Bolt rigs

i've caught catfish with fairly small (18ish) boilies and bolt rigs in the past but i perfer a running rig for 22+mm pellets. i started using bolt setups because i know somone that catches very well on them, and by that i mean at least a couple of cats a weekend on Sandersons and it's not easy there.

i like to use about 5inch rigid mono or coated braid hooklinks and small, sharp (but strong) hooks. the bolt setup does work, look at how many catfish get caught by carp anglers and to be honest i'm not convinced that there's actually that much difference between a light lead bolt rig and a running rig as far as resistance goes.

Like I said before I have been watching some underwater footage of fish taking baits on a bolt style rig, would anyone who uses the bolt rig fancy trying an experiment for me?

what sort of expriment is this? might be able to help you.

yeah me too, however if it means actually catching catfish then I suppose youd better count me out.

lol.

your on my lines too trev

I would like to first know how long you make your hooklinks for your bolt rigs? Some of you may already do it but I would like you to try a hooklink about 3 foot long on your bolt rig. Any thoughts? I will also be experimenting with it while doing a bit of testing with some things early season.

in theory, you want to make the hooklink short, say 5" so the fish feels the lead and bolts, though a long hooklink may give (to some extent) the best of both worlds. the long hooklink could mean that there is zero initial resistance then the fish feels the lead when it pulls away, but there is a better way of causing that initial resistance free movement called the Shocker rig. i'm going to use leadcore next season for catfish anyway so i think a standard running rig with a bead on the leadcore about 8" up the hooklink could be a tangle proof version, but has anyone actually used a shocker rig for catfish? i know from experience that they're one of the best carp rigs going, so it's defo worth a try.