First off, I am referring to trot, limb, and jug lines and cant seem to find a forum specific to this or much info online. Hopefully no one will yell at me as I don�t have a desire to load up area lakes with these things. I have a unique situation where a buddy of mine has some property with some ponds and borders an extension off the Red River, and I have run out of ideas.

In his ponds, I am assuming there is either no catfish, or the turtles just get to the bait first. We generally catch some bream, cut em up and put them in those little rice sacks tied to the hooks (kinda like those that use panty hose with chicken in it). When we check the lines, the sacks have been torn to shreds. 99.9% sure turtles are the culprit. I suppose the only way to circumvent this is shoot all the turtles. If someone made a bait that deterred turtles, they would be rich.

On the river section, I have this odd obsession with catching one of those huge flatheads. I don�t have a desire to eat the thing, but just prove that they are there, and release it. Now is not the right time of year, but while the weather stinks, I could prepare for spring/summer. I believe flattys really only eat live bait the majority of the time, so I have been getting these bream, using a saltwater bridling needle, and zip-tieing the bream on the hooks in multiple places. I generally have an extremely heavy weight on the bottom, the hooks above leading up to a jug, and then tied to a limb. Each time we try there is no bait left. Not even the head section where I zip-tied the bream through the eyes is left. I suppose my culprit here could be turtles, gar, or raccoons.

Try not to rag on me as I wont keep a fish over 10lbs and I don't fish area lakes anymore, as we sold our boat. What do yall jug/trotline guys do? Any good reads or advice?

Thanks in advance.

well I don't quit understand what the purpose of the zip tying your bait on. just hook them through the eyes, or in the tail which ever your preference is. them zip ties are probably your problem.

To successfully run trot lines it is best to check them several times over the course of the night, and with jugs they need to be run hourly. If those ponds ever get river water in them then besides the turtles you will have issues with gar eating your catfish baits. Not many options other than staying with the lines and keeping it fresh.

I caught 99% of my flatheads growing up on the neuces river using live bait, but in the last 5 years I have caught 75% of them using fresh cut bait in lakes....don't know what the difference is but that's just my experience.....flatheads gonna be little tough right now...give em a few months and they should turn on

Fresh bait is the key cut and live both work flats are still sluggish but they are starting to feed in the river systems. The best bait for flatheads though is the bullhead. When fishing for flats and using live bait you need to allow the bait to swim/ struggle as that will provoke more strikes than making the bait immobile

You could try catfish soap bait I heard it deters turtles. I never used though try searching for it online.

Best catfish soap is zote, its avalible at most dollar stores

If you're having problems with turtles and gar my suggestion is to use live bait. Turtles and gar usually won't bother live bait and the catfish will still eat them. I run limblines with a buddy in the creeks up around where he lives. We use live perch and do very well on the channels and flathead. There aren't any blues where we fish or I suspect we'd catch those also.

Sorry just reread this post I take back my suggestion not gonna catch flat heads with soap bait lol. There is a guy that has web site called learn to catch catfish .com he has some good tips for trot, jug, and limb lines for flatheads. I think hes got videos too, should be easy to find online, good luck.

http://www.learntocatchcatfish.com/catfish-limb-lines/
Here's the info I found.

All good info. Great responses, Wow!

The key will be to get the bait to stay on. There is no gar in the ponds, but I think I need to do some turtle removal in em to stand a chance, unless that manufactured bait you speak of works.

As far as the river is concerned, I will eliminate the zip-ties and see what happens straight to the hook. Maybe I will try to bring a small live drum or carp with me next time. Still no luck with trapping or catching bullheads locally in East Dallas area........