How To Fish The Santee Cooper Rig, A Catfishing Essential

The Santee Cooper Rig, consisting of a typical Carolina Rig with a peg bobber to lift your bait off the bottom, is one of the most trusted rigs by avid catfish anglers nationwide. It is a great rig for putting your bait DIRECTLY in front of a catfish, where they are looking to feed. You can also cover tons of water quickly, and have a variety of different baits tied on behind it. Here are the materials needed, how to set it up, and when/where you'll want to use the Santee Cooper Rig.

Santee Cooper Rig Materials

You will need:

Mono LeaderBig HookBobbersBullet Head Sinker* Swivel* Bead*Attraction Gel Scent [OPTIONAL]*Included in Kajun Boss Outdoors Carolina Rig Setup

How To Setup The Santee Cooper Rig

With the Santee Cooper Rig, you are essentially fishing a Carolina Rig with one minor adjustment, a peg bobber attached to the leader to keep your bait just off the surface. Using the Kajun Boss Outdoors Carolina Rig makes this setup a breeze, as the Carolina Rig comes pre-rigged and ready to be hooked up.Here is a helpful video on the Carolina Rig. From there you will simply attach your small bobber to the leader, a few inches below the hook, and BAM! You have a Santee Cooper Rig.

Where To Fish The Santee Cooper Rig

When catfish are holding near the surface, The Santee Cooper Rig should be your go-to setup. The main advantage of this rig is to get the bait directly in front of the fish, and there is no better way than with the Santee Cooper Rig. If you can identify how close to the surface the catfish are holding, you can adjust your leader accordingly. Since your bobber is only a few inches from your bait, the end of your line will be floating exactly where the fish are. The Santee Cooper Rig is almost like an extra-long drop shot rig you can swim through the column.

Bait For The Santee Cooper Rig

The best bait to float behind this rig is live bait, or your best imitation of live bait. You can thread on dough bait like the Magic Products Strawberry Catfish Bait, or hook up a full live shad. Chicken livers hooked on to the end of your leader will also get a ton of action. Since you are swimming this bait in front of your targets over and over, we recommend reapplying your scent, if you are using it. Try an easy spray like the Red Dead Spray from Team Catfish, which will give your presentation a red tint and also the scent catfish can't resist.