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!

The Deep Catfish Rig

You can get real fancy with some of the rigs out there, but I have found that using a good sturdy weight, and attaching it to the end of the line, instead of the hook on the end of the line, works out much better as far as avoiding snags goes. So take a good one ounce or so weight, tie it on to the end of the line with a palomar knot, and the tie on your hook about 12-18 inches up from the end of the line.

At this height, tie a dropper loop into the line to hold your hook and leader line. You can use a wired leader to keep the line attaching to your hook from getting wrapped around the line that attaches to your weight if you wish.

If you are fishing with shad or perch catfish bait and are looking for big catfish, use an 8/0 or 9/0 circle hook. You’ll find that the hook setting is a lot better and the fish will be less likely to straighten or otherwise escape you once it has been hooked.

If you are using chicken livers, worms, or dip baits and going after smaller channels or other catfish, then you can use a smaller hook, a number 2 all the way up to a 2/0 would be sufficient for this case.

The Shallow Catfish Rig

If you are looking to fish shallow, get some good catfish bobbers, put a bobber stop 2 to 3 feet from the hook (or however deep you are wanting to fish), just above the bobber itself, and then add a split shot or two between the bobber and hook, and follow the same guidelines as above for which hook to use depending on the bait and desired catfish types and sizes you are wanting to catch.

The Palomar Knot

In my opinion, this is the best knot available for attaching a hook, weight, etc. to the end of the line. It is simple to tie, and seldom ever has a problem with being pulled loose. Generally speaking, you’ll snap the line before this knots unravels.

Here’s a video to show you exactly how to tie the palomar knot.

The Dropper Loop

When you are looking to tie on a hook or weight above the end of the line, you’ll need some kind of loop in the line to attach to. The dropper loop is a great way to create this loop to tie to. Here’s a video to show you exactly how to tie it.

So that’s it. Again, you really don’t need complicated catfish rigs to get the job done. Just a simple weight and/or bobber with a sturdy hook and the right catfish bait, and you are good to go. So go out there and catch fish!

Using the Right Catfish Bait

So once you have located the fish, now it is time to bait them up. Selecting the right catfish bait is really not that difficult. If you are fishing for larger catfish, use shad or perch. If you really want to go after large flathead (yellow) catfish, then use live perch, and drift fish or setup on the bottom. If you want to catch the big blue catfish, use live shad wherever possible.

I’ll note that live shad and live perch are difficult to keep alive for long periods of time, so you’ll be changing out your bait frequently. But no problem, just keep the bait that dies, you can re-use it later as cut bait, or just slice it open and let the blood and guts put the scent in the water to draw in the big fish.

Now, if you are looking for fast action, or don’t mind pulling in the smaller fish, use the other catfish baits. The two baits that I have found to be extremely effective are chicken livers and blood bait. They are soft baits, and provide a lot of scent in the water. As they sit on the bottom, the blood and perhaps small pieces of the bait will break off, and provide a sort of “trail” in the water that catfish can follow to draw them to your hook.

Some Gear Suggestions for How to Catch Catfish

No fishing guide is complete without gear recommendations. My recommendations are simple, get you a good medium to heavy weight rod, get a spinning or bait casting reel with a large spool that is capable of handling a lot of line, say 250-300 yards at least. If you do find yourself fighting a huge catfish, you don’t want him to pull you down to the knot, and snap the line. Reels that can hold 500 yards or more of line are great to have on board.

Lastly are hooks. Probably the best hooks to use are larger circle hooks, and treble hooks. I prefer the circle hook myself, just because it does a great job of hooking the fish, and you don’t have to deal with getting 2 or 3 barbs out of the fish. But treble hooks have a purpose, especially if you are fishing with chicken livers, blood baits, or dip baits, they can really help to keep the bait on the hook, and they will hook a catfish.

Until next time, go out there, catch some fish, then come back here and post your comments and feed back on how this website has helped you to catch more and bigger fish!

I have personally seen a jug a line where a large catfish straightened an Eagle Claw 9/0 circle hook (that’s a pretty big hook). It was our estimation that the fish was at least 40 to 50 pounds to be able to straighten a hook of that size. How did we do it? Let’s take a look at some of these catfishing tips.

Jug Fishing

Probably the premier way to go catfishing, when you set a couple of dozen jug lines out for catfish, you stand a very good chance of catching fish. Use live or dead shad or perch when you are fishing this method, as the larger catfish tend to hit this bait a lot more often.

In general, the larger the bait the better. We often use shad that in the 5 to 6 inch long range, and perch that are about that same size. And trust me when I say that a 10 pound catfish can take a 6 inch perch without any problems at all.

Drift Fishing

This is another good way to go when you are seeking the larger catfish. In this scenario, I recommend that you use live bait wherever possible. Live shad tend to die quickly, and if you are fishing with shad, just make sure to change them out often. A good live perch will do well in this type of environment.

Get you a good, solid, heavy weight and secure it to the end of your line. The tie on a hook about 2 to 3 feet above the weight. This will keep the live perch or shad off the bottom, but close enough to the bottom to be swimming right in front of the face of the catfish.

Try to drift across bottom structure changes like drop off points and old river beds. Anywhere the habitat changes considerably is a good potential spot to find fish.

Set It and Forget It

The traditional way to rod and reel for catfish. In this case you will find a good spot to throw your line in, and you will setup in one spot, and let your bait sit on the bottom, or under a cork until something comes through to grab it. If you are really want to catch fish quickly, use catfish bait like chicken livers or blood bait to stir up the catfish quickly.

These types of bait will tend to yield smaller fish than using shad or perch, but the action will be faster. For the most part, any area that is populated with fish will have more smaller fish than it will big fish. But don’t think you’ll only catch fry sized catfish on livers and blood bait. I was on a retreat recently and caught a nice 3 pound catfish on a chicken liver. It put up 4 or 5 runs on me before I got it in. It was an exciting fight.

Good areas to setup include stump filled areas, drop off points, edges of bulrushes, underneath or beside fallen tree limbs, rocks, and other places where the bottom structure changes or where currents break. Set your bait on the bottom, and wait for the fish to come in.

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.

How to Rig Up for Jug Fishing

The basic components to jug fishing are a large jug or float, some twine, a hook, and some weights. What we do is take a one quart square jug and attach about 6 feet of rope to it. We use the rope to secure the jug to a stump or other fix object in the water. Then we take about 2 to 3 feet of heavy twine and attach it to the jug. After this, we attach a large barrel swivel to the end of the twine.

Next we attach another one foot of twine to the barrel swivel, and finally attach the hook to the end of that twine. The hooks we use are large circle hooks, which work very well to automatically set the hook on a fish, and keep them hooked.

Lastly, the catfish bait. We typically use 5 to 6 inch dead shad or a live perch for catching catfish. Shad are the primary food source for blue catfish, while yellow catfish tend to like perch better. However, blue catfish will hit perch as well. Most of catch usually consists of blue catfish, but I like yellow catfish to eat better.

When we prepare the live perch, often we will do a 2/3 fillet of one side of the perch, just to get some blood and scent in the water. This helps to bring in the fish, and still keeps the perch alive for a while.

Another method for jug fishing is to prepare the deep line. In this instance, you can use a heavy leader line, and tie off a large 1 or 2 pound weight to the bottom. Then attach a hook about 2 to 3 feet up from the bottom, and tie on your hook. This will keep the bait from being right on the bottom, but will still be in easy reach of a hungry catfish.

So that’s jug fishing for you. What it is, some of its methods, and most importantly, how to rig up for jug fishing. So drop me a comment at the bottom if you have any questions or ideas…

The Crappie Jig

By far the most widely used and effective crappie lure, the crappie jig is a small chenille, hair, tinsel, or feather crafting attached to a 1/16 or 1/32 ounce painted or unpainted jig head. Often couple by a skirt of the same material, the crappie jig has been proven to catch fish over time.

The marabou jig has been the most effective jig over time. Behind it, the curly tail and rooster tail jig have been effective as well. I like using white colors the best with my crappie lures, but using chartreuse, yellow and green also work well in clear waters. If you find yourself in murky water, go for darker versions of purple, black, orange and green.

Soft Plastic Crappie Lures

A small, soft plastic lure of less than 3 inches long on a 1/8 ounce or smaller jig head is probably the second best crappie lure to throw. Stick to grubs, small worms, sassy shads, bassassins or other shad-like body styles for plastic baits. Again, I like white, but other colors like yellow, green, chartreuse, and black will work as well.

Crappie Spinnerbaits

You can also use small straight shaft or bent shaft spinnerbaits as well. Stick to small, single blade spinnerbaits with a small jig or worm. Again, stick to the basic colors mentioned above.

Crankbaits for Crappie

If you think the crappie are running deep, you can throw a small shad style or minnow style crankbait at them. Something like a 2 inch Rapala minnow or shap rap will work great with a deep running lip. Stick to basic colors like white, green, and natural shad or minnow coloring.

Crappie Flies

For the fly fisherman, you can do really well with crappie flies. Some of the better flies for crappie fishing are Crappie Candy, Clousers Or Minnow Imitations. They come in a variety of colors and styles, so just stick to good basic water color and time of year colors (as I talked about above) and you’ll do very well with these crappie lures.

Those are the exact questions to ask, and the reason for this post. Schooling bass (sometimes called schoolies), are usually found during the late summer to early fall months on large lakes or reservoirs. These bass are typically young, and thus smaller, perhaps only a pound or two each.

The situation normally occurs when very large schools of shad follow plankton around the lake, feeding on it. The schooling bass will pin them to the surface of the water, and then viciously attack. So spotting them can often be easy. Just look for areas where the shad are jumping out of the water, being hit by bass. We usually refer to this as “boiling water”. You can sometimes spot this from afar by using binoculars or looking for birds diving and hitting the top of the water in a particular area.

What To Do When You Spot The Schooling Bass

This feeding frenzy will likely not last very long, however. So we you see it, immediately drop your current fishing spot, and get to that area as fast as possible. Cut the boat more short of the area, and allow your momentum and/or your trolling motor to get you close to the fish. This will ensure that you do not spook the fish. Begin casting as soon as you are within range. I prefer to cast behind the boiling water, and retrieve back into it, as to not scare the fish. But experiment, you may find that the bass respond best when you drop your line right on the top of them!

Smart anglers will have an additional rod and reel rigged up with a short diving, natural looking shad crankbait, or other shad like lure. Having this on hand will prepare you for the schooling fish, and you’ll be able to maximize your catch, since the boiling water will not last that long. I hope you got something out of this article, and if you did, would you leave me a comment in the box below? Thanks, and we’ll see you next time on HiddenFishingTips.com.

Crankbaits Make, Size and Shape

Crankbaits tend to be short, wide and have a violent wobble. Their main bodies are made of either cedar or balsa wood, or of hard or foamed plastic. Crankbaits will have a lip, and the length, width and angle of that lip will determine how deep the crankbait will swim. Crankbait depths can be as little as 1-2 feet for shallow crankbaits, all the way up to 20 feet in some cases. Generally, bass fisherman like to use crankbaits that are 2 to 4 inches in length. In this regard, I am very similar, my favorite crankbaits are about 2 to 3 inches in length.

The standard crankbait will float on top of the water, and then dive as you begin to retrieve. Retrieve fast will cause the crankbait to dive to its lowest depth, while a slow retrieve will run the crankbait at a higher depth. However, some crankbaits are made to sink, and some, like the Bomber I talked you about above, are suspending, and therefore offer a great opportunity for stop and start retrieves, maintaining a certain desired depth.

Crankbait Color

Lure color always seems to be a heated debate amongst anglers. The color of the crainkbait that works the best on one day, may not work as well on another day. But for simplicity’s sake, when you are fishing clear water, natural or medium colored crankbaits will tend to work better. But if you are in murky water, brighter, or more vibrant colors will typically produce better results.

My favorite crankbait colors for catching bass are white and white with a splash of dark yellow. I generally fish lakes that have fairly clear water, and these lures are pretty natural in their appearance. I have had the most success fishing with white crankbaits that dive to 4 to 12 feet deep. Again, you need know what areas and depths you are fishing, in addition to know the temperature of the water, so that you can have an idea of where the fish will be, and at what depth they will be.

To sum it up, crankbaits are a great way to cover a lot of water in a very short period of time. They are used by many, many anglers including professionals, and have yielded some very nice catches. Crankbaits are simple because you don’t need any weights or complicated rigging, just tie them on to the end of your line, cast, and retrieve. Often, there isn’t any need for complicated retrieve, just simply cast, and retrieve at a set pace for the desired depth of the crankbait. And just to reiterate, I have probably caught more fish on crankbaits than any other type of lure…