JUG FISHING FOR CATFISH

WITH NORTH TEXAS CATFISH GUIDE SERVICE

AND FISH ON FLAGGING CATFISH JUGLINES

The Fish On Flagging Catfish Jugline

Jug Fishing is something that you will often get mixed feelings on from catfish anglers. "Old school" catfish anglers are often very "pro" juglines or jug fishing but a growing group of contemporary catfish anglers will scoff at the though of jug fishing with juglines and frown upon it.

Myself I guess I would say I am somewhere in the middle of the road, because I think that jug fishing, if done responsibly is a perfectly acceptable way of fishing for catfish and can be a productive way of fishing for catfishermen, if done responsibly.

First let's talk a little about jug fishing and what it is. Jug fishing is basically where you take a large float and tie a line to it that hangs down in the water with hooks and catfish bait deployed from the float or what is commonly refferred to as the fishing jug or jugline.

DIfferent methods of jug fishing are done in different areas and they seem to be regional in nature. The most common for of jug fishing in Texas is what is most often referred to as a Jugline which consists of the float or fishing jug and then a mainline with hooks coming off of the mainline with leaders and swivels and then a weight that sits on the bottom of the lake or river that anchors the jugline in place. Juglines are most commonly fished anchored here in Texas with 1-2 Lbs of weight on the bottom to keep the juglines from drifting around the lake so tha catfisherman does not have to sit and watch the jugline while it is in the water. The weight on the bottom also helps prevent the jugline from being pulled off from where you left it when you catch a catfish, or at least slows the fish down when it gets hooked.

The other most common method of jug fishing would be to drift the fishing jugs, or also commonly called Free Floating Juglines. With this method of jug fishing the angler deploys the fishing jug or float with a line hanging below, and a hook on the end of the line with no or very little weight above it. The fishing jugs or juglines are then deployed in the water with bait and allowed to drift accross the water until the drift into a fish that bites and the fish begins to move the jugline, the catfish angler then chases down the moving jug that has hooked the catfish and pulls the fish in.

Either way of jug fishing with juglines is effective and wil catch fish. They are both a lot of work and both have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of an anchored jugline or fishing jug is that the jugline for the most part will stay where you put it and it does not require the catfish angler to stay right with the fishing jugs and watch them at all times, but the drawback is that the jugline does not cover as much water so you have to wait for the fish to come to the jugline.

The free floating juglines or fishing jugs are deployed in the water and allowed to drift so the drawback is that the catfish angler must stay with the juglines to keep track of them and watch for a fish to be hooked and take off with the jugline but the advantage is that the juglines when drifting cover a lot of water and will drift in and out of catfish so there is better chance of catching fish than just leaving the jugline in one place and waiting for the fish to come to it.

Whichever way you choose, just make sure that you learn your local laws in regards to juglines or jug fishing and whichever method you choose do so responsibly. If your going to jug fish make sure you check your juglines often, at least every two hours and if your jug fishing in warm water in the summer then the jugline needs to be checked about every thirty minutes to keep fish from dieing on the jugline under the thermocline where there is not much oxygen.

Whichever method you choose, we strongly encoruage and support catch and release of trophy catfish over 10 lbs. If you want fish to eat, keep the smaller ones and put the larger channel catfish and blue catfish you catch back in the water to help keep the lakes stocked. These bigger catfish are the breeding stock of the lake and are the spawing fish that keep fish in the lakes for us all.

I am not a proponent of jug fishing or running juglines for "meat hauls" but think that they can and do have an effective use. Running juglines or jug fishing is a great means of fishing for the inexperienced catfish angler. It gives you the ability to put a large number of hooks in the water and cover a lot of water to help learn where in the lake the catfish are holding, what depth they are holding at and what kind of baits they are biting. This gives the angler an education tool to learn the pattern of the catfish while fishing with the juglines so they can go and fish for these same catfish with rod and reel and know where, how and when to fish for them and what baits to use.

The other use of juglines or jug fishing that I have found particularly helpful is to get kids involved in fishing. Let's face it, no matter how good the fishing is it is hard to keep a young child's interest in fishing because they just do not have any patience. If your wanting to get your kid's involved in fishing you can get a set of juglines and set them out in different areas of the lake and more often than not, there is non-stop action with the catfish to keep the kids interested in catfishing. Many people will take their kids and set out their juglines, and then go rod and reel fish for a little while and go back and check the juglines for catfish. Plus if your using the Fish On Flagging Catfish Juglines that we manufacture, the kids love to watch the juglines and wait for them to flag and let them know that there is a FISH ON.

Now let's talk a little about jugline construction. There are a number of different juglines or fishing jugs that can be made at home using bleach bottles or soda bottles and make very effective fishing jugs. Doing some searches on Google will get you a lot of information on building your own fishing jugs or juglines.

We manufacture a jugline for jug fishing that we sell commercially that we designed after getting tired of the poor design and bulkiness of coke bottle fishing jugs and bleach bottle fishing jugs. These juglines were designed to be compact, durable and effective and revolutionize jug fishing as it was previously known.

The product we manufacture is called the FIsh On Flagging Catfish Jugline. These juglines have proven themselves time and time again over the past few years and have become a favorite among catfish anglers across the south. Texas Catfish anglers are particularly fond of these juglines and it is common to see these Fish On Flagging Catfish Juglines on Texas lakes as there are thousands of Texas Catish Anglers using our Fish on Flagging Catfish Juglines.

The Fish On Flagging Catfish Juglines are constructed of PVC and closed cell polyethylene foam. The are very compact and durable and built to last. In fact, they are so compact that sixteen of the Fish On Flagging Juglines will fit easily down inside a plastic milk crate and make for easy storage. Sixteen of the Fish On Flagging Catfish Juglines stored in a plastic milk crate take up about one fifth of the space that tradional bleach bottle juglines or coke bottle juglines take up.

The other feature of the Fish On Flagging Catfish Jugline is that it does a trick. The jugline when deployed in the water is layed on it's side at it's resting state. The jugline remains on it's side in the water until a catfish hits the catfish bait and then a ballast is tripped inside the jugline and the Fish On Flagging Catfish Jugline stands up and alerts you that you have a fish on your jugline, so you can go check your jugline for catfish. This eliminates the guesswork from jug fishing and let's you know exactly which juglines you need to check.

If your looking for catfish bait for jug fishing or juglines check out Redneck's Catfish Bait Soap at www.catfishbaitsoap.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON JUG FISHING FOR CATFISH WITH JUGLINES VISIT REDNECK'S FISH ON FLAGGING CATFISH JUGLINES AT WWW.JUGFISHING.NET

CHAD FERGUSON AND REDNECK OUTDOORS. THEY MAY NOT BE COPIED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT OUR WRITTEN PERMISSION

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