Catfish Jugging with noodles

Deeply seated within my nature is a love of passive things that generate value.  I love the concept of trapping, be it for furbearing animals, or bait fish, there is just something about setting up a system that hunts for you while you are doing other things.  In this spirit I have gotten into jug fishing for catfish.  I have the good fortune to be on the water quite often and after a good storm it is very easy to find pool noodles strewn all over the place where they have been blown away by the wind or washed away by the rain.  I also have the good fortune to work in construction and have access to quite a lot of scrap PVC.  I also collect lead weights etc and make my own sinkers.  I decided years ago to begin making my own catfish jugs, and found that with a combination of all my aforementioned treasures that I have found that I had to simply pay for fishing line and for swivels in order to make jugs out of pool noodle floats and PVC.  

While making my fishing jugs I decided to experiment with some other materials and found that bamboo actually makes a very good substitute for the PVC and pool noodles.  It floats well, its readily available, not nearly as much work goes into its construction, and it actually seems to catch fish better.  I attribute this ability to catch more to its less noticeable colors.  I do wrap each one with some visible tape and according to NC laws with my pertinent information, but the bamboo still doesn't have the conspicuous colors that the noodles do.  I have quite enjoyed trying it out though and have had great success in jug fishing through the past summer and fall.  

There are lots of different methods for constructing these noodles, mine is not the most complicated by far, but has been very successful for me.  I simply attach a swivel to each jug, and tie a length of line onto each.  I put an egg sinker in the middle a few feet above the hook at the end and I bait each up and simply toss them out a few yards away from each other out in one cove or one area, then go and fish somewhere for a few hours then come back and run down each noodle with a fish on it.  

Catfish make wonderful table fare and can be caught on the scraps and junk of other fishing forays or hunting forays.  I have caught them on dove hearts and livers as well as rabbit innards, and I have also used the heads and pieces of smaller fish I filleted.  I save all these and freeze them.  Catfish seem to be the ultimate "something for nothing" fish in freshwater.  I plan to catch as many as possible this year and in years to come.  Its tough to beat a catfish fillet or catfish sandwich.  I'm thankful for discovering how fun these fish can be.  Chasing down jugs at the end of a day of fishing adds that much more flavor to the experience as a whole.  

John 16:33