t Believe

He’s often fishing in water as shallow as 3 feet, sometimes pulling baits on the surface when conditions are right. Before getting to that nifty setup, it helps to understand the reasoning behind his planer-board strategy overall. “Being quiet, stealthy, is what makes this system work,” he says. “One night while I was pulling baits shallow, I ran into a big alligator. It shook the whole boat before bolting away.”

Thinking like a walleye angler after catfish, Ormseth knows that to be stealthy in shallow water, he can use boards to quietly present baits off to the side so as not to spook shallow catfish. And with some lines set off to the sides and some set behind, a lot of territory is covered. Good boat control helps running boards, so he combines the use of a trolling motor and driftsocks to achieve that control.

“I typically fish with four rods, two planer board rods, and two in a narrower path behind the boat,” he says. “I use 8-foot Berkley Glowstik medium-heavy casting rods and Okuma 30 DX linecounter reels. They’re tough reels and they cast well to save time getting baits to catfish faster.

“On the two outside rods, I use Church Tackle TX-12 Mini Planer boards—the smaller boards work well and have less water resistance. I let out about 100 feet of line before clipping on the board, followed by another 110 to 130 feet of line before engaging the reel and setting it in a rod holder.” One board rod is set on the port side, the other starboard.

On each of the inside rods, he uses a Herbie release float, an invention he devised for fishing walleyes on Lake Erie. The Herbie’s equipped with a salmon release for holding the line. “I let out about 100 feet of line before attaching the Herbie, followed by 100 more feet on one rod and 150 more on the other, so baits are set back different distances,” he says. “These also go into rod holders. I set drags on light for all the reels because of the impact of hard hits on near-zero stretch braid. To start my setup, I move downwind with the trolling motor until all the lines are set with boards and Herbies.”

Ormseth’s reels are spooled with 80-pound-test monofilament backing, followed by 80-pound Stren Super Braid. Then to the 80-pound braid, he loop-to-loop connects about 80 feet of 60-pound Super Braid, and on the end of that he ties a loop for attaching to the loop on his leader.

Leader line is 40-pound Berkley Big Game mono. One end he connects to the braided mainline. He slides a float on the leader, pegging it in place, and attaches a swivel to the terminal end with a loop knot, followed by a final section of mono leader about 10 to 12 inches long sporting an 8/0 Gamakatsu Circle Hook. Having the swivel close to the hook and below the float eliminates line twist resulting from the bait swirling as it’s trolled.