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Catfish Rig Box Here is one of my Pro secrets that I would like to share with you all. I do loose a lot of rigs when fishing, so I came up with this idea that I use for a rig box that I call the "Catfish Rig Box". I pretie most all my rigs before I hit the water to save time and have this custom designed a box I came up with that I keep them in. Very simply, I use one of the Plano 14 inch boxes and on one end, or the left side, I cut wine corks in half and super glue them on the insert to put the hooks into. You have to cut down the insert by a 3/8ths of an inch so the box will close over the hooks.
With a hack saw, I cut 7 slits in the other two inserts per trough with the 1/2h of an inch cut out. This will allow you to put the rig in with its own slot to keep them organized and not being tangled. Put one in the middle and on the other end. Go ahead and glue them in so they will not slip out when pulling a rig out.
I normally use 3/0 swivels that I tie onto the other end of the leader line so that I just slip a weight on, and quickly tie a palomar knot and I’m back with all lines in the water we are allowed. Double the line back so you have a loop at the end of the box that you can quickly grab. Your swivel should be on the hook side of the middle insert. You can keep roughly about 28 to 30 rigs in there. Place several weights in the box so that it holds the box down on the floor when traveling in the boat and you have weights at your access without getting into another box. I also put a small pair of scissors to cut the excess line off your main line with so I atleast know where a pair are. A few hooks and extra swivels come in handy at times also… Seconds count on the water in a tournament situation as this was a problem I figured out a solution to.
You can go ahead and make more inserts for the troughs if you like shorter leaders. Here is the trick to making the cuts. Figure out how many inserts you want for that trough. Ill normally use 3 plus the Cork end. Two work, but 3 are better that gives you more cubicles for your weights. Cut the top off with some Sheet metal cutters so they are the same lengths. Then put the 3 together and tighten them up in your vice just high enough that the hack saw blade goes down to the vice for the desired length of cut. Start out cutting in the middle and cut your main slot. Then half those with another cut and half it once again and you will end up with 7 cuts. This way you have the same cuts for that trough for the 3 inserts and go ahead and install them. Make your rigs up in lots of 7. This way you can have 4 different rigs depending on the hooks and line preference.
Good luck to you all with this. These "Catfish Rig Boxes" are a major time saver when you should be concentrating on your rod tips and getting bites! It might take you all a few minutes to tie them up, but this is part of preparation for prefishing. I was tired of using cardboard and it getting wet. I even put a half cork in Willies boat that I could put my hooks in with a few leaders. We originally did this years ago with my dads boat when we used to fish down on the White River for Trout since we used to use a lot of rigs drift fishing. Some of us might remember the old rig holders back in the 70’s that had springs even. You cant find them anymore and if you could, they wouldn’t be big enough.
See Ya on the Water!
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