Catfish Jugs On Tr

[Ryan Ripp]

I have used jugs on Truman for blues, but never any on TR for channels or flats. Does anyone have any hints, my sons and i will be setting jugs in the Cricket Creek/Long Creek area.

[hunter_3780]

We had been setting trotlines in that area up until last week and doing real well on the flatheads but last weekend they pretty well shut off. We think they have went on beds. Some friends of mine up around cape fair set 90 hooks in the water last night and only had 2 4 pounders. My suggestion would be to target channels off of flat pea gravel banks. Or wait about 2 to 3 weeks and target flatheads on steeper chunk rock banks or anything with ledges In the 6-15 foot range.

[hunter_3780]

Here is a few pics of the bigger ones we have caught over the last few weeks.

[hunter_3780]

[blue79]

Nice!!

[Bill Babler]

Great Report. I have been seeing lots of jugs and lots of foam tubes floating at Baxter. Most look to be about 4 ft. in depth. I have seen 3 being towed around by huge Gar. I'm thinking they were not the intended targets.

[Dylan Cluver]

I have been interested in doing this in the IP area, just wondering if you have problems catching turtles?

[bfishn]

Turtles no, gar yes. I've caught some nice kittys on jugs there, but it's often 2 to 1 gar. That said, you need to stay with your jugs on the Rock, cats stay put pretty well, but you may have to search a couples miles to catch up with a gar with a head start.

[stuartsx5]

Does anyone anchor their jugs on TR or is that not a good idea? I have never jug fished on TR and my experience is limited with jugs in general. I have been anchoring mine at Pomme and leaving them overnight. Don't think I can get my wife interested if we are just settin there watching jugs. Will be fishing out of the Mill Creek campground.

[bfishn]

I weight mine, but I don't anchor them. I tie a rock to the end of the drop, just big enough to make it stand up. Tie your hook on a one foot tag line about 2 feet up. Set the depth to the rock about 6-8' (until it gets really hot, then 12-15'). Drop 'em so they'll drift into a point or dropoff. When the rock touches bottom, the jug stays fishing in the good spot.

Rather than just watching your jugs, rod and reel fish in the same area. Quite often one method will tell you what to do with the other. I used jugs to learn where to fish. Now that I know, it's way more fun to rod-n-reel 'em.