When we’re fishing around log jams, we like to use relatively short leaders, as a result. If you have a longer leader, it has the tendency to move around a lot more and you can get hung up on wood or the bottom. If it slides down current, it could get hung up and stuck on the wood pilings.Īnother important aspect of this summer catfish rig is our leader length. Once you cast your catfish rig out, you want it to pin to the bottom and keep its position in front of the cover. You can’t see it with the naked eye, but there’s a bunch of wood underneath the surface. Right now, we’re fishing in front of a big sub-surface log pile. The biggest reason you’re using this heavy sinker is once we cast it out, we want it to lock in that position in front of a log jam. We’re only fishing in three to five foot of water, but we’re fishing with three ounce sinkers, sometimes even heavier than that.

The one thing that’s really interesting in this rigging setup is the weight of the sinkers. I also have 65 pound Sufix Performance braid line as an alternative option. There will be situations where you’re putting a lot of pressure on the fish, you might be fishing around log jams where you need to really lean on them to get them out. That’s why I leave a pretty long tag on there – just in case. Catfish aren’t all that delicate and they don’t care about a little extra line sticking out, but when you use heavy line like this, a lot of times it’ll have the tendency to slip. One thing that’s always important when you’re tying heavy line, this is 25 pound test Sufix Siege in bright orange, is to leave a really long tag on there.

We use this in a variety of different sizes, everything from 2/0 to about 5/0 depending on the size of the catfish we’re chasing. There’s a lot of different hooks you can use for catfishing and one of my favorites is the VMC Octopus Hook. Log jams provide shade, cover, and a current break for river catfish.

Log jams are one of the best places to target summer catfish on rivers.

Here’s a quick rundown from James Lindner on his go-to summer catfish rig for fishing around log jams.

Fishing planet best catfish setup