I was looking at last year's regs. Guess they changed it?
when I river fish with moving water in a boat I will sometimes tie a monofilament line to a water bottle I just finished drinking and tie 1 hook to the bottom of the line.
Put my name and address on the bottle bait it up and toss it over and watch it.
Many times that jug gets a hit before my poles do.
I will highly second the catfish belly meat or even head and near the tail meat.
I have seen where shad were producing a few fish bet the fishing was slow... then stick on some catfish meat and haul them in.
If you let the bait soak for too long it becomes unattractive.
When I pole fish I change bait in the river about every 45 minutes or sometimes sooner.
I started running my trot lines at Webberfalls in the Arkansas river at 45-60 minutes.
I put more fish in the boat like that than if I wait 4 hours.
Those river fish will leave the trotline all slimy and no fish if you allow them too much time on.
All this fishing talk .. I need to get the hitch on my 57 chevy so I can pull my boat to the Arkansas river
Put my name and address on the bottle bait it up and toss it over and watch it.
Many times that jug gets a hit before my poles do.
I will highly second the catfish belly meat or even head and near the tail meat.
I have seen where shad were producing a few fish bet the fishing was slow... then stick on some catfish meat and haul them in.
If you let the bait soak for too long it becomes unattractive.
When I pole fish I change bait in the river about every 45 minutes or sometimes sooner.
I started running my trot lines at Webberfalls in the Arkansas river at 45-60 minutes.
I put more fish in the boat like that than if I wait 4 hours.
Those river fish will leave the trotline all slimy and no fish if you allow them too much time on.
All this fishing talk .. I need to get the hitch on my 57 chevy so I can pull my boat to the Arkansas river
Anyone ever use a treble hook on jugs? Hard to use punch bait without a treble, just thinking about setting up a few with treble hooks.
I used some last year at Thunderbird with punch bait and caught fish.
When fishing was slow the punch bait would get those channel cats.
I made some 7 foot long ones and placed close to structure and shore.
When fishing was slow the punch bait would get those channel cats.
I made some 7 foot long ones and placed close to structure and shore.
The regs say 5 hooks per line, do they count a treble as a single hook, or does each point count?
It just counts as a single hook.
Take good long needle nose pliers with you if you use treble hooks. and be prepared to leave the hook in the fish and not on the jug-line.
I had to cut most of my leaders off when using treble hooks.
Got a nice little water snake on one of them.
I had to cut most of my leaders off when using treble hooks.
Got a nice little water snake on one of them.
Keep jugs simple... treble hooks will be more pain than they are worth. Can't even begin to think of all the over thinking I've done over the years on jug setups and bait to use.
Now I'm using 3 noodles about 12 inches long stacked in a triangle/pyramid held by a couple of large zip ties.... Why this you might ask. Very easy to set your line length without the extra uncoiling. Get your length to the desired setting and run the line beween the noodles to keep it place. line length depends were you fish. middle of a lake can be 50' in some cases. Get to know your area. Heavy weight helps with strong current and possible a large fish swimming off with your jug. 16oz solo cups with quckcreate and some type of loop to tie to is good. I've used coat hangers to nice eye bolts over the years. I prefer to use trout line quick disconnects for the the lateral lines with the hooks. Easy to remove the fish from the main line and stop all the flailing empty hooks when the fish goes into a a death roll in your boat. Circle hooks with GOOD SHARP points will increase you success of hook ups. I stress on that good hooks, you get what you pay for in most cases.
Bait.... use what the fish mostly eats... oklahoma thats SHAD. Hands down the best bait and easy to catch. Learn to throw and good LARGE castnet. 8' radius or larger will make your life much easier. Worried about catching bait... then use something to get started with then go hunt for shad. Make one run on your jugs and switch over to your freshly caught bait.
Now I'm using 3 noodles about 12 inches long stacked in a triangle/pyramid held by a couple of large zip ties.... Why this you might ask. Very easy to set your line length without the extra uncoiling. Get your length to the desired setting and run the line beween the noodles to keep it place. line length depends were you fish. middle of a lake can be 50' in some cases. Get to know your area. Heavy weight helps with strong current and possible a large fish swimming off with your jug. 16oz solo cups with quckcreate and some type of loop to tie to is good. I've used coat hangers to nice eye bolts over the years. I prefer to use trout line quick disconnects for the the lateral lines with the hooks. Easy to remove the fish from the main line and stop all the flailing empty hooks when the fish goes into a a death roll in your boat. Circle hooks with GOOD SHARP points will increase you success of hook ups. I stress on that good hooks, you get what you pay for in most cases.
Bait.... use what the fish mostly eats... oklahoma thats SHAD. Hands down the best bait and easy to catch. Learn to throw and good LARGE castnet. 8' radius or larger will make your life much easier. Worried about catching bait... then use something to get started with then go hunt for shad. Make one run on your jugs and switch over to your freshly caught bait.
Yes, sharp hooks will increase the catch. That has to be the most important part.
