Fish Section Rigs

In the early days of catfishing, it was commonplace to bait your hooks with freshwater deadbaits and this usually meant whole or half fish - often roach, rudd or whatever else could be caught on the day. It soon became known that sea baits were also great catfish baits and regularly outfished coarse baits. 

Favourites were mackerel, sprats,eel, herring and sardines offered either in halves or chunks, normally nicked onto large hooks. (These days we don't use eels of course as they are an endangered species but lamprey is a good replacement on many waters.) A couple of sprat or sardine heads hooked through the eye sockets proved a deadly bait on many waters.

Over the years, things progressed of course and bait presentation was soon refined and it became standard to fish with sections of fish threaded onto hair rigs and this is still one of the most popular method for presenting pieces of fish.

Tackle companies saw that this was happening and started offering rigs with extra long hairs for threading baits down. Fox even brought out their 'Kebab' Rig as though it was something new and innovative but in reality it was just an alternative to the rig that we had used for years! - They do work though and are still used by many catfish anglers.

 

To set a standard Fish Section Rig up is simple, just tie up a normal hair rig but make the hair far longer - say 2-3". The fish sections are then just threaded on using a boilie or stringer needle and stopped in place with a large piece of rubber band or a shop bought stop such as a bait shield.