Jugging with live bait?

Any of you jug fish with live minnows, bluegill, shad and etc?

Yeah I’ll try it from time to time. Live minnows seem to catch a lot of Crappie though.

I don’t do it anymore but I did for a few years, I always used live perch and if I couldn’t come up with that I would use cut buffalo. Seemed to work good..

I tried it all back 20 years ago when I jug fished and except for flatheads, I could out catch live bait with cut bait every time. To each their own but trying to keep bait alive is just another of the many problems encountered while fishing.

[quote][/quote]In early spring I use limb lines some with black saltys.

I have used whole sunfish and Warmouths with pretty good success. Caught 3 Ops over 20lb on one trip and several good 5-10lb Ops. Whole crawfish work good too.

Sure. If it’s available and want to. All works at times.

My buddies and I never jug fish without bluegill and shad.

I’ll fish with whatever bait I can catch. Cut bait them when they die. Back in the day we would start limb lining with hot dog weenies to get started and then use the cut rib cages off filleted fish after the first run. This was when we didn’t have time to catch bait.

HHHMMM- crappie jugging. I may have to try some jugging

Jugging for anything other than non-gamefish and catfish is illegal.

Willie, I use live perch on the TN River.

Some anglers swear by bullheads, especially when limb-line fishing for flatheads.

Bullheads, small carp (under 2lbs), and bluegill are all good baits, the issue is finding them

I prefer to use cut bait on jugs and live bait on rods. Live bait catches too many fish that are not catfish, and I prefer to keep those, which is legal on rods, but not on jugs.

So, I may try some jugging for catfish. I have some questions. I have YouTubed it, but it didn't explain it much.


I know I need line, jugs, bait and hooks.

Do I need some sort of weight at the bottom?. Maybe a brick?

I let mine float around till they get to really shallow water.
I use bolts on them as they are cheaper than an equivalent lead weight. About 1 oz.

I am going to put some jugs together this week and give it a try. they can float and do their thing while I go crappie fish

That place we weren’t able to go far enough south to is perfect for that and/or a trotline in the timber while you run the boat around looking for other fish