I will be going out fishing tomorrow and wanted to see what kind of advice I could get on juglines. As in how often you check them, kinds of baits, depth levels, weight.
I have already made about 10 jugs. I have put 20 ft of line on them. This will be my first time running jugs.

Man o man that's a big question. You'll find loads of tips on jugs by searching in this forum. Just type in jugs on the search engine and hang on.

I run jugs mostly at nite. I like to throw them out at dark and gather them up the next morning...(lazy way) Some folks like to throw them out and fish with them as they drift. I always anchor mine with a 12 oz weight so they will be in the same area in the morning.

We run ours once in the morning, and once in the afternoo, usualy around 4 or 5pm. We have actualy found over the years that the noon hour produces just about as good as all night does.

matt

12 oz weight? My bait would drag that off! LOL

Seriously though, the bigger the bait the better. Free floating ones are fun but more work.

Try different depths Etc. You will NEVER make a line too strong, I promise. And it's very hard to get hooks that are too strong, but we could fight about hooks all week on this thread.

+1 on the strong line & strong hooks ... overkill is good ... it's far better to have it & not need it than to need it & not have it when it comes to good quality strong fishin' line & hooks

I prefer the free floating method myself unless you're going to leave them out overnight. I like to put mine out early in the morning with goldfish. I fish in a pretty shallow lake(J. B. Thomas) so my jugs have 6 foot leaders on them with 2 hooks about 2 feet apart from the bottom. Stab a goldfish, drop 'er in, and hold on for the fight!

I agree with BigCat, that is a very small weight. All of my weights are around 8-10lbs. If you were to leave a jug overnight and catch a good fish there is no telling where your jug would end up. As for the type of bait, whatever you can get your hands on right know. It is very hard to catch bait with the water temperatures but try your best. I have done very well with cut bait (shad, carp, or sun perch) and will argue that it out fishes live bait any time. Good luck and let us see some pictures.

The biggest thing I have learned about jugs is that no one does it the same and that I am constantly changing my set up. Each time i change it I am convinved that i have perfected the mousetrap but then somthing else pops into my head and I tear them all down and start over. Bottem line is if you have enough bait in the right type of water you will catch fish. You will eventully find what works best for you. Personnaly, i drift mine during the warmer months and stay with them, during the colder months i anchor them.

Mudshark

I know that sounds light, and sometimes they're spread out when I start to gather em up. But it seems to work well in the lake I fish. I am starting to fish the Red River that's closer to home this year so I've made a bunch of 10 lb'ers to anchor them better.

I've had 'em drag a 5 lb away. I like to use window weights and I use 3 hooks each. there is no real wrong way. Experiment!

Again, do what you prefer to do with your jugs. If you're happy with it, that's all that matters. There are lots of good ideas on this page and I'm sure each one works best for it's purpose and fisherman.

I used 1 pound weights my first time with 6 jugs. I lost 1 completely (probably still attached to a huge 100 pound flathead in Livingston). The others were right where I left 'em, with fish on. Next time I will use a heavier weight, probably 5 pounds. I used trotlines from Academy to make the lines with a total of 4 hooks since I was in about 20 foot of water. As the weather gets cooler, I'll make some shorter jugs for shallower water and add some reflective tape.

Thanks for all the advice you all gave. I look forward to trying some of these techniques next time I go out.

Run them at least 2 times a day.
fish water about 10 feet deep.
My $.02.
Ycat