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| Bill Kinney Photography |
There are a lot of ways to catch catfish. You can try noodling, putting some really stinking bait on the line, or just hope one swims into your hook and you get lucky, but have you tried jugging?
A friend told us about it, and why not? It sounded pretty fun! Kids aren't exactly the best candidates for noodling and they wanted to join in as well.
It all kind of started because we had some ponds on our property. Whilst fishing we had once in a while snagged a carp on our hook and had a good sport of fighting the big guy for an hour or more, then letting him go till next time. One day while thinking about the catfish that were in there and thought, you know, that could be fun! We'd often had people tell us about the catfish they'd had the other night for supper and wanted to try some. Then they suggested jugging.....
Jugging is interesting, and perhaps widely known, but we'd never heard of it. Basically you get an empty plastic bottle (such as a milk jug) and tie a nice long bit of strong fishing line to it. At the end you fix a fairly large sized hook and the stinkiest bait you can find (we were told to use cat food). That night you throw it out into the pond...and that's it.
Upon waking in the morning we excitedly went to see if anything had happened. We weren't exactly sure what to expect, but were surprised to find the white milk jug seemingly swimming by itself around the pond. The kids were way ahead of us. They'd already pushed their little canoe to the edge of the water and were headed out after their jug. This is one of the funniest sites to see...two little girls paddling around a pond in a little boat, yelling directions at each other, and chasing a milk jug. The one in front says to go right and the second they get turned the jug changes course and speeds away. It was amusing to say the least.
Finally after about a half hour of this amusing spectacle they caught up with the jug....and it immediately began to pull them....That was one strong catfish! After pulling the girls and the canoe around for a while it began to tire and headed in. Finally reaching the shore we pulled them up along with the guy at the end of the jug. He wasn't huge, but he was mean, especially after having played a game of cat and mouse for the past hour!
The girls were very proud of their catch as they held him up all muddy and mad. That night we ate our first and last catfish, because we found out that not only do they eat pond scum, they taste like it too! We were later told the correct way to cook a catfish and get rid of that pond scum taste, but never bothered with trying it again. (Sunfish and Bass are easier to catch and cook.) That fish wasn't wasted though! Any time someone asks about catching catfish we tell them the story and teach them how to go juggin'!