I found some twine on clearance at walmart the other day and now I am dreamin and skeamin. I've done all three but limblinning is my favorite. I guess cause the little river I do most of my fishing on just has too many swimmers in it for trotlinning and a little too swift to free float jugs. But I'm trying to figure out a way to rig up a limbline to where when a cat hits it will peel off a few feet of line and a jug. Then we can chase the jug down. Any ideals? Or just tell what you like to do.
R H Why even worry about jugs if you can use limb lines or poles?They are by far the best and you don't have to chase them They use jugs on lakes and ponds here and let the wind drift them.I like limb lines and poles because you can set in the best spots and the bait stays there,also you don't have to wory about them balling up in roots and brush giving the fish a chance to twist off Lots of sweet dreams and good fishing :dance: MR Wanda Mike
Wanda, there has been lots of times when I would find what looks like a very promising site to catch a big wisker but there are no good limbs to tie a line to, or maybe it is a bare bank right next to a huge brush pile in the water. What I have been trying to figure out is how to stab a pvc pole in the ground nearby to use as a limb, but I have this fear of the ole big wiskers pulling the pole out of the ground. So I was thinking maybe I could tie a short piece of line with a jug on the pole to where it would strip the line and jug off the pole easily. We always stay up most of the night and keep rechecking our baited limbs and replace or remove as needed. But thought it would be nice if we could do a little jug chasing also. The river I fish on has a lot of swimmers and canoers during the day time so we have to remove all line and hooks at sunrise.
r.h. son!son!son! Around here we can't free float Jugs,so we tie a weight on the end come on up tie a hook,come on up tie another hook,then tie our Jug on. You can take either a limber Bamboo,or Willow shove it in the bank tie a Line on that. big rockpile
R.H. nOT A PROBLEM If you have a good limber pole it is virtualy imposable for a fish to pull it out.If needed (seldom) you could drive a small piece of rebar beside the pole and atatch with wire or tape.If its a little shaky I have used rocks around the base of the pole The upstream side of those roots is what I dream of, flathead heven :dance: I find a big root ta fasten the pole to or shove the pole base at an angle into the root wad itself!!!If there is mutch water I will make 3 sets on these root balls Don't underestimate the power of a good springy pole it is like a good flyrod if it can make a smooth arch it will NOT break or pull out :no: Be careful when you take fish off of them,sometimes if you grab the pole instead of netting the fish it will give enough resistance to alow the fish to pull the hook or break the line or pole still the MR. Mike
[Since the subject of limb lines and jug lines came up, what baits do you have the best luck with? Has anyone ever caught anything on stink baits?
I always use big chubs or suckers that way you dont have to worry about bullheads or trash fish stealing your bait Mr. Wanda Mike
I mostly limbline and I usually catch chub minnows or perches. Keep them alive and bait the hooks with them. My limb lines are usually just long enough for the bait fish to barely be swimming in the water. When they try to swim off they make a lot of splashing. The small river I usually do my fishing in doesn't have a whole lot of big cats in it. Probably the biggest I've caught out of it was about a 30 pounder. My average catch is probably about 8 - 10 pounders. There is a bigger river close by that some people catch 50 pounders and more but I don't have a big enough boat with enough horsepower to fish on that river. It has a lot of dam activity. Never no when they are going to be releasing a lot of water or shut completely off. The small river I fish on I just use a small jon boat and a trolling motor.
I don't do it anymore, but my Dad used to love this kind of fishing. His favorite was a band line. That way, he seldom had to get into the boat to retrieve his catch unless a really big one was on there. But usually, the real big ones would break the band (or at least that's what we assumed when the line disappeared). The band lines would usually produce a good amount of good-sized eating catfish - between 2 and 10 pounds. But my most memorable experience with this type of experience was with a trotline. I probably was about 15 years old at the time. We went to check the line in our little fishing boat in a "hot spot" my dad knew about. One of the jugs was about 3 or 4 feet under water and moving around. By the time we were able to retrieve the line, we knew a big one was on there. I will never forget how I felt when he pulled that thing from the water, seeing that big head coming to the surface. Turned out it was a 48 pound blue cat. Made a nice fish fry for the neighbors and relatives the next day.
Now I've got the fishin fever! We used to use bank poles made out of tamarack, yellow line/twine from the lumber yard, large nuts (as in nuts and bolts) for weights and anything from crawdads to minniws to perch for bait. Our river has lost so much water, we can't even fish in it anymore.
Cowgirl, what happened to the water in your river? Around here landowners are clearcutting the forest right up the banks of our rivers and streams. With no roots to hold the soil in place many stream/river banks are caving in making the stream wider and shallower. Also since the water no longer has much shade to cover it the sunlight is making the algea grow and bloom thus depleting the oxygen and killing the fish and othe aquatic life forms.
r.h., A dam was put in to start a recreation area in TX. It has taken all of our river water. There is a big fuss going on about it now, I hope they have to release some of the water. We don't have all that much around here.
r.h. I live here in NE Oklahoma, not too far from some of the large lakes and the fisherman do a lot of Jug lines. Not too man do the limb lines, except on the river. I have done some of them a few time myself, but not much. I think if I were going to do what you are asking I would gather my line very much like parachute cords and then place gently to the pole and use a rubber band tied in place or use electricians tape with the bait in the water at the depth that I wanted to fish, with the jug resting on the water. I have seen this done with the rubber band trick by fisherman floating lines up under cables at a dam with a balloon and then when getting where they want to fish, take up the slack and jerk the line loose from the baloon. Seems to work well,
A band line is a sorta modified trot line that can be baited and harvested from shore. A long rubber band-like strip of rubber is tied to a heavy weight and placed about 40-50 ft. out from shore in a boat, or we would just toss it off the end of our pier. The band is attached to the nylon cord; the hooks are attached in the part of the cord closest to the band. The other end of the cord is also tied to a large rock or concrete block and placed on shore. To check the line, just pull in the cord, rebait it and feed it back out. Big fish usually required us getting into the fishing boat to retrieve them because the rubber band could break. He usually baited them with sun perch or goldfish. Worked well, too.
