I've been doing alittle jug fishing lately, with shad and shrimp, but coming up with bare hook most of the time and just had a thought that may help keep the bait on longer. I use pieces of milk jugs punched out with a hole punch to keep my trailier hooks on my buzz baits and thought it may help to put one on after a piece of shrimp or a shad. I going to try it out this weekend and I'll let you know. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

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Gotta quit wishing, Gotta go fishing..J.Buffet..TWright

What kind of hooks are you using? For years, I used trotline hooks on my jugs, but last summer I changed over to kahle hooks and found I get a better hookup ratio. Also, chunks from big shad stay on the hook much better than a whole small shad, or half a shad. I don't like to cut up shad less than 6"-8" for baiting jugs.

jtrew - I am using a wide gap hook designed for tube/worm fishing. I'll give the Kahle hooks a try and I'll try locating some bigger shad for cut bait but that is sometimes harder than finding the catfish. Thanks for the info.

Make sure you use an offset kahle hook. Eagle Claw L142F Size 4/0 is what I sell with my juglines and what I use. Academy sells em in 5 packs but they are high $1.99 for 5

If you want 50 pack boxes give me a hollar I can save you some cash on that end.



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The Texas Catfishing Resource
Redneck's Catfish Bait Soap
Redneck's Juglines

Thanks Redneck, I'm want to order some of your jugs and bait but I've bought to many fishing toys lately so I'll have to wait till the little lady forgets about some of them. I'm going to RR this weekend so I'll try some of the offset hooks you mentioned.

I prefer to use the non-offset kahle hooks, but you can take a couple of pair of pliers and offset them yourself. I get mine for about $5 per box of 50.
I know what you mean about large shad being hard to get. Here in the Little Rock area, they are very scarce, but generally abundant about 75 miles upriver, at Dardanelle. Also, I try to keep a good supply of skipjack in the freezer. I prefer fresh bait, but when it's not available, frozen skipjack produce much better for me than frozen shad. Frozen shad have worked so poorly for me, I won't even bother trying to keep them anymore.

I am using kahle hooks and am having trouble with bare hooks as well. I think it is because I am only finding small threadfin shad and trying to use them. More than the catfish being able to strip it, I am thinking it is the yellow bass. I have caught as many yellow bass about 4 inches long as I have catfish lately. I think those little stinkers are the culprit. Being that I have only tried to jug fish twice, I may not know what I am talking about but, that is the only conclusion I have been able to come up with so far.

[This message has been edited by Bozo (edited 10-05-2003).]

Thanks everyone for the info. I have changed hooks and have caught a few more. I am now thinking it more of small fish stealing the bait than not getting the hook ups on the keepers as Bozo mentioned. I also attended Jerry Hancock's Catfish Class last week and learned a world of info on catching cats. Great class I recommend to all. Thanks Jerry.

The larger gizzard shad are tending to hang out near weeds and moss. I find weed beds and cast on the downwind side right against the weeds. I have been netting a lot of them on the calm side of bridge embankments that have smooth concrete instead of rock riprap, such as the Two-Mile Bridge at Tawakoni. Boat ramps are good also when the weather is warmer.

P.S. My wife caught a real nice 11lb.-5oz. flathead yesterday at Lavon while we were drifting using live threadfins. Put up a great fight. She had to work it under a railroad trestle to boot.