Here’s a little something me and a friend threw together. The field work was last week (7/18/13) and my friend Darrin (who is a Bass Man) did a great job on the editing…not to mention had the time of his life fishing with me.
It highlights my version of a Santee Cooper Rig. Most of the Tournament Catters here in Iowa use this method and I just can’t imagine it not working in any lake for Blues too.
I hope you enjoy it and maybe even learn something.
L8R…Ken
Great video and fishing lesson!
That was fun to watch, 
Ken,
That rig works well here in Madison too in broad daylight. I don’t use it much because I fish shallow at night for the most part. If you find a pronounced weed edge with a secondary drop off in 15-25 feet of water or a point with a sharp drop off that rig can produce some nice fish.
That was a great video, Ken. I’ve been doing a similar trolling/drifting technique on the St Croix and had pretty good success. I don’t usually start trolling until towards the end of the summer when the shad population explodes. That is usually late August / September time frame. It seems like all the cats disappear upstream on the St Croix and migrate down into the big water and start chasing the huge schools of shad that show up.
You can always tell when its time to go troll for cats. The upstream cat fishing just stops – they just disappear. Thanks for showing your Santee Rig set up. I run almost the same rig except I use home made slinky weights instead of your split shot sinker rig but I like that idea and plan on giving it a shot later this summer.
You are a lucky guy – you get to use a cast net so you have access to catching your own shad for bait. The St Croix is classified as Infested Waters and because of that the harvest of shad with cast nets is illegal. Unfortunately you can’t catch shad with hook and line so we are sitting on top of huge schools of shad with no legal way to harvest them for bait. We would like to get the DNR to legalize the harvest of shad with cast nets but it is a slow process to get the rules changed.
Great job on the video. Keep posting your info on trolling and drifting I appreciate it.
Steve
You’ve “got-em” dialed in Ken, nice video! Maybe one of these days we can go to a creek I go too and fish dittypoles if you want, its also hot and heavy, I’ve got the boat, dittypoles and everything we’ll need, just let me know. Message sent.
Steve, I would also like to see the rule changed about using a cast net in Wisconsin. You’re right we have no legal way to catch shad for bait. If I can ever do anything to support an effort to change this rule I’d be happy to do what I can.
That looked like a great day of fishing, and a great tutorial also. Thanks for sharing.
What kind of landing net is that with the lever? I’d like to get a net like that with a long handle, I just don’t want to have to unscrew/screw it every time you stow it. thanks.
Steve (and Jerry), you guys have some really strange laws. Maybe that’s why I’m still in Iowa though. I can’t really see a good reason why cast nets wouldn’t be allowed to catch bait fish, so long as the netter followed the laws about what can and can’t be used as bait.
Good luck trying to get the laws changed…that harder than pulling teeth.
L8R…Ken
One thing we have going for us is our DNR does listen and where possible has changed laws specifically for the cat fishermen.
Transporting AIS is the biggest concern I believe. There’s ways around this and the Catfish Workshop Group working with the MN DNR will work something out in time.
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