Jugging For Catchfish-Ever Tried WD-40?

As summer approaches I get the urge to do some jug fishing for catfish, as my wife loves to eat catfish more than any other kind of fish. And since she's the boss, well thats what I let her think,
I kind of feel obligated to do some jug fishing. Now most of you guys know that the dog house can
be a little uncomfortable in the summer with no A/C, so we tend to avoid the dog house. Ha! I think you all get the picture,and the point.

Jugging for catfish is not exactly the lazy mans sport, as it can sometimes work you to death. I mean catching the bait can be a lot of work. Have you ever tried to throw a shad net? I remember the first time my friend Leo and I decided to catch some shad with a shad net. We spent the better party of 2 hrs trying to throw the durned thing. Aside from the fact we kept getting it tangled on the tie downs on the boat, the steering wheel, the trolling motor, fishing lures and well you name it. Finally we caught a few dozen of shad which by the time we got them caught and arrived at the spot we wanted to set out the jugs, had died or were in the process of dieing.

Well I think enough said on catching shad. We soon discovered that there was other bait that worked just as well. We had made a pretty unique discovery that not all bait was hard to catch. I told Leo about something I had heard and we went to the grocery store and found some live bait that just wouldn't quit. We bought several packages and then went back to the lake to try our luck.

Now many of the locals around this part of the country already Know this little secret, but I will share this little tip with you right here and now. Hot dogs and little smokies in our area lakes are killer catfish bait. Not hard to catch and if the catfish aren't biting and you get hungry,well you know the rest of that story.

I am not going to bore you with details on equipment here, its really pretty much common sense. Bleach bottles, milk jugs, tubes, are all good for jugging. I usually tie on about 30 foot of some good trot line type line and what ever kind of hooks I can find. Now 1 hot dog makes about 3 baits and a little smokie is about the right size . Now you can adjust the depth of your bait to the conditions.

On most of our Missouri lakes you have to be within talking distance of your jugs and each jug has to have your name and address on them. But if the bass are not biting and you are jugging then it doesn't matter if you have to sit there and watch your jugs. You usually don't sit too long anyways and the action keeps you pretty busy. I only have a couple of dozen jugs and usually by the time I get them all out I already have several jugs a bouncin or running off down the lake.

If you have never tried to jug fish for catfish , you should at least try it once. I have always said you can't really say you don't like something until you have tried it at least once. I like to jug fish just to break the monotony of a day of bass fishing , usually in the afternoon after lunch for a couple of hours. It usually doesn't take that long to catch your limit of catfish if they are biting.

So again hope you learned something here , oh yeah , I almost forgot. The next time your jug fishing, squirt a little WD- 40 on your bait. WHAT? Yeah WD-40! It does work . If you don,t believe me try it. You might be surprised at the results. My dad laughed when I told Him but the picture above is A blue cat that was actually caught on a little smokie covered with WD-40 after about 2 minutes. I bet you can't find that on the recommended uses for WD-40 on the list of uses.

Anyway enough of that , I hope everyone reading this has enjoyed this article, and until next time, Enjoy the "Great Outdoors" See you out there! Also keep your hooks wet! If you noticed in the picture above a big bluecat caught on WD-40 doused little smokie made my wife extremely happy which saved me from being in "the dog house"