[shb]

In my quest for a giant flathead last season I found myself using bigger and bigger baits coupled with stouter and stouter terminal rigs.

I started out with 3 to 5 inch sunfish impaled on 2/0 to 3/0 tru turn style plastic worm hooks on my regular bass rigs with 12 to 15lb line, By the end of the season I was deploying pound to pound and a half carp, suckers, buffalo, and anything else I could get my cast net over. I hooked these on 12/0 cirlcle hooks, with 40lb stren high Impact for a running line and 80lb dacron for a leader.

I am really interseted in how other people rig for giant baits and giant cats. What is the biggest bait you have ever dropped into the depths in you quest for a trophy cat.

 

[John]

shb, are you fishin off the bank? Have you hung up with that well rope you're using? Man I have a **** of a time trying to break good 17 pound test, and think a fella could land most fish on even 14 pound test, with the exceptions of fishing around alot of brush and snags, I don't think you need more than something around 20.

I've landed some big fish with less than 20 pound test, but I do fish out of a boat, and use the motor when I hook a bigun.

 

[shb]

I don't have a boat, so I am shore bound. My favorite areas are full of rip-rap and a lot of the rip-rap has tangles of old rebar sticking out of it. We have lost a couple of fish, because we couldn't control them and they got all wrapped up in the rebar. Sometimes after we land a fish you can see the peels and curls of scraped up mono on the leader, sometimes it looks like up to half the diameter was scraped away and I wonder how much longer I could have hung on. So I use that heavy of line mostly for abrasion resistance.