Thread: jug depth

I used trot line clips on mine so I can switch different lengths an swap them pretty fast


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most of mine are in the 2 - 3 foot range and I fish the tallahatchie river.

The funny thing is when catfish decide to come up to feed they will come all the way up sometimes.Have caught catfish with two or three ft dropper in the Mississippi and some lakes over deep water. It's good to always try different depths,but it is tricky to fish deep with a jug if you are in current and the bottom depth varies and if there are a lot of snags. You have to experiment some to figure out each body of water and what you can do. There are times in mid summer when the cats come up to chase the baitfish and are vulnerable to short drops. You can catch a 40lb plus blue cat on a two ft dropper on any body of water at times.Especially the major rivers.

I have always set mine from 2 foot to probably 12 foot or more. Sometimes you will see a prefered depth, but if they are really feeding, I don't think it makes much difference.

We run noodles often during the summer. All of mine have about a 3 foot line, with a 1 oz weight at the bottom of the line and hook about 6 inches above that. We throw them in water anywhere from 5-6 ft deep to about 17 ft deep and catch them anywhere in between. We usually start just before dark once all the skiers leave the lake and run them til about 1 or 2 am.

This is the start of a box full we caught last Saturday night... by time we were done around 2am, there was little room for ice!

Nice catch. Group set out some Friday night on Lake Hickory in nc and caught enough to dress to about 25 lbs of filets. They were using bream cut in half. I have never tried that for bait. I have always used shad. Bet the bream stay on the hook better.

The funny thing about jug lining is a lot of folks always consider them bottom feeders. If the baitfish are in 25 FOW and suspended at 8 ft that's where the catfish are gonna be. In the summer months we catch more big blues in 20 to 30 fow on our top hooks set 4 and 8 ft below the surface. As the water temp increases during the summer and a thermocline develops, we only bait hooks above the thermocline or we have a lot of dead fish on our lines due to no oxygen below the thermocline. All the baitfish will be above it to because of no oxygen below it. If you run jugs every hour or so you may be okay but any longer you end up with a bunch of dead fish. We use the biggest shad we can find and nose hook them whole not cut. In 20 to 35 fow we usually run 4 hooks set 4 feet apart with the top hook about 6 ft below the surface.

My home lake averages about 8'. i used to fish noodles with no weight but ss hooks baited with big perch / bream. We set lines 5 to 8' most times and have seen them 2' still catching fish .