i have a trout line and i ben wondering what it means when all the bait is gone and the hook is the leader and hook is twister around the line and the bait is gon and i pretty much check it every hour could it be gar or catfish on them and just twisting off

It's a TROT line...no U! That's one of my pet peeves is when someone calls it a trout line. Almost as bad as seeing someone use a spinning reel with it on top of the rod or when they put a casting reel on a spinning rod or vice versa.

But...it sounds to me like you're getting catfish on there that are twisting off.

If you are using live perch as bait, they love twisting your line up.

Ive been battling the trot line monsters for the past week. A buddy and I both have trot lines in the same area. 50 hooks out there. Baited it all with everything from live perch, dough bait, cut shad, liver, worms and so far the best night is 4 fish. last night we got two. Yesterday during the day, we blanked. All the bait is cleaned off though. This morning we had a soft shell turtle hooked on the edge of its shell and no kidding, the thing was the size of a manhole cover. Must have been almost three foot across. Im sure that sucker has eaten its share of our bait.

What type of hooks are you using? We have truturn 4/0 hooks and my buddy has 5/0. I left a 3lb cat on last night to test out how well the hook hold the fish and it was still hooked this morning so it may not be the hooks.

Good luck to you, hopefully we both get it figured out, lol.

if your not using swivels on your stageons then your losing channels because they will twist off

When the water heats up to summer time temps EVERYTHING changes when it comes to trotlining. Sorry to tell you but I just won't go this time of year. Gar and all types of turtles make it not really worth my time. Those critters just typically won't get hooked 90% of the time when they come to feed. When the water warms up they are so active that they will beat the cats to your bait.
If I just really had to run lines this time of year then I would suggest trying soap bait (ZOTE is the only one I have ever tried) or something tougher than boot leather like chicken gizzards soaked in liver or blood.
Also you have to keep one important thing in mind....deep water will kill fish this time of year. If you sink a line to the bottom you can catch fish but they will be dead before you can get them off. I never like trotlining in shallow waters close to the bank because they will get cut by R/R fishermen. It would be better to back off from the bank beaters but you will have to do a really good job of suspending your line at about 2.5 feet under the surface or less. Go ahead and mark the heck out of it with floats but just understand you may get some help running it but this way it "shouldn't" get run over and drug into someones lower unit giving one more person an excuse to hate liners!
Have fun and get back on them in October.

i remember one trotline i set out, cut the heads off 11 turtles in about a weeks time ... caught lotsa cats in that spot after that

I'll usually set out a few juglines just because but cats are so easy to get this time of year that I primarily use rod and reel, cut bait and punch bait.

well thanks yall Nathan at Fork im using a 5/0 egal claw and im using swivels there are a lot of turtles where i set my trot line so maby its them

I have several bars of Zote my dad brought up from mexico but have not tried it yet. Will go out tomorrow and bait a whole trotline with it and see how it does. Will probably come back the next morning and the whole cove will be full of suds, lol. I also tried venison liver and caught one channel on it with the rest of the hooks stripped clean.

what is zote never herd of it

Its a mexican detergent soap. Just a pink colored bar. Im not sure if or where they sell it at, but my dad lives down on the border and got it down there. I had never heard of it either until my dad gave me several bars of it and said it was good for catfish. Havent gotten around to trying it out but will do so tomorrow.

let me know becaus im going to mexco for vaction

Zoate is bar soap,you can get at the supermarkets,its in the laundry detergent section,,,take it and cut it into small pieces and use it for bait,,it works best this time of year.You can get it at Fiesta,or Super One

where could u find one of those stores im in belton texas next to temple

Try:
http://www.catfishbaitsoap.com/

Great stuff

They also sell it at Brookshires and Save Alot. about a dollar a bar

thanks hooker i just orderd me 3 things of it and if it works ill let yall know