I realise that you have tried that, but thats the way we do it and it works:
We add the UISearchBar into the view (not the table view). That being said you can't do that if you are using a UITableViewController. You have to add the tableView to a UIViewController. Then we link it via an Outlet to the Controller and then set it to hidden in viewDidLoad:
self.searchBar.hidden = YES;
Then create a selector to show the searchBar again:
- (IBAction)search:(id)sender
{
self.searchBar.hidden = NO;
[self.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
[self.searchDisplayController setActive:YES animated:YES];
}
Hope that helps.