Standard catfish bait works well. Cheapest bait is usually cutbait, as in shad, or live bait as in perch and large minnows. That failing, shrimp can also be used. Don't forget worms of all types.
First, bear in mind that what works great in one place may not work in another place, or at another time.
I have best luck baiting with skipjack or fresh cut shad. Small whole shad can be very effective for a while, but they tend to rot pretty quickly, requiring frequent bait changes. The way I jugfish, unless a jug gets hung up, or shows sign of getting a bite, I don't mess with the bait till I'm ready to go home.
When shad or skipjack isn't available, I'll use cured chicken liver, salt pork, bacon, or flavored chitlings. Worms just don't stay on the hook long enough for me, plus everything in the river eats them.
back in high school when i didnt know you cant jug in pa, I used to use liver.it worked well for my in a pond.I used an ocean spray bottle with 50 # test line dropped to a single treble hook. Id drop it off in the one corner of the pond where the timber was & then paddle my inflatable raft around with my rod fishing for what ever else swam. when I saw my jug dancing or moving into the wind I knew it was time to paddle over to pull something in. One day I learned the hardway that catfish and one man inflatable rafts done mix well. I had a big one roll on me while trying to grab him and he spiked my raft. glug glug.
i use cut baits of different kinds and styles for the different seasons.
Shad and bluegill work great year round with shad outproducing gills 2 to 1 in my waters if u keep the bait changed every 2 hrs.
Buffalo, carp, and suckers seem to work much better in the winter and spring but have not got a bite on it this summer.
I cut my shad into 3 pieces. Head, Gut pocket, and tail.
Head and guts outproduce the tail by alot.
Shad or cut gills work extremely well here in TX. I've had some success with beef heart but varies from lake to lake. Hot dogs work some and so does bait soap on the lakes that don't like the heart, but the problem is they don't stay on the hook as well as the rest of the bait. They are good if you don't plan on fishing more that 6-8 hours.
Sorry to necro an old thread, but this is almost all I ever use. Amazing how many people in Alabama look at me like it's some kind of genius revelation when I talk about cut shad, skipjack or bream heads. I always thought that was a no brainer. I got MANY catfish 50+lbs under my belt and several over 70lb class slugs.
I've also been known to use left over carcasses from my filleted crappie, bream, bullheads and perch. This works very well too. Drop a couple flappy skin filleted carcasses out on some jugs and let em float down river and watch what happens. It can get sporty in a hurry. Don't expect to catch too many small ones though.
Whatever is natural in your lake. In my lake there's so many blue back herring that using them cut is the best bait for jugs. Before the blue backs were introduced you couldn't beat live bream.
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