Limb line throw line question

I’m new to TFF, hopefully I’m posting this in the right forum. Trying to figure out either what I am doing wrong or maybe this is just how it goes.

I bought some of the pool noodle flagging jug lines the other day and we used them a little on the lake yesterday, and later we went to a creek to fish some and struck out. I have caught channel cats there before though. Since we struck out I thought I would take the noodles and use them there overnight. So I tied each of the 3 noodles to about 20 ft of twine to trees or roots or whatever I could find and then tossed them out into the creek. So each of them is the 20ft tied to something on the shore, then on the other end, say 10ft of twine to an egg sinker then a swivel the 50lb mono line and either a 5/0 or 6/0 circle hook with cut shad on it and some had live shad.

I set them out at 7pm last night and then this morning at 7am, all I have is bare hooks. So I went back at 4pm today and added 2 hooks to 2 of them so now I have 7 hooks in the water. 90 mins later 4 empty hooks, an hour after that, the other 3 hooks are empty too. So after 2.5 hours, all my hooks were empty.

Is this just what happens and it’s normal?
Turtles or other fish eating the shad off? Cats eating them but then getting off the hooks? (I know no way to tell)
Am I using the wrong hooks for this?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Welcome to the forum!

Seems like you already know the answer with the turtles!
If possible, you might try a different spot or try different baits.

Thanks Jimbo. That’s good to know, glad it’s not just that I’m doing it wrong. I forgot and then remembered that I actually had one hook left with bait on it so I checked it early this morning and there was a 1.5 lb channel cat on it.

Different spot is a little harder, since this one is so close to home and a quick 5 min drive over there, but it may come to that. I have never had any luck with the prepared baits fishing, but maybe they would work on the lines.

Question for Jimbo or anyone with more experience running lines than me:


Is it pretty much a numbers game? If I used 4 lines with the 5 hook limit on them, should I just expect maybe 2 or 3 fish from the 20 hooks and the rest of the baits to just be turtle or maybe gar food?

First off, shad does not work for me, period. I might suggest targetting certain types of Cats with my "Lynn's Catfish Calendar" (see the thread by that title). It is for Yellows & Blues, Gator Gars, and there may be a hint at Channels.

Thanks Lynn!

I’ll check it out!

We have a lot more turtles stealing bait in water temps over 75 deg F.

Cut shad stays on the hook longest for us, and we catch lots of fish with it in waters where shad are a dominant forage species.

Smaller catfish often have trouble getting 5/0 and 6/0 circle hooks in their mouths. For 1-2 lb fish, I prefer 2/0 or 3/0 offset J hooks.