On the white bass forum, one of the guys mentioned the incredible number of juglines spread through the old dam cut & over a large area of the lake. I was out fishing the previous day & saw them as well - there were actually enough in the dam cut to make it hazardous to get through (I don't want to wrap a jugline around MY prop).

It seems like there must be some TPWD regs or state laws that address placing juglines in a boating lane like this, where they're a navigation hazard. Any of the experienced juggers on here happen to know what the rules of the game say?

I'm fine with someone using juglines or longlines for catfish (must confess I don't see the sport in it - seems like commercial fishing to me), but it is a touch concerning when there are that many in an area (over 40 jugs before I quit counting) & they pose a hazard because of location. The point of this thread isn't to encourage bashing - just to get information from those who know. Thanks all.

there are no regs that i know of concernin' what you are talkin' about here ... BUT ifn enuff folks keep pissin' & moanin' about i'm sure we will see some more regs concernin' this ... what we need is more regs huh!!!!

Yeah I get nowhere when I talk of 100 boat bass tournaments fishing thru everyone out there. Or worse when they camp out a weigh in at the boat ramp I need to use. A lot of times juglines mean a meal for someones table.

Zeek the jugs can have weights but cant be anchored so pretty hard for TPWD to say where they can be placed.

Hey Zeek call our game warden for LL. I was told about those jugs as well and heard that they were not labeled. And who ever it is was setting out like 50 or 60 at a time. LOL that will be a hefty fine I am sure. I have no problem with jugs. But the cut is not that big and if that many jugs are in that area that is a accident waiting to happen. Its hard enough to navigate with all the boats coming through and trying to avoid the boats that are fishing much less all those jugs

I am the one that posted in the other forum... I am not pissin and moanin I am not whineing or anything like that... I am useing the forum so that if the guy that was runnin all of those lines reads it he will realize that he is breakin the law, if he dosent read this chances are that someone he knows will, I am not against telling the game warden but I am also about giving someone a chance that may not know. (god only knows I have made my share of mistakes on the water).

The way you get more regs is by people getting their equipment dammaged or folks getting hurt, The best way to aviod it is to "police ourselves".

had I seen the guy checking the lines I would have said somethin.

finally is it even possible to effictivly run 40+ juglines? Seriously... I have run juglines before and I cant see running more than about 15 By the time you get the last one in the water you just about have to start checking them I cant immagine trying to run 40.

here are the regs for juglines per the TPWD website ... if these jugs do not line up with the following, by all means call the GW ... BTW it might not hurt to get the little regs book at wally world or bookmark the TPWD website ... these regs are available to every body

Jugline:
For use in FRESH WATER only. A fishing line with five or less hooks tied to a free-floating device.

* May be used to take NONGAME fish, channel catfish, blue catfish and flathead catfish only.
* Placement and Location Restrictions: Juglines may not be used in
o Community Fishing Lakes
o Reservoirs or sections of rivers lying totally within the boundaries of a state park
o Lake Bastrop in Bastrop County
o Bellwood Lake in Smith County
o Lake Bryan in Brazos County
o Boerne City Lake in Kendall County
o Lakes Coffee Mill and Davy Crockett in Fannin County
o Dixieland Reservoir in Cameron County
o Gibbons Creek Reservoir in Grimes County
o North Concho River from O.C. Fisher dam to the Bell Street dam
o Lake Pflugerville in Travis County
o South Concho River from Lone Wolf dam to Bell Street dam
o Tankersley Reservoir in Titus County
* Tagging and Marking Requirements:
o Must be used with a valid GEAR TAG (see Definitions) attached within 6 inches of the free-floating device; gear tag is valid for 30 days after the date set out and must include the number of the permit to sell nongame fish taken from fresh water, if applicable. Properly marked buoys or floats qualify as valid gear tags.
o For non-commercial purposes, a jugline must be marked with a white, free-floating device.
o For commercial purposes, a jugline must be marked with an orange, free-floating device.

i don't see what any of the above would have to do with any of this discussion ... just personal carp right there

albert The best way to make the list of lakes that do not allow Jug lines any longer would be to allow this stuff to continue,

Think about it man...

as far as the statement about running 40+ lines, allow me to explain... if the limit is 25 fish a day and you have that many lines in the water you are more than likely gonna go over 25 fish, now, this person has shown us that he has no consideration for other boaters (placing them in a boat lane) and either ignorance or no consideration of the law (non white marker bouys) then what makes you think he will obey the law concerning a limit?

Also if he is baiting them with shad he is gonna kill allot of whites and hybrids simply because the area he put them in and with 40 jug lines you wont be able to get them checked in time to release anything alive.

I would love to put some jugs out this winter but with people like this, it is the fastest way to make my lake offlimits to jug fishin.

the original post asked what the regs on juggin' are ... all i did was copy & paste the regs here from the state website ... like i said if the jugs are illegal call the GW ... how simple can it be

Zeek;

If there are seriously more than 40 jugs and they are a threat to navigation, call the game warden. More than 40 jugs at bare minimum he is likely to be exceeding the number of hooks limit. I don't know too many people that run jugs with less than 2 hooks.

By the way Albert this is the "trash" that I was refering too in the past. This same guy must have been running jugs last year this time too. I run into a string of jugs that basically cut off the lake from deadmans across to the far shore. That's what prompted me to post about the "trash"

It's possible to run 40 jugs, but it's not going to be easy. You don't have to check them obsessively, you can leave the jugs overnight.

I spend 30 minutes deploying 16 jugs, and then maybe 45 minutes recovering them the next morning.

The question shouldn't be can you run that many, but rather WHY would you run that many? Answer... Greed.

there ya go ... straight from the horses mouth

we run 50 mor 60 jugs at a time (WE) lots of fun chasing the big ones around the lake........did i say LOTS OF FUN

Ok, didn't know the correct place to look in the regs before - albertking & Michial pointed me in the right direction.

"Hooks: In fresh water only, it is unlawful to fish with more than 100 hooks on all devices combined."

Unless the guy was only using one hook per jug, he was probably way over 100 hooks (Mark, you may find it prudent to use only one hook per jug if you're really using 60 jugs at a time). Amazingly, neither TPWD nor the state have any laws against creating a navigation or safety hazard. Thanks to those who replied.

I dont think this is a legality issue, though maybe it should be
This isn't a my lake-your lake issue, either.
this is a negligence/responsibility issue. with all the other dangers on this particular lake, it amazes me that GW's are allegedly ignoring this.
It equally amazes me that someone thinks they need to place 200+ juglines in a high traffic area to "put food on their table"
for the record, with the correct regs now posted, those lines are 100% illegal. even @ 1 hook per jug, they're over limit on devices, AND virtually ALL the jugs in question are either
yellow, green, purple, etc.
very few are white (rec.)
or Orange (comm.)
I would be willing to bet they get cleared within an hour if
a skier got caught up in them, so the real question is:
Why not clear them? no matter who does it.
And what's up w/ the game warden not doing squat?
just to clear things up ahead of time, I'm in no way against
jug-fishing, actually I think it's kinda fun.
What I am against is Greed trumping common sense in a safety situation, and law enforcement not enforcing the law.
tight lines
-Brian

IF any of those juglines are illegal, and someone else takes it 'into their hands' to "clear them", that individual would be in possession of illegally set equipment. Just as they would be if they were about to cut an illegal trotline without tags or over the minimum number of hooks. The "Do-gooder" gets the citation, not the one who set the equipment in the first place. If you take legal matters in your own hands, you may end up getting the short end of the stick.

It would be easier to watch that area for the individual(s) running those lines and reporting it then, get their TX numbers, photograph or video-record them in the act.

Ya, I thought about that right after I hit submit. Duh!
ok, so calling GW-good
Touching someone else's illegal tackle- Baaaaad.
-B

we only use 1 hook per jug.......

If whoever is running them is legal it is nobody's business but theirs.

If they are illegal the GW needs to throw the book at them.

I have never seen so many jugs out that I cannot maneuver around them. And if there are so many in a boat lane that I have to slow down, so be it.

Why do people get so worked up over things like this (no I am not pointing my finger at anyone who has posted on this thread)?

Because lower unit repairs are $325.

Well this issue may have been the reason that the GW for the first time that I'm aware of checked my jugs this weekend.

I was out checking my jugs yesterday, and the GW come by and looked at 2 or 3 of them, and then come up to the boat and chatted for a couple of seconds. Didn't do the safety check or fishing license check, but that may be because I had the envelope in hand with all the paperwork in it as they approached.

I second this!!

Yassir someone abusing the sport like is being described should be ALL of our businesses, and if anyone knows the person they should have a chat with them.

Look at the bad press juglining is getting here because of this guys actions. Look at the number of statements about how surpising there are no regulations against this that you see.

If these types of complaints happen frequently enough to the TP&W what's going to happen? Laws will be passed FORCING all of us to comply with some poorly thought out or vaguely written law about where and when we can put out jugs out.

Could you for a second imagine a law stating "jugs cannot be run in high traffic areas of any body of water" what this type of law would do is affectively eliminate jugging in just about every lake that is used by any other boats.

Bass guys would claim that they all frequent shallow coves, skiers would frequent calm water areas, jetskiers would frequent open water, crappie guys would lock up the treed areas etc etc...

Jug and trotlining are looked down upon by a lot of people, and when someone abuses their right to run the jugs they only reinforce the bad press they already get.

I understand what you are saying, but all I am asking is "who gets to make the judgement call on what is "abuse"?

Is it twenty jugs or thirty? Is two hooks per jug "abuse" or is it three? If boat lanes are unmarked how do you determine where someone can place their jugs? How about we ban all fishing along creek or river channels then?

There is a limit on the number of hooks that a fisherman can have in the water. Jugs must be identified with a tag. If someone violates those rules throw the book at them. Our problem is NOT a lack of laws but rather the lack of enforcement. Someone already said the jugs were unmarked.

I think we are getting into an area that leads to nothing but trouble if where jugs or trotlines or anything else can be put out comes under debate.

I bet unmarked trotlines are a bigger threat to boater safety than jugs but I doubt for a second that anyone on this site would be calling for the banning of all trotlines in certain areas. Once again the regulations for fishing are spelled out (notice I did not say "clearly" };o) )

And for the record I think someone who is running that many jugs has questionable judgement.

Abuse is easy to identify, look to your peers. Several people on here are complaining, and many of them are pro-jug lining. When people like Zeek start to complain you can bet that it's gove beyond abuse. I cannot remember a single post of zeeks that has ever really complained.

Who will determine abuse, it will be the Game Warden's determination, and it will be as arbitrary as most of the decissions they make.

The problem as I see it is that as long as jugliners police ourselves, and play well with other boaters there will never be laws, but I assure you that if what is being described on here happens on too frequent of a basis, the laws will soon follow and the only people to lose in that will be the jugliners.

By the descriptions I am reading on here, it's poachers that are putting those noodles out. Probably the same batch of people that are using gill nets and keeping everything under the sun.

I make this description because it happened on two lakes nearly simultaniously. I'm going to guess that it will be seen on other lakes soon enough. I'll also guess that if someone doesn't catch and turn them in they will continue to do it.

Sad thing about it is that they could probably have gotten away with it if they would have played by the rules. A hundred hooks will take a lot of fish, and som surprisingly bigs ones at that. They could easily have put them around the shoreline in reasonably out of the way places and still caught just as many fish.

I'd guess that with the right bait and placement they could easily pull 75-100 pounds of fish a day out of the bigger lakes if they run 100 hooks.

I just home that the GW does something about it rather than sit back and let them get away with it.