Use a small hook or a cast net to catch live bait, and either fish it on a float or free-lined. A sliding egg sinker can be added to the line known as a “Knocker Rig” it’s highly effective.
Learn to tie line to line a 3 ft length of leader and directly to the hook. Use a 30-40 lb leader, fluorocarbon if your budget allows, but it’s not necessary, however, in addition to disappearing in the water making it harder to see, it offers additional abrasion resistance to a snooks raspy jaws and or barnacle-encrusted dock pilings mangrove barnacles. Catfish are not picky and typically these rigs are being fished on the bottom with some sort of cut bait. Most of our fish have very sharp eye-site. Catfish are about the only thing besides a shark that will hit these rigs. We call them “tourist rigs” they are designed for those that can’t tie a knot. FISHING TIP NUMBER 1 – Minimize Terminal Tackle! It’s common to find stainless braided leaders with crimped on hooks and swivels and sliding egg sinkers in the local tackle shops. Be safe! This is not something you want to deal with on your vacation. For Sharks, unless you are very experienced, cut the line as close to the hooks as you can and release it immediately. It takes a little practice but you don’t have to touch the fish. The proper way to deal with catfish is to buy a simple “de-hooker” device. Stingrays have barbs at the base of their tail that can inflict a very painful sting. Rubber soles are no match for these spines. DO NOT try to step on the fish to subdue it. 
DO NOT kick dead ones on the beach or the barb can go right through your shoe and break off in your foot. Sometimes they can stick you so bad that the barb must be cut off and removed at the ER. Their Dorsals and both pectoral fins have a serrated barb that is hollow and injects poison or venom when they stick you, it’s very painful.
Alert! If your fishing in Florida for the first time, it’s crucial to remember that everything here has teeth, razors on their bellies or gills, sharp pins on their dorsals and probably the worst of all, the dreaded catfish spines.
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