Jug Lines

Jug lines can be used to catch nearly every species of Louisiana fish. As with any method, the bait and hook used will determine what species is targeted. The idea of a jug line is to have many jug lines set at once, therefore, increasing your chances of catching more fish. A jug line is a large boyant jug with a string and a hook (or multiple hooks) attached to it. Decide how high you want your bait to be and allow that amount of string between the jug and the hook (hooks). Decide what bait you will use acording to the type of fish you wish to target. Go out in a boat and set the jug lines out in the water in areas you believe the fish will be and leave them over night. When you return the next morning to check your lines, the jugs will be swimming around and bobbing up and down allover the place. Get in your boat and retrieve the jug lines. I suggest you bring a hook or a long stick with you in the boat because often times, the fish will swim away from the boat making it very dificult to grab the jugs.

The White Bass Run

Have you ever been fishing a lake early in the morning and off in the distance you can see a big area of the water splashing like crazy? This is what happens when schools of shad (bait fish) leave cover early in the mornings to head for open water. When fishing, look for lots of splashing on the water's surface. Drive your boat out into the middle of all the tail slapping, water splashing commotion. What is going on? The shad are making a mad dash for the open water and the white bass are schooling all around them, picking off as many as they can. It almost doesn't matter what kind of lure you choose, (the white bass are in a feeding frenzy and will attack almost anything in the water that will fit in their mouth) but I prefer throwing a light colored spinner bait. This feeding frenzy will only last about fortyfive minutes from just before sunrise until just after. This is the most action packed fortyfive minutes of fishing you can experience in Louisiana's fresh waters. You better have plenty of room to put the fish you will catch because there is no legal limit to the amount you can catch, and trust me, you will be suprised by the amount of fish you will land.

Hand Fishing for Catfish

For me, most exhilerating form of fishing is handfishing. It is also by far the most extreme and dangerous form of fishing. Large catfish tend to make dens in brush piles, under logs and other structures, and inside hollow tree stumps. The goal of handfishing is to get a catfish to bite your hand so you can grab it's jaw and pull him out of the water. Idealy, you want to find a catfish hole with only one way in or out. If there is more than one way out of the hole, stuff the other escape routes with a burlap bag or crawfish sack. Stick your hand into the catfish den and try to agravate the fish around it's face and mouth to entice the fish into biting your hand. Once it bites your hand, grab it's bottom jaw, hold on for dear life and try to pull it out of the water.Catfish have teeth but they are more like sandpaper than regular teeth. Although their sandpaper like teeth cannot puncture you, catfish often spin while biting down and this can scrape the skin right off of your hand. I have had a few minor injuries from not wearing gloves in the past and I suggest to anyone attempting this method to wear gloves. Do not attempt this method in water that is inhabited by nutrea rats or beavers. Nutrea rats and beavers can often times live in the same places you would expect to find catfish. Even if you are wearing gloves, if you stick your hand in a hole with a beaver or nutrea rat, you will most likely be making a trip to the hospital for stitches.

Snagging for Gars

Snagging is the term given to a unique form of fishing. Snagging reqires a long and strong piece of rope ,or string, and a few large trebble hooks. The concept is simple. Throw a string with a few large trebble hooks tied to it out into a body of water with a high concentration of garfish, and pull it in quickly. When you feel something bump your line, jerk really hard. With a little luck one of the hooks will penatrate the garfish's thick scales and get "snagged." It is up to you to pull in the hard fighting fish. Garfish, especially when foul hooked, fight extremely hard and can grow to over seven feet long. I strongly suggest wearing gloves while practicing this technique. Although this method is primarily used to target garfish, anything that bumps into your line can end up being hooked. With this in mind I suggest you avoid areas that have underwater structures and areas that may have alligators.

Catching White Perch (Crappie)

White perch are tricky fish to catch, but I will share with you my personal favorite way of snagging them. The best conditions for catching white perch are early in the morning on a cool spring day when the wind is still. Purchase fresh shiners from a bait shop (make sure they are fresh and lively). You will need a light fishing pole. Attach a "crappie hook" to the line with a split-shot sinker about three inches from the hook. Attach a cork (floater) to your line so that the distance from the hook to the float is just a few inches shorter than the depth of the water you are fishing in. This will keep your bait a little off the bottom which is right in the range of the white perch. Hook one single shiner at a time just below it's dorsal fin and cast into an area near cover as this is where white perch tend to congregate. When you see your float being dunked under the water that means that there is a white perch with your hook in his mouth and you better set the hook quick!

Catching Big Turtles

There are a number of ways to catch big turtles, but there is one method that I believe works the best. First, find a body of water that has been around for a long time. An old body of water means that the turtles that live in it have had a long time to grow large. This method primarily targets snapping turtles, loggerheads, and softshell turtles. Find a tree branch or other structure hanging above the water. Take a frozen, unthawed chicken and tie it about a foot and a half above the waters surface. Tie treble hooks (three pointed hooks) hanging at different heights ranging from just below the water's surface to just below the chicken. The more hooks the better. As the chicken thaws out, it drips into the water. Turtles have a strong sence of smell and they will be attracted to the grease the chicken produces. Because the chicken is too high up for the turtles to eat, they will try to use the treble hooks to climb to the chicken. The turtles get their claws caught in the hooks and they are stuck there. It is best to set up your rig in the afternoon and leave it out over night because if they are caught in the daylight, the turtles will spoil quickly and they will be no good to eat.

Trot Lines

Trot lines are an easy, cost efficient way of catching lots of fish without having to hang around the area you wish to fish from. A trot line is a string or rope with multiple hooks attatched to it that can be left in the water over a period of time. There are different ways to use a trot line, but every trot line has a multitude of hooks tied to it. The hooks should be seperated by about 2 feet and you can make it as long as you wish with as many hooks as you wish. Keep in mind that the more hooks that are in the water, the more fish you are likely to catch. The type of fish you are targeting will determine the height of the trot line and also the type of bait you use. Tying both ends of the line to something just above the waterline and allowing a bit of slack so it will sag just under the water's surface is one way. This method is primarily used to target sunfish, such as bass and white perch. Another method is to secure one end to something on land and the other to a weight of some kind. This is the preferred method because there are baited hooks up by the surface but also down at the bottom. Using this method, you can target nearly any native fish species from catfish to bass and brihm.

Catfish Traps

There are countless ways to catch catfish. If you are out trying to catch as many catfish as possible with little effort, I suggest the use of a hoop net or catfish trap. If you know anything about catfish, you know that the more foul smelling the bait is, the better.

The best way to attract catfish into a trap, through my own personal experience, is to stuff rotten cheese into some kind of a cloth container. It may sound unusual, but pantyhose seem to work best because of the material. Place the cheese filled container in the trap and secure it with string. Now that the trap is prepared, it is important to find a good place to put it. Although results may vary, your chances are better in a flowing body of water as apposed to a pond or lake.

 If fishing a bayou, the best time to set the trap is when the water is on the rise, this is when the most fish will be moving through the waters. It is best to sink the trap in an area of the water that is slower moving and calmer than surrounding waters.Secure the trap with a rope to something so that trap does not get washed away. The trap can be checked up to 4 days after it has been set. If left out for much longer than this, the fish will die and spoil in the trap. Using this technique i have caught as many as sixty catfish in a single trap. Remember, the more traps that are set, the more fish you will catch.