Well, it's official now, we are doing a show on Lake Gaston this July, about how we catch big Blue's using with Slip Bobbers. It's going to be on the Sportsman channel, it's a new catfish show coming out, they are also fimling many other catfisherman from all over the U.S.

I will get more details soon!

By the way the show is called "Catfishing America" and it will air Saturdays at 7pm, Mondays at 12:30am, and Wednesdays at 5:30am. Each episode will air 6 times, and I believe it starts airing in October of this year.

That is cool Kat jr. Good luck man!

Way to go kat jr, I'm impressed and looking forward to it ! CONGRAT'S

Thanks man, appreciate it. I plan on going into the fishing business for a career so this is a great thing for me! Here's the article of mine that did this for me.....

http://pub30.bravenet.com/forum/2554406034/show/974034

Good deal Katmaster Jr. happy for ya and I am sure your dad must be proud of ya. I don't think I get the sportsman channel but if there is going to be a show dedicated to cat fishing I sure will look into seeing if I can get it. Keep us informed.

Thanks man! Yeah you can request the channel, and heck, maybe your cable/satelitte provider will get it.

Some reason I can't get your article to pull up? Would really like to read it.

Hey if they want someone to show folks how to catch channel catfish holler at me I caught 70 at Hyco Last week,smallest one about 2 1/2 biggest 8lbs,congrats on the show I watch the sportsman channel a lot and look forward to seeing it.

Quint, I'll just post it right here, I have pictures that go with it actually but I don't think this site has an option to add pictures.

Well, I've seen a lot of questions about how to use Slip Bobber rigs on other fishing sites, so I wrote this article hoping it would help anyone that has any questions about the rig, and have posted it on all fishing sites I participate on.

Catfishing with Slip Bobbers

I think I speak for us all when I say, we all can get into habits when it comes to fishing. We get use to doing something, one way, and just don't even think of doing it another way. Then there are some of us that want to try something new, and just don't know how to do it. Well, sit back, and jump in the boat with me, I want to take you on an adventure that I hope will help you understand a very successful technique for catching Catfish.

#1 - What exactly is a "Slip Bobber Rig"?

A Slip Bobber Rig is mainly used to target catfish that are suspended. I'm sure we all know about the regular bobber rigs, most commonly used for Bream, and other similar fish. Well, imagine this, the water you're fishing in is mostly 20 or more feet deep. Yet, the fish are concentrated in a certain depth range, and they are not on the bottom. Lets say they are 10ft down, in 20ft of water, imagine using a regular bobber, the kind that clips on to your line, you would have to slide it up 10ft from your hook, obviously that is near impossible to cast. So here's the beauty of the slip bobber rig, you are basically casting it just as you would with a regular bottom rig. You tie a bobber stop, piece of fishing line, or "Teflon Tape" as far up from your hook as you want your bait to be, when you cast out the bobber stop will hit the top of your slip bobber and your bait will be however deep you set it to be.

#2 - Supplies needed to use a Slip Bobber Rig

1- A Slip Bobber of some sort. They can be purchased at nearly any tackle shop, and also many other places that carry fishing equipment. I prefer a very large Slip Bobber for Catfishing, a good size Catfish has no trouble at all pulling down a huge bobber.

2- Slip Sinkers work best with Slip Bobbers, what size you need depends on your fishing scenario, if you're fishing with a small bobber you will most likely need a small weight, again though, I really recommend a large bobber for catfish. With a large bobber normally you will use a 2 or 3 ounce sinker, maybe larger! A lot of it also depends on the current where you are fishing, a lot of current will of course require a larger weight, while with a slow or moderate current the size of the weight will not make much of a difference.

3- Leader material of some sort. It can be Florocaurbon, or Monofilament, but it needs to be thick, meaning at least 30lb test, I recommend 50lb. I usually get a cheap Wal-Mart brand 50lb Mono for my leader material and I have not had any problems yet, been using it for several years.

4- Hooks, you need hooks no matter what kind of rig you're using. I personally use Kahle Hooks mostly, but the choice is up to you, use whatever you are most comfortable with, or have the most success with.

5- Swivels, you need good strong swivels no matter what kind of rig you're using in my opinion. For the slip bobber rig, One-Way swivels are usually best. They don't have to be fancy at all, as long as thier good size Swivels, and not snap swivels, you should be fine. I actually buy large Gold Swivels made by the brand "Laker" from Wal-Mart, normally you get about 25 per pack and the cost is around $2.50 or so.

6- This is what makes the whole idea of the slip bobber work, The BOBBER STOP. You need something to tie to your line that will control how deep your bait goes. As I listed previously in this article, a few things you can use are, Teflon Tape, A piece of fishing line, or you can buy what is actually a official "bobber stop" in a package at most places that carry fishing tackle.

#3- How to rig a Slip Bobber.

1- Get the end of your fishing line, that comes off your rod and reel.

2- Put line thru hole on top of slip bobber and guide it thru until it comes out of the bottom of the bobber. This can be just a little tricky sometimes, and may require some turning of the bobber while you're pushing the line thru, which helps the line get thru without bending up inside the bobber.

3- Slide Sinker on to your line, it should be under the slip bobber.

4- Tie Swivel to your line which should also contain your leader with hook attached.

5- And again, here is what makes it all come together at the end, decide how deep you want your bait to be, and tie whatever you're using as a bobber stop on to your line at that spot. Here is one way to do this if you're on the bank or at home, let out your line making the slip bobber rig lay on the ground, then let out approximately how ever much line is going to make your bobber the depth you want it, meaning, if you want your bobber to be 5ft deep, let out 5 feet of line. Then just tie your bobber stop on to that part of your line, if you want to get it at an exact depth, you can use a tape measure or something of that nature to measure it out.

#4 - What type of Rod and Reel to use

Personally I sort of like to use Spinning outfits for Bobbers, but that is mostly a preference thing I believe. I use Baitcast outfits also with Slip bobbers and don't have much trouble, the only thing about using a baitcaster for Slip bobbers is the fact that a lot of them have the "Level Wind" feature. Meaning when you cast your bobber stop has to go thru the "Level Wind" which can snap your line sometimes, or cause other problems.

#5- Fishing the Thermocline

Here is where the Slip bobbers have come in handy most for me. I mostly fish a large Reservoir, in the summer it's not unusual for the surface water temperature to reach 90 degrees. The fish get very suspended when this happens, usually concentrating around the Thermocline. Those of you that don't know what a Thermocline is, simply put it is a layer/depth of the water that has the most oxygen and cooler water. The fish can be so concentrated to that layer of the water that you can't even get a bite on the bottom, I say this because I have expierenced it for the past couple years. For me here in Northeastern, North Carolina, it has always started around Mid-June and lasted all the way thru late August, or early September. The Reservoir that I fish is mostly deep (30 or more feet, with the max depth around 90ft) and it is very large, and has many creeks that feed into it. I set my bobbers anywhere from 10-15ft deep, and will fish in anywhere from 20-75ft deep. I have good success doing this, if nothing else I will usually catch at least a few Blue Cats or Channel Cats around 5-10lbs in a trip, and sometimes will get a bigger Blue Cat, 20 or more pounds. I landed my biggest Blue Catfish of 43 pounds on a Slip Bobber also. While at the same time I fish with bottom rigs and normally don't even get a bite from a decent fish when the thermocline is present! The thermocline normally dissapears in the Fall, but even then Slip bobbers will catch a lot of fish usually.

#6 - Anchoring and fishing with Slip Bobbers

If you are anchoring up and fishing with slip bobbers there are a couple things you need to be aware of. If you're fishing in current, you need to position your boat to where the bobbers are going straight out from where you are setting your pole down, this will prevent them from getting tangled. If there is a wind, you need to try to anchor where your bobbers are going out with the direction of the wind, this also helps prevent tangles, and helps stop your bobbers from floating right up against your boat. Sometimes things can get tricky, the wind can be changing directions a lot, and stuff like that. When that happens you just have to use your head and figure out something different to do that works for the situation.

#7 - Drift Fishing with Slip Bobbers

This is by far one of the most productive methods I have used so far. As I said previously, I mainly fish a large Reservoir, that means there is a lot of water out there to cover, the fish have a lot of different places to hang out, and a lot of times they can get very spread out also. Of course for Drifting you really need some sort of Wind or good Current, otherwise it is usually pretty hard. A drift sock is a very good investment to make, it will help you catch more fish drift fishing. Get your boat positioned to the wind the way you want it to drift, the way we do it is, face the boat sideways to the wind and we put a drift sock off the back and off of the front, the two drift socks keep the boat straight and can help make a slower drift which seems to do best for us.

#8 - Slip Bobber fishing from the Bank

Slip Bobbers can work great from the bank if you have the right situation for them. Whether it be fishing a Dam from the bank, or Floating a bobber over submerged timber. The main thing about using them from the bank is, if you're fishing in current you're probably going to have to reel up often. A couple of ways Slip Bobbers can come in handy while Bank fishing are,

1- At a dam, you can float your bait out into a area of slack current where catfish will usually hold. I have done very good for Blue Cats using this technique.

2- You can stand directly upstream from a good spot downstream, like Submerged Timber, a deep hole, etc. And float your bobber down right over the spot, this can be an extremely effective tactic. I have had great success for Channel Cats doing it.

#9 - Get out there and have a good time!

I sincerely hope that this has helped you understand the benefits of a slip bobber, and how to use a slip bobber properly, while at the same time I hope it has been entertaining. The fish are out there, it's up to you to get out there and catch them! Take a kid, friend, or family member fishing with you. Let them enjoy the thrill of a fish pulling the end of thier line, spend some quality time with them, make memories that will last forever.

Zakk Royce

Caprandt, I don't think they have anymore slots open man, but if I hear of someone cancelling or something I'll let you know and you could email them or something.

Congrads

Thanks JRS.

Outstanding accomplishment, Zakk! I look forward to seeing you on the show.

Kat jr; We are not going to be shocked when we see you are we???

HHinNC, thanks, appreciate it.

MOFISH, wear some very strong sunglasses when watching the show to avoid eye damage.

good deal zack,when there done down there don't tell them anything about us up here 1bigblue

Alright man, I got it, I will definitely tell them there are no fish below the dam, they are all above the dam...LMAO

I dought that we will need the sunglasses !
All the young ladies will probably be trying to get a hook in you. So be careful

Oh, how I wish that was true!

Zack I guess they haven't seen your mug shot on the B.O.C. 1bigblue

Thanks Katmaster Jr. I enjoyed your article, it is well written. I also like how you left out the details so others others will have to do the trial and error deal. Again good job. How old are you now? I miss seeing your post they were always good no matter how good or bad the fishing was. Hope we all see you C one on T.V.

CONGRATS!!! glad to see you posting on here again. hope everything goes well for you, keep working hard and I'll prolly be watching the Zack Royce show on TNN in a few years!

Mike

1bigblue, I think you're right brother....


Quint, thank you, I'm glad you like my article, and yes I did leave out some detail just because everyone should have to do a little work, my Dad and I put in countless hours figuring it out on our own, and we still don't get a big one most of the time, Lake Gaston seems to be very challenging, which we enjoy. The only thing bothering me right now is we are suppose to get a big one for the show, and he said if we can't get a big one, they might not air the show.
I'm 16 now, haven't posted in a while here just because I didn't think many people here would be intrested in my reports on Lake Gaston, since there's a website for gaston now as well.

Basscat, thanks man, and regarding your last statement....that is my plan.

Tight lines to all,

Zakk

Thanks Kastmaster and again congrats.

Well, things are rough right now, our truck motor blew again after the second time using it to haul the boat since we had it fixed previously!!! But, I think it will still work out, it if doesn't I'm definitely going to do some damage to the guy that ripped us off with the truck, because he won't even fix it now and he knows it's something he didn't do right that made it break down again.

Sorry to hear that Zakk. I like reading your fishing reports, but haven't seen any in a while.

Hey, I ran into a BOC truck the other day fishing the James out of Dutch Gap and left a note on their car not knowing who it was. Turned out to be DeerHunter, and they were filming their segment for the Catfishing America TV show on the James. Did you see the report on the BOC...they caught a pretty nice hog.

If you aren't on the water soon, let me know. I can bring my boat down there and you all can help me get that skunk off my boat that always seems to appear whenever I go to Gaston.

Take Care.

what's the web address for the lake gaston web site?

JP, that's cool man, I knew they were fishing the James, glad they got a hawg though. They are going to bring a boat and everything if we can't have ours ready for the show so looks like it's probably still on.

We can definitely go out fishing though sometime, our boat or yours, eithier way it's cool with me.

The fish lake gaston site is.... www.fishlakegaston.com

thanks for the address

No problem!

Going out tonight and tommorow night on the lake, tommorow night is the filming of the show.

Tonight is the big night! Last night was awesome fishing, caught over ten Blue's from 5-8 pounds and lost 2 big ones.

Well, you would not believe what happened to us out there.

We had only been fishing a few hours, running all over the lake, and had only landed one Blue cat around 8 pounds, we were fishing down towards Gaston Dam when the camera lady on the boat asked if we could take her to that porta-potty over near that park thing they are building, so of course we said sure, we pulled over to the dock and let her out. When she came back and we started heading back towards the lake we hit what we think was some kind of terrible rockpile, almost got thrown out of the boat! Well we knew we had some damage done, even though we were going very slow and had the motor halway up because we knew it was a little shallow, but it went from like 10ft straight up to 0.4!

So anyway, we checked the motor out, all we could tell was the prop was messed up beyond belief, we were just hoping we didn't crack the lower unit, or puncture a pontoon, we decided to go very slowly back to the boat ramp, which took about an hour, we pulled the boat out of the water and inspected everything, there was small damage done to the fin thing under the prop, nothing to replace though, and the prop as I said was just completely done in. We didn't really know what to do at this point, the sun was going to come up in about an hour, and the rest of the filming crew was fishing on the boat they brought with them and we couldn't get in touch with them. We discussed it for a while, and then ran to Lizard Creek in the truck to see if we could catch some shad as bait had been hard, but the bait there was pretty much nonexistent as it was everywhere else. So we decided we would go put the boat in and just ease out to that point near the boat ramp, we got some runs there and caught 2 more eater size Blue Cats on the White Perch we had, and then realized we had lost our landing net, went back to the boat ramp again, my dad jumped out and drove around looking for it, came back empty handed which we expected, so now we didn't have a landing net, but it didn't matter because it had gotten so late the fimling people had to leave to go to Lake Norman.

So we kept fishing anyway after they left just because my Dad's parents had gotten a prop and they were bringing the grandkids to the lake for swimming and stuff so we waited for them, and of course now that the film people had left we started getting more bites! And this was from like 8:30am-10am, it was crazy, we were just drifting across the lake with the bobbers straight out from the boat ramp, had a couple fish that we missed that we think were huge by the baits they hit and the runs they made, and then I had a very strange bite, my bobber started going straight to the side bobbing up and down and then I picked up the pole and it shot under, I hooked the fish and knew it was something real good, after an awesome fight I pulled it up to the top and noticed it was actually a nice Striper! My Dad grabbed it by the mouth which actually was sort of difficult, weighed it, took a picture, a solid 8 pounder. Then we kept drifting, my Dad got a lot of runs and missed every single one of them and I got about a 10 pound Blue that put up an awesome fight for it's size. And after that we were out of good bait, and the family was almost to the ramp, so we called it a day and went in.

Well, that's the story. As usual we have bad luck that ruins everything....lol Good news is, the guys are eithier going to try to come back and make the show work anyway, or they said we might have to get a camcorder and try to get some of our own footage and send it to them, so the show should still be airing, just might be a little strange.....lol