Cat Tip of the Day: Flathead Standup Swing Spreader

I spent the winter trying to design the perfect flathead catfish fishing rig. I went to school on how some other large fish species both fresh water and salt water are fished. I looked closely at tactics and techniques used for halibut fishing and salmon fishing on the west coast. How they present live and cut bait to catch large fish. In most cases they are fishing in current or tidal areas and use that current to present their baits. Their fishing rigs have to be sturdy and capable of handling large, strong fish but also able to present a bait without getting tangled. On the west coast they will fish with wire spreaders which is basically a 3-way rig designed to hold the leader away from the dropper line. The salmon fishermen use what is called a swing spreader. The leader arm of the spreader can spin around the axis of the dropper wire. This works really nice in a strong current and keeps the rig from getting all tangled up.

I decided the challenge is to design a flathead swing spreader rig that would hold a large live bait or a large piece of cut bait just off the bottom about 4 to 6 inches. The basic rig needs to be strong enough to handle a huge fish – a 40 to 60 pound or larger fish. It also should be able to be fished vertically on a slow drift or troll ideally at about a .3 to .75 mph. The rig should also provide some sound or attraction that rings a dinner bell for a big cat. The halibut and salmon fishermen run dodgers and flashers and spin-n-glows and all kinds of attractors. Lastly the basic Flathead swing spreader needs to standup vertically when it is still fished anchored by a large sinker.

What I needed to make was a heavy-duty wire swing spreader that floats. I started looking at wire forming tools from all the major tackle suppliers. The strongest wire I could find was 0.051” wire mostly used by musky fisherman. It was hard to find a wire forming tool that was affordable that could work with that heavy of a wire. I ended up buying a Twistech Magnum Wire Forming Tool. The Twistech is a sweet tackle maker and it makes perfect swing spreaders.

The next challenge was to figure out how to float the swing spreader so it will standup and hold my bait in the 4” to 6” target zone. I figured out how to float it two different ways. One way is to just put a float on the vertical axis wire and the other way is to put a float on the swing arm wire. I have built them both ways – the best floats are those where I used a size #000 Spin-N-Glow as the float on the swing arm. Those provide some crazy wicked bait attraction.

So, stay tuned – April 1st is the Flathead Opener. I will let you know how the Flathead Standup Swing Spreader works out. It is being field tested by some of our most highly qualified IDO cat fishermen. If they can’t catch cats with it nobody can.

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Nice.

How is the hook wire attached to the sinker wire?

These could be good in some of the rocks I try to fish.

A picture with all the beads and garbage removed would suffice to understand your wire build.

Good work Steve.
Ain’t seen you in a while!

The hook wire is built by making a spring on one end of it. That spring then slides over the sinker wire. The spring on the hook wire allows the hook wire to spin around the sinker wire. I use the beads and the plastic connectors to hold the hook wire in place. You can adjust the hook wire up and down the sinker wire to set how far off the bottom you want your bait to be.

I went through a bit of wire shafts before I figured it all out but once I had a workable prototype I can make them fairly quickly. It is really heavy wire but I do wonder how much of a licking a big flathead will give it.

All of the beads and the Spin-N-Glows will glow once you hit them with a light which may help them attract fish. The first time I walked into my basement workbench at night it blew my mind. Looked like some kind of spook show.

I bought the big Spin-N-Glows directly from Yakima Bait Company. I couldn’t find the big #000 size Spin-N-Glows anywhere. They discontinued that extra large size. They still had 18 packages of 3 each left in their inventory. I bought everyone they had left. When I’m out I’m out – hopefully the big box of them I have will last me a while.

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Hey FBRM – If you are fishing in some tough rocks this might do it for you. It is a heavy wire Drop Shot Rig. I was playing around one afternoon and put one together as a prototype. I have a couple of concerns with it but maybe you could work the bugs out. I actually think it would catch fish but I’m not sure how well it would stand up after a big fish grabbed it. I think the hook might slide up and down the sinker wire as you fought a fish. I thought you might find this interesting.

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Care to sell a couple of those rigs?

Mike – I’m just field testing them right now. Kind of want to shake the bugs out of them and see how the fish respond to this presentation. I’m not making tackle for a business it is just a hobby.

Thanks Steve.
I’m quite fond of my jigs in the rocks but always looking for something new and thank you for doing the research for me…I did do a little digging a few weeks back based on a comment you made.

I run some drop shots, more for channels than flatheads but haven’t seen the need for the wire. I know one thing, if you see potential it is there. Just gotta soak em right!

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steve-demars wrote:

So, stay tuned – April 1st is the Flathead Opener. I will let you know how the Flathead Standup Swing Spreader works out.

And… Did you catch them today Steve

First one of the year – an April 1st Flathead

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I seem to remember that I have a fishing boat parked somewhere…

They are jumping in the boat, Brian. Remember to use your Standup Swing Spreader.