how to fish jugs

I am gonna give it a try this summer for the first time too. Haven't tried it before. I am probably gonna use small shad for bait. Good Luck

 

Lots of baits will work, it's just that some will work better than others. I would imagine that shad, or maybe skipjack would work best, so that's what I would start out with, but for the first few times, I'd have several other baits on hand, just in case. Small shad can work great, but chunks of larger shad will hold up better; if you do use the small ones, be sure to ice them down immediately after catching them; keep them on ice till you put them on the hook; and change your bait at least every hour.
Lots and lots of stuff on the board about different ways to fish jugs, starting with such things as: jugging a lake or a river; freefloating jugs or anchoring them. And the list goes on.

 

Little tip
Buy yourself one of theses paint roller poles that will extend. Fabricate yourself a big gaff type hook and attach it to it, don't need to be sharp. It makes catching and retrieving jugs a lot more easy. Just get the end of the pole against the jug line and pull it to the boat

 

USE CUT GILL,' ,SHAD BEST IS WHAT THE BAIT IS IN YOUR LAKE OR RIVER

 

Chris, first off, welcome to the BOC from a fellow Missourian.

Below is a place to look for your questions to be answered. It is called "Members Library" Believe me, there is enough info on jugging to make your head swim.

You will quickly find that Jtrew wrote a great many of those Jugging articles. He is a walking encyclopedia of techniques. I also view him as sort of my sponsor when I first came here many years ago.

Here is the link:
http://www.catfish1.com/forums/foru...1&pp=30&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1

 

Juggin is great way to catch and eat catfish. Drifting, trotlines, another way. I jug and drift fish. Once I find fish I drift the area or as I have a boat I willl drift other area's catfish are good to eat, good to find and above all relese all bigggun's

 

You might want to check out Jack Caldwell's video on YouTube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc_L4-XGaGs

-- Rich

 

You might also check out Gene Chambers website, Wild Wolf products. He is one of our sponsors and makes and sells jug kits. I think it shows on his site how the are rigged on his jugs. Depending on the type of jug you use and where you use it makes a difference on how it is rigged.

 

I found the best bait is determined by what kind of fish you are after..as an example..if you have a lot of blues in your water then 1" pieces of hotdog will work really well. If you have a lot of channels in your area then try simi-dried pieces of chicken livers, worms, or shad. I love going out with 20 or so jugs and fish until noon. I've come up with an idea with my noodle jugs that I am going to try this year. I have noodle jugs cut in 20" pieces with one drop line from the noodle. I bought some more noodles and I'm cutting them in 28" pieces with drop lines off both ends. This keeps two hooks in the water and I will have half the jugs to chase down. I have the drop lines set at different lenghts..one is at 3 foot and the other at 5. Will let you know how they work.

 

Or, you can simply use longer lines and put multiple droppers on each line. Assuming it's legal to do that in MO.

 

Thats true Jtrew but in the Mo. river the longer lines with two hooks stop on the missouri river when they wonder out of the main channel and hit the flats. I keep one at 3 and the other at 5. I have tried running near the bottom but lost jugs on hang ups.

 

Cris,
Welcome to the BOC. There are as many ways to fish jugs as there are people fishing them. I have 3 different types for different water conditions. Now may not be the best time to fish jugs to much water everywhere . Lake OZ is high and your jugs are going to be drifting into brush and getting hung up. Check out Gene Chambers web site Wild Wolf Products , Gene is a sponcer of the BOC and he has the best fishing noodles I have ever seen. He will sell you kits and you can build your own. I have made many types for myself The swin noodles make the best. A little tip when making tip ups or flaged stand up noodles doin't buy any thing untill you have bought your noodles first. There are several diameter sizes of noodles, and also different inside diameters. After getting the noodles buy the pvc pipe to fit the inside diameter, some are a little hard to slide others are to loose and need a little glue. Also I hope your friend knows that its a big NO NO to fish with any part of a spoonbill ( in the state of Missouri) as bait. Good luck Jug fishing is a lot of work and a lot of fun , take some kids with you let them pull in the jugs.

 

Dave, that's true about jugs getting stopped by shallow water; they also get into slack water, and hang up on trotlines. When I jugfish, I'm constantly having to run up to the front of my jugs to check for fish, then immediately run back upriver to check for lagging jugs. I pull in all those I find, take them back to the main pack, and drop them back in the water. I seldom lose a jug this way, although I've seen a few hung on the front of a bunch of barges going up or down river; and found more than a few jugs destroyed by the props. Pull 'em in, salvage what I can, and put out replacement jugs. Just part of jugging on the Arkansas River.

 

Why release the big ones, big ones is what I fish for?

 

I have 20 noodle jugs i put pvc in the middle of them i put the knot of the string on the side of the noodle so when u get a bite the noodle sticks up so u can tell if u got a fish but sometimes it dont look like the noodle has a fish on it but it does so check all ur noodles oh and i like to use shad for bait hope this helps

 

OK JUGGIN WAS WHAT I WAS BORN AND RAISED WITH. STILL LOVE TO SET JUGS AND CATCH COOTERS AND A COUPLE CATFISH. #1 USE MASON LINE!!! NUMBER OF REASON BUT YOU WILL FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF BUT YOU WILL NEED THAT. #2 DONT MAKE THE LINE ANY LONGER THAN 5 FEET BUT I ALWAYS MADE MINE 3 FT IN LENGHT. CATFISH WILL COME UP AND GET THEM. #3 FIND OUT WHERE THE CATS ARE FEEDIN' (LOOK FOR BAIT FISH) #4 SOME PEOPLE WILL GO GET TH3ERE JUGS IT IT GETS SNAGGED ON BOTTOM CLOSE TO THE BANK???? NO NO NO BECAUSE WHERE DO CATS COME TO FEED? IN SHALLOW WATER AND TYPICALLY SHALLOW WATER IS NEAR THE BANK. IF YOUR JUGS STAYS IN DEEPER WATER OK CATFISH WILL COME UP TO GET IT. #5 I ALWAYS USED CUT GILLS OR SHAD. BECAUSE THAT IS THE MAIN BAITFISH FOR THIS AREA. #6 BUY OR MAKE A GAFF. YOU WILL NEED A POLE TO HELP YOU RETRIEVE JUGS. YOU'LL NEED ONE IF YOU HAVE A CAT ON IT BECAUSE IT IS DANG NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO CATCH IT HANGING OUT THE SIDE OF THE BOAT. THEY TRY TO GET AWAY FROM THE BOAT. #7 HAVE A WONDERFULL TIME AND ENJOY YOURSELF!!:big_smile: #8 RELEASE ALL BIGGUNS' 10 LB OR OVER, SO MY KIDS AND YOUR KIDS CAN ENJOY THEM ALSO!! GOOD LUCK JUGGIN'!!!!!!!:smile2::big_smile:

 

DUDE CPR YOUR BIGGUNS'!!:angry::big_smile: THAT IS OUR BREEDER FISH!!:big_smile: THAT IS WHAT PUTS MORE FISH HERE FOR YOUR KIDS AND MY KIDS TO ENJOY AND FOR GENERATIONS ON!! AND IT ALSO PUTS MORE FISH HERE FOR YOU TO CATCH ON A JUG OR NOODLE.

 

Several reasons to release the big cats: First, smaller cats, say under 10#-12#, are better eating; second, they're easier to clean; third, the big fish carry the 'big fish' genes that will produce more big cats; fourth, big cats lay more eggs and do a better job of protecting them than the smaller cats, which means more of them hatch, which means more cats to catch. Growing up in the 50s, I was taught 'if you catch it, you keep it'. And I had that idea till someone taught me the reasons I should release the bigguns.

 

As a kid in Ms. I was use to seeing my Dad and uncles trot linning and using jugs, Its a great way to fish.

Lets go jugging!

:big_smile: