Jug fishing on the Blind River - Is 2/0 Circle hooks to small for jug fishing?

[ERIC S]

Went jug fishing on Friday on Blind River. Did't catch a thing. When we picked our jugs up there was no bait, I am using a 2/0 circle hook. Is this to small. We were using cherry/garlic hotdogs and night crawlers. Need some advise

[catfishjon]

Sounds like bait stealer's to me. My preference on hook size is 4/0 to 6/0 and I bait with cut shad and live perch. If I bait early in the day, I suffer a lot of lost bait due to bass, gar, and turtles. Everything eats worms, so its just a matter of having the bait in the water when they are hungry. Try switching bait and baiting times and I'll bet you start catching. I had 175 hooks in the water Saturday night when the storms moved tru, and caught only 10 fish. Most of the bait was still on the lines. Catfishjon

[ERIC S]

I am going to try shrimp and crawfish next time . Is there any places aroung baton rouge to by bait. All I have found is night crawlers. Is there and commercially produced bait that is worth using?

[cj7]

Eric welcome to the BOC. You can buy carp at some bait stores. If you are after channels grocery store baits are a good option chicken livers etc..

[jtrew]

Sounds too small to me, but it can depend on the particular design of the circle hook. The distance between the point of the hook and the shank must be great enough to slide over the corner of the mouth, or the hook will simply slip on out, rather than hooking the fish.

[Poppa]

I use a kahle hook by mustad 37141 in 4/0. I have good luck with them.

[randallewis]

Eric if you can find a fish market buy some buffalo loin. It runs about $1.15/lb. Cut into small chunks and hook the hook thru the meat and the skin. It will stay on the hook. Good cut bait.

[poisonpits]

eric you got a 100k acres of water all along the hyways and byways round baton rouge so go get you a cane pole and some small really small gold aberdean hooks and catch you some 3 to 4 inch perch.hook them real shallow just under the dorsal fin and set your jugs again.channels blues and flatheads will eat these small baits and you catch rate will increase cause all fish hit live bait harder than dead or prepared.

[BAYOU-FLATHEAD]

Eric, If you can't drag for crawfish, try and get some big shiners(minnows). Atleast with minnows the bream want eat them like they eat worms. If you know anyone with a small pond try and catch some bream. They are legal if you catch them in a private pond no matter how they are caught. You can use them out of public water if they are caught on a hook. Hope this info helps.

[BAYOU-FLATHEAD]

Randall, I couldn't believe it ,but me, my wife and my son caught a huge buffalo two weeks ago on a trotline. It must have been twenyfive pounds. It works real good as cut bait and it lasts a long time.