I Swear

[Altjaeger]

If I were not so stubborn I would quit fishing, LOL. Wednesday night I stayed up until past midnight making 15 jug lines from pool noodles. I never have jug lined but thought it would be a way to catch a few catfish for the freezer.

Thursday I headed to the Brazos near Marlin SE of Waco. I loaded and launched for an overnight trip about 11:00 and arrived at my chosen campsite about 90 minutes later. Stacking some summer sausage I had bought at a small sausage on the way over on a everything bagel I had a lunch of it, some trail mix and a sparkling water.

Realizing on the way over I did not have enough salted shrimp I picked up two bags of dough balls, shad and chicken liver. After lunch I cast of and paddled upstream a 1/4 mile and then drifted 1/2 mile down dropping jugs. I baited 5 with each type of dough bait and 5 with shrimp. Then using dough bait I would paddle upstream and drift down with each bait lasting 10-15 minutes no matter what I did. Checking at dusk I had two little channel cats 6-8 inches long. All my baits were gone as were my shrimp. I rebaited all 15 jugs and headed to camp where a dinner of pinto beans, sausage and rice waited.

After dinner I Bank fished until near dark and then bathed the 100 degree day off in the river. Dressed in fresh clothes I headed to bed crashing into a solid 10 hour sleep. I guess a short nights sleep followed by about 5 miles upstream paddling will do that. :-)

The next morning I got up and checked lines. Finding no bait on them I decided to pull them until I had a tougher bait. Back at camp I had another bagel and summer sausage, mandarin oranges and trail mix washed down with hot, black coffee for brunch about 10:00. Knowing it was futile trying to keep the lines baited and having only another miserably hot day ahead I broke camp and headed home.

Time for a bait search and try again, LOL.

[Bushman]

Reminds me of the fishing trip up on the Menominee River for pike. Half way up I sheared the pin in the outboard and limped the boat into shore. I cast a Rapala from shore and got it snagged. The line broke so I figured that having a good time just wasn't in the plan for that day. A minute later the Rapala popped back up to the surface so that at least I got that back. I jury rigged a new shear pin from a fish hook and limped the boat back to the boat landing. I was just real content to have the lure that I started with back and be back to the truck. Some days are just like that.

[ncboman]

I was just real content to have the lure that I started with back and be back to the truck. Some days are just like that.

Lake Conway, Arkansas circa 1974.

a nice bass had broke my line and I was just sittin in the boat lookin ,,, :rolleyes:

then he made another jump a slung my Rapala free. :D

[Bill Gunn]

I've had some bummer days out there this year too.
I havent even been able to get out for the last 2 weeks from the wind and rain (Tornado 6 miles from the house last Saturday). :mad: :mad:

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/otherwny/story/744775.html

[dave-t.]

Try crayfish, they're a pretty hardy bait. If you're using dough balls, you almost have to go with trebble hooks. It gives the dough more to grab on to.

I don't know what size hook you were using, but if small fish are the norm, drop everything down in size until you start hooking them.

Minnows, shad, goldfish and perch also make excellent bait for set lines.

I have been on a couple trips on the Missouri River with guys that jug fish the river a lot, and they use hotdogs soaked in anise. They have caught some moster blues on them also (60+lbs), but mostly target 5-15lbs fish. Hotdogs are a pretty soft bait, so know that before starting.

Also the guys that jug fish the mighty MO usually only fish 2-4 feet deep which I thought was pretty odd for getting fish to bite, but that does help with hookset. The most force a jug can put on a fish is if the fish tries to go straight down with the bait so a shallower set may get less bites, but more hook-ups.