by Jack Spaulding
Outdoors WriterCircle hooks on jugs make for a busy day fishingA recent Sunday afternoon posed the perfect time to kick back with some lazy fishing. It didn’t take long to map out a plan with my brother-in-law, John Malady from Lafayette.
With the thermometer climbing to 90 F, it was just too hot to get real serious about fishing. We discussed the prospects and decided to fish the shade and catch a mess of bluegill for John to take home. As an afterthought, I threw in six jugs to take along, thinking it would be fun if we were lucky enough to catch a channel catfish or two.
Once lakeside, the first order of the day was to throw out the jugs. With the wind sometimes blowing from different directions, it wouldn’t take long for the jugs to disperse across the pond. All we had to do was bait them up and pitch them out. Jugging has been described as the absolute laziest method of fishing known to mankind. On a day like today … my kind of fishing!
I use half-gallon plastic milk jugs. They are perfect for jugging; no breakage and you can tie the line to the handle and store the line and hook inside the jug when they are not being used.
As I pulled out the first line, I asked John, “You ever use a circle hook?”
Dangling from the end of the 4-feet of line was a Diachi 3-0 circle hook. As he shook his head “no,” I couldn’t help but notice his look of skepticism.
I had the same look when I was first shown a circle hook by my good friend, T.J. Stallings. T.J. works for TTI-Blakemore and has the demanding job of representing several major tackle lines. In short, T.J. talks about fishing equipment and fishes for a living, and he is good at both aspects of the job.
To quote T.J., “You don’t set a circle hook. Once the fish takes the bait in its mouth, the hook will start to pull out and just steady pressure will catch in the corner of the fish’s mouth. They are perfect for kids just learning to fish.”
Baiting the last of the jugs with my secret catfish bait, we tossed it into the lake and began to gather up our tackle and head for the boat. As I bent over to pick up my tackle bag and rods, I heard John say, “We’ve got a bite on one of the jugs … no … we’ve got a bite on two of the jugs! Another one’s taking off … there goes number four!!”
In less than 10 minutes, we had fish on all six jugs, and it was an all out race to get the boat in the water.
I manned the oars while John pointed the direction. The farthest jug was almost out of sight, and we headed for it first.
When I had told John we were going to jug fish, he reached into his pickup truck’s covered bed and pulled out the perfect accessory. It was a long pole with a hook on the end he uses to reach his tool box in the back of his covered pickup bed. Perfect for hooking milk jugs!
We quickly closed the distance on the first jug, and I spun the boat around and began to back the boat toward the jug. John reached out with the long pole and prepared to hook the handle of the jug.
With a whoop and a lot of splashing, a 22-inch channel cat came up over the side and was flopping on the floor of the boat. As John put some water in a 5-gallon bucket and unhooked the first fish, I headed toward jug Number 2.
As I rowed, John rebaited the hook and pitched the jug over the side.
When we pulled up alongside and hooked out Jug Number 2, it produced a second nice channel cat. On to Number 3 and a nice yellowbelly catfish; Number 4 with another keeper channel; Number 5 with another big yellowbelly; and Number 6 held a small channel cat we threw back.
Just like T.J. said, every fish was firmly hooked in the corner of the mouth.
With the flurry of the first round over, I asked John if he was ready to try some bluegill fishing. Baiting up, and picking a shaded cove, we had just started working the baits along the bank when I heard John say, “We got another jug going … no, we’ve got two … nope … we’ve got three with fish on.
Sure enough, in the distance we could see three jugs jerking and bobbing as they were being pulled across the lake. Pulling anchor, I set my back to the oars and headed for the farthest jug. The supposed lazy method of fishing was proving to be a lot of hard work. Rowing the boat back and forth across the lake in the sweltering heat was almost more than I had bargained for, but it sure was fun.
After four hours and what seemed about 40 miles of rowing, we had a 5-gallon bucket full of catfish and a grand total of three bluegills. Sun burnt, thirsty and worn out, we pulled in the last of the jugs, packed up the tackle, loaded the fish and headed for home. For what was meant to be lazy fishing, the day turned out to be the most demanding day of the whole summer!
As for the identity of my top secret catfish bait … I buy eight prepackaged sticks for about one dollar a pack. It’s available at your local grocery store and is sold under the name of “hot dogs.” Yep, channel cats and yellowbelly cats do love a chunk of cheap hot dog.
If you plan on trying jug fishing or trot lining, be sure to check DNR fishing regulations if you are headed for state-owned waters. State-owned waters include all reservoirs, rivers, streams and some lakes. There is no limit to the number of jugs, limb lines or trot line hooks used on private water.
till next time,
Jack Spaulding is a state outdoors writer and a consumer of RushShelby Energy from Milroy. Readers with questions or comments can write to him in care of Electric Consumer, P.O. Box 24517, Indianapolis, IN 46224; or e-mail jackspaulding@hughes.net.Fishing photo ©Jupiterimages Corporation
Circle hook photo courtesy of TTI Blakemore