do i need to make them 30 ft or so and that way i can adjust for varying level of the river or what.. never made them before. do you let the weight sit straight down or let it out a ways? any other info on this topic would be appreciated.. thanks

I made mine 8 ft long. not saying thats best but it worked for me where i run em. i put a split shot on mine not sure about weight but its about 1/4 or so diameter weight i use. it might be slightly bigger.

there's really no set way of doing it, to an extent. but tie off on flexible live limbs if you can. real solid limbs will work. but yur better off using a limb with a little "spring" in it

Long enough to be 6in under water

yea they dont have to be very deep at all. i was going 2.5-3.5 maybe 4 ft max. in water 10-15 ft deep in some places.

If using live bait I'd suggest setting the line length so the bait is splashing about at the surface. This helps draw in the predators (which might include raccoons)!

For other baits I'd set them at a variety of depths if the water runs deep enough to warrant fishing near the bottom versus near the top. If a hook near the bottom is only a few inches from one tied near the top- it makes no difference; several feet difference could be important. I do not know why catfish prowl along near the bottom some nights and near the top on other nights.

IMHO you should always pick a limb that is springy but with resistance. This will permit the fish to tire out working against the limb with less chance of twisting the line until it breaks or the hook pulls loose.

I don't limbline (anymore) but as I recall you should tag the line with white duct tape labelled with your info and a date. I have seen very few limb lines bearing such tags to be honest.

good luck, I look forward to hearing how you do.

Limblines dont have to be tagged, their considered throw lines

I was under the impression u put some kind of heavy weight on the bottom and couple of hooks abt two ft apart

It is the best feeling when you are checking your lines and you see it going in circles and that limb bobbing. You never know what you have under the water. I love that! Took my six yr old son with me and he would yell and scream with excitment and say daddy I want to get it please and then he would grab and say maybe you should grap this one dad I got the next one. It's the best.

In creeks the oxygen content of the water is usually very low. I have found that any deeper than 4 feet results in dead fish. Also I have had a lot of trouble with people running my limb lines if I make them obvious. This is especially true of a limber limb being thrashed around with a line showing a foot before it reaches the water. It may be exciting for your kids as chris720 says, but it's also very tempting for adults to remove your fish. After spending last spring untangling my lines thrown up in the tree, replacing cut lines, and hardly ever finding any fish, I learned to hide my limb lines as best I can. So I look for limbs in the water so I have no lines showing, especially stout limbs that won't wave and reveal my limb lines to everybody going up and down the creek. The only times I use weights is when I am baiting with live perch, and then you need heavy enough weight to keep the perch from being able to tangle you up.

Don't ya know it really S**ks when people take fish, without permission, off of a trot, jug, or limb line that doesn't belong to them.

A thief is a thief! If they remove a fish off of another persons line then they are stealing the time, energy, effort, and money invested by the person who set the lines out.

Some of these thieves may be adults chronologically, but morally they are all children.

Lost 4 trot lines today and 6 jugs only been out 12 hours so now i have to find out where the bass guys are fishing and avoid em they were all cut and jug were no were to be found

Think Id be makin some more and puttin in the same place and doin me a little huntin with a video camera of course, but your dealin with thieves so a gun for personal protection mite be advisable mite even call game warden and tell him whats goin on to see if he d like to ride along

Yep Sounds like a good idea. Otherwise, they'll just cruise the lake looking for more lines to steal; yours and everybody else. Now's the time to catch them in the act. "Bait 'em up!"

make no mistake about it ... there is a growing number of so called catmen that hate any kind of set line just as bad as bassers do ... a few even frequent this board