1. Get the Right Catfish Jugging Gear

So if you want to go catfish jugging like me, go out and get you some one quart, square jugs from your local outdoor store. While you’re there, pick up some heavy twine, some large barrel swivels, and some 9/0 hooks. I know that sounds like a large hook, and it is, but you are going to be going after the larger fish (just wait a minute and I’ll explain).

2. Get the Right Catfish Jugging Bait

The best catfish bait for getting the large fish is shad or perch. I have had success with both. But I tend to lean more toward perch, as I have just seen some great results fishing with this bait. So I’ll go out and catch the perch alive, take a fillet knife, and cut 2/3 of a fillet down only one side of the perch.

This will get the bait bleeding, but yet it is still alive. Sometimes I will leave a fresh, live perch on the line, after I have done the 2/3 fillet on some of them. This combines scent with live bait in the water. And let me tell you, when you have a dozen or two lines out there, with some blood and live perch, you are setting yourself up for success.

3. Find the Right Catfish Jugging Locations

Along with getting the right gear, and the right bait, you need to find the right locations. The best locations are within a set of stumps, along the edge of a drop off point or an old river bed within a lake. Catfish tend to like soft, sandy or muddy bottoms as opposed to rock bottoms, but they do like to scavenge around cover areas or large rocks, etc.

One other thing you can do is consult a topographical map of the area you are fishing and look for spots that are known to be good catfishing spots.

4. Go Catfish Jugging

Once you have the right gear, bait, and scoped out your locations, it’s time to go get ‘em. Get out there in a good aluminum or flat bottom boat that you don’t mind getting beat up a bit, troll through the stump areas, set your jug lines, and tie them off to the stumps.

Get your jug lines set in order, so you can easily come back through and check them later. Then go back to shore, wait a couple of hours, and come back and check / re-bait the lines. Trust me, it works!

Live or Dead Shad

Shad are staple for channel and yellow (flathead) catfish, but are especially enjoyed by blue catfish. Often, shad are plenty in the lakes and river systems, and can either be caught by a cast net, or purchased at any bait stand near the body of water you are fishing.

Shad are extremely difficult to keep alive, but if you can keep them alive, use them as live bait. Hook them either in the tail or through the upper and lower lip, and fish them just above the bottom. You can rig up with a large weight on the end of the line, then tie on your hook a couple of feet above the weight. This will keep your bait off the bottom, and from escaping into protective cover areas.

My experience has mostly been with dead shad, which is still an extremely excellent bait choice. I usually go for shad that are are 5 to 6 inches long, and hook them once in the head region, and again in the body region with a good circle or wide gap hook.

Cutting up your shad is also a viable option, and will produce a greater amount of scent in the water. However, the bigger the bait, the bigger the fish, and with using whole shad in the 5 to 6 inch range, I generally pull in catfish that are greater than 3 pounds, and often in the 5 to 20 pound range.

Live or Dead Perch

Another excellent bait choice for all catfish, but perch are especially prized of the yellow catfish. Yellow catfish are my favorite to eat, and thus I am partial to using perch. As with shad, perch are hard to keep alive, but if you are rod and reel fishing, you may fish a live perch as long as the perch will stay alive. When I go jug fishing, often I will do a 2/3 fillet of one side of the perch, to get some blood and scent in the water, and put it on a sturdy circle hook about 3 to 4 below the water’s surface. Then I might leave a handful of the perch alive, and wait for the fish.

Blood Bait

Catfish blood bait is yet another good choice. This bait can be used in smaller chunks, and is very effective at landing smaller channel catfish and blue catfish. This isn’t to say you can’t catch a big catfish with this bait, but merely that it is more effective at landing the smaller fish.

Focus on blood bait that has a fairly strong consistency, and thus will stay on the hook for a longer period of time. Good blood bait will crumble and break down over time, and you want this to happen. Because when it starts to break down, those pieces of blood bait flow with the current, and leave a trail that leads to your hook.

I have caught many small channels and blue catfish with blood bait. Channel and blue catfish in the 1 to 5 pound range are very common catches with this type of catfish bait.

That’s it for today, stay tuned for tomorrow when I reveal more great catfish bait that you can use to greatly increase your chances of landing some great catfish.

Professional bass fisherman have the experience and arsenal to be able to hunt down and catch bass based on a myriad of factors. It is those factors that determine what type of lure you should be using. Don’t just try one and forget the rest, use this systematic approach to selecting the best bass lure for the day you are fishing.

Know the Depth of the Water You Are Fishing

Perhaps the single most important factor when selecting the right lure, you need to understand what the depths of the areas you are fishing really are. If possible, use a depth finder or fish finder to help you to know how deep you are fishing. For water less than 10 feet deep, you’ll probably be looking at topwater fishing plugs, spinnerbaits, shallow or floating worms, or shallow running crankbaits. For depths greater than 10 feet, use heavily weighted worms, deep running crankbaits, or heavy spinnerbaits.

Check the Water Temperature

As previously noted, bass  prefer water temperatures around 68 to 80 degrees Farenheit. This is when bass activity will be the highest, and you will be able to use larger baits with faster retrieves. A 7 or 8 inch worm will work better in this temperature range than a shorter worm. But in cooler temperatures, you’ll want to use a shorter worm (maybe 4 to 5 inches) with a slow retrieve, perhaps just dragging the bottom.

Work the Cover Areas

Largemouth bass love covered areas. Places where there is submerged tree branches, bulrushes, or man made objects like docks, etc. are great places to find bass. In deep cover areas, consider using a Texas rig with a worm, ensuring a weedless setup, and work your way through the weeds. Other weedless lures like weedless spoons and weedless spinnerbaits can pay good dividends in these heavy cover areas. In light cover areas, you can look to open spinnerbaits, buzz baits, and crankbaits for catching bass. Just be sure to work the edges of the cover, preferably on the shade side, as bass love the shade.

Be Mindful of the Water Clarity

When fishing bright areas of clear water, consider using natural colors over darker colors. There is an exception here, as purple and black colored worms seem to work well in most waters, regardless of clarity. For dirty or murky water, use fluorescents like yellow, chartreuse, pumpkin and orange to get better results. When light levels are low, darker colors will generally outperform lighter colors.

So to reiterate, there isn’t any one best bass lure, or “super” lure. Selecting the right lure for the job depends on the day, the water depth, temperature, color and amount of cover that you will be fishing. Be mindful of these, selecting the appropriate lure, and you chances will increase greatly.