Jugs and Yo Yo's

[fishingfanatic14]

Anybody use jugs or noodles for catfish? Looking for a little help with it. Also has anybody run yo yo's for crappie? Need help with that too. Advice like where to put them and what bait to use. I am not looking for the biggest cat in the lake just somegood eating sized ones.

[classic242]

Back in the early 70's my brother worked for a dredging company out of Baton Rouge La. and he purchased about 3 dozen Yo Yo's and brought them home. We would tie the Yo Yo's about 2 to 3 feet from the water so as to give the spring in the Yo Yo more hooking power. We used the light setting and baited them with large crappie minnows. We would set them out in sloughs off of the main river and put them out before dark and run them most of the night. We caught more crappie than any other species of fish but we also caught bass and catfish on them as well.

My father had a pontoon boat for many years and we had a local plastic container making plant close by that we could purchase 1 pint size jugs from real cheap. My dad wore me and my brother out jugging for cat in the spring below our local lock and dam. We tied white trotline nylon line onto the jug about a 3' long line a 3/O limrick hook on the end and bait them with 2" to 3" small threadfin shad that we would catch with a throw net. In the spring when the river was up and had a good current from a good rising river we would throw out about 150 jugs and fish them all night, some weekends we would catch as much as 300 to 400 pounds of catfish. We caught them anywhere from 3 lbs. up to 25 lbs. on those pint size jugs. It just took longer for the jug to come up when you caught a bigger cat but, it would eventually come up.

[TakeSonFishing]

Pretty much the only way i cat-fish anymore is with jugs/noodles.  I made my own with foam noodles, pvc, and trotline string.  I have ended up using trebble hooks.  Started with circle hooks, etc... the trebbles just seem to work better.  I use live shad as bait.  alot of people still do good with cut shad, i just seem to catch more on live shad.  My string length depends on how deep the water im fishing is.  I like my strings about 8 feet long, and i fish in areas that are kinda flat that stay about 10' deep.  Also they are weightless.  I usually use about 15 at once.  Thats seems to be about my limit, between keeping them out of snags and wrangling caught fish, it will keep you pretty busy.  Its fun fishing, just float down the river with your pod of noodles and watch for them to tip up.