how deep

Hey JRW, welcome to the B.O.C. On the old website we had a library full of great stuff, and they are in the process of transferring everything over here now I think. It isn't called the library anymore, it is now under "BOC Outdoor Publication", most of the articles from the library are now in the "informative member posts" section there.

As for what depth to fish, you will run into a lot of different opinions. I usually fish on bottom and seem to do just fine, but my wife fished at varying depths with a slip bobber and she also does all right. If they ain't biting, just keep trying different depths until you find em I guess.

As for what rigs to use, there are a lot of different ways you could go and if you read through some of the posts on here, I am sure almost all have been covered pretty thouroghly at one point or another. I usually use a "carolina rig" which is nothing more than sliding a slip (or egg) sinker onto your line, tie on a barrel swivel and then a 1' to 1 1/2' leader and then your hook. I use this rig for almost all applications. As for what hooks to use, that can get very involved and it is hard to give advice or opinions on that as it depends on what type of fish you are after and the bait you are using. Same goes for your line, rod & reel and just about everything else. The best thing may be for you to read through some of the posts on this site and then if you have more specific questions, post them and you will get a lot of good advice as there are a whole lot of very knowledgable people on this site. I learn something new everytime I log on! Good luck to ya!

Theres a set of feeders at a small local reservoir here in southeast Kansas called Bone Creek. When the feeders there go off the type of food delivered is a floating fish food. The channel just start appearing at the top in 20' of water and just open their mouths and start skimming the top of the water...taking in as much of the floating feed that they can. There will be some mouths you see that belong to an over 20 lb channel cat. We always rig a large shiner or a small perch on a shallow rigged bobber on a medium action rod and reel spooled with 30 or 40 lb braided line. We have tried many different baits....yet it seems the live minnow or the perch works the best for some reason. You talk about a fight...nailing a 10 or 15 lb or better channel on a med. action outfit in 20' of water is a great time. The nice thing about Bone Creek is that the fish are easy to catch...however it does have a restrictive creel limit on its catfish...you may only keep 2. So theres always a good population of channels there to catch.
There is also a strip pit here in SEK that is part of the state run Mined Land Willife Area that is stocked with rainbow and brown trout. There is a feeder rigged up out there in 35' of water that releases floating food as well. A buddy of mine and myself were bass fishing there during the day one time....the very first time after they had just installed the feeder into the pit. We were the only ones out there, so I trolled us up to the feeder and my buddy hopped up onto it and opened the lid to see what they were feeding the fish or if there was anything at all in it. It also had floating feed in it. My buddy tossed a few handfuls into the water....and it looked like a school of piranahs were shredding something. There were hundreds of rainbow trout eating the hell out of that food on the surface. He hopped back into the boat and no sooner had he got back in...the feeder went off...and it was LOUD! What a Kodak moment that would have been if that thing had went off 3 seconds earlier with him still on that feeder facing away from it towards my boat. But oh well...theres always another un-suspecting fishing buddy to try it out on. I doubt if he forgets about it.
I have also chummed ponds and other strip pits by tossing out a coffee can full of dog food with the wind at my back...and just cast my minnow out amongst the chum. It will get ate...just a matter of time.