Jug Fishing: Catfish Tactic Catches Panfish Like Crazy
Story and Photos By Don Wirth

It was a balmy April afternoon, and Tennessee guide Jim Duckworth and I had just put our 21st crappie in the boat. The fish we were catching were biting minnows and were scattered along a 16-foot creek-channel drop-off that lead into a shallow spawning cove. So far this scenario doesn't sound all that extraordinary, but here's the wrinkle — we weren't using rods or reels to catch these fish. Instead, we were jug fishing — a time-honored catfish tactic that works amazingly well for crappie, too.

Traditional jug fishing usually employs an empty plastic milk jug or 2-liter soda bottle. A length of fishing line is attached to the jug with a baited hook on the business end. Several baited jugs are tossed out in a cove or other likely fish-holding area and allowed to float or drift with the wind or current. When a fish takes the bait and gets hooked, it swims around with the jug, unable to pull it beneath the surface. When the angler collects his jugs, if he's lucky, at least some of them will have caught fish. Jug fishing is not legal everywhere, so be sure to check your state and local fishing regulations before trying this method.

"I began taking jug fishing seriously as a crappie technique a couple of years ago," Duckworth says. "I was juggin' for flathead catfish one night at Priest Lake near Nashville in a shallow, stumpy cove. I put out 20 jugs baited with small minnows just before dark, grabbed some dinner at the marina restaurant, then returned an hour or so later to check them. To my surprise, I caught four nice crappie on the jugs along with some flathead cats."

This incident stuck in Duckworth's mind for several months. He wondered if there wasn't some way to refine his jug presentation to specifically target crappie.

"I knew that my catfish clients always had a ball while jug fishing," Duckworth says. "Kids especially get a kick out of it. I get a lot more calls for guided crappie trips than for catfish trips, and I knew a lot of my crappie customers with kids would love fishing with jugs. Through trial and error, I came up with the crappie jug setup I'm using today."

Duckworth's Crappie Jug Setup
Duckworth makes his crappie jugs from soft, pliable "pool noodle" swimming pool toys.

"Pool noodles are long, flexible toys available at pool supply stores and discount outlets for a couple of bucks each," Duckworth says. "They're perfect for jug fishing because, unlike plastic milk jugs or soda bottles, they're made of flexible, compressible foam. This makes them easy to store without tangling because you can wrap your leader lines tightly around them, and they'll stay tight when you sink the hook into the foam. There's no place to sink a hook in a hard plastic jug or bottle. As a result, after you wrap your line around it for storage, it usually slides off, creating a tangled mess."

Duckworth is one of the most creative anglers you will ever encounter, and his crappie jug setup is truly ingenious.

"Start by cutting a bright yellow or orange pool noodle into sections, each between 5 and 6 inches long," he explains. "Next, take a wire hook hanger and cut a piece out of the bend about 81/2 inches long. Stick this all the way through the foam lengthwise, inserting it to one side of the hole that runs through the pool noodle section. Bend the wire, sliding a brass swivel over the bottom wire. Compress the foam section by squeezing the top and bottom, then stick the bent sections of wire into the top and bottom of the foam and release the foam so it decompresses. The wire should end up flush with each end of the foam section. Tie your leader line to the swivel."

Duckworth insists on abrasion-resistant line while jug fishing for crappie.

"You'll be fishing around cover much of the time, and a hooked crappie will often try to swim into a submerged bush or stakebed," he says. "I use 20-pound SpiderWire Stealth for this application. It's extremely strong, yet its low diameter allows even a tiny minnow to swim vigorously for long periods."

Duckworth varies his leader length from 3 feet to around 10 feet, depending on the season and where he's fishing. He ties a red No. 1 Daiichi red circle hook to the business end.

"A circle hook will stick even the lightest biters," Duckworth adds. "Remember, you're unable to set the hook when jug fishing. This hook style will ensure that you catch more crappie when using this presentation method."

Why a red-colored hook?
"They give the impression of bleeding gills to predator fish," Duckworth says. "I'm sold on red hooks. They definitely draw more bites, especially in clear water."

The veteran guide pinches a BB-sized split shot about 6 inches above the hook to keep the minnow at the depth he wants to probe.

Duckworth's crappie jug setup is more compact, easier to store, easier to handle and produces fewer tangles than the traditional milk jug/soda bottle rig.

"I keep my jugs stored in my boat in a soft-sided cooler," he notes. "This organizes them in one place and prevents lures and bait hooks on my rigged rods from tangling in the lines. I also number my jugs. This helps me make sure I've picked them all up when I'm done fishing. I also write my name on each jug, which happens to be a law in Tennessee."

Seasonal Jug-Fishing Tactics
Duckworth catches crappie on jugs throughout most of the fishing year. However, early spring/prespawn is his favorite season for jug fishing.

"The water is starting to warm up, and crappie that have spent winter on deep river channel structure are starting to make their way toward their shallow spawning grounds," he explains. "They're traveling along migration routes such as creek channels, ditches and depth contours, and they're feeding heavily on minnows as they go, fattening themselves up for the spawn."

Most of the migration routes on the lakes Duckworth fishes are 12 to 16 feet deep, so he sets his jug lines around 10 feet deep. This keeps them from tangling in bottom cover and attracts the attention of crappie suspending tight to or above stumps, stakebeds and other fish-attracting cover.

"Prespawn crappie tend to stage along these migration routes," Duckworth notes. "They'll sit and hold around submerged cover, feeding up and waiting for the water temperature to rise another couple of degrees before continuing on their way. Spread out your baited jugs in the highest-percentage areas, including creek-channel bends, points at the mouths of tributaries and depth contours with a sharp drop into deep water. I've caught crappie up to 3 pounds on jugs during the prespawn."

During the spawn, crappie prefer to spawn in and around submerged wood cover in shallow coves protected from a cold north wind and the back ends of tributary arms, so that's where Duckworth recommends anglers set out their jugs.

"Use a leader line around 3 feet long and spread your jugs out around stakebeds, stump rows and fish attractors," he says. "Avoid setting out jugs in coves where there are lots of anglers and considerable boat traffic."

After spawning, crappie will move back to deep main-lake structure and will travel the exact same migration routes they used in prespawn.

"Revisit those prespawn staging areas, presenting jugs just as you did in early spring," Duckworth suggests.

Summer is a surprisingly good time of year to fish for crappie with jugs. Duckworth advises anglers to use 10-foot leader lines and spread jugs along main-lake points, gravel bars and the deep ends of flats with river-channel access.

"Crappie suspending in deep water will gravitate toward these structures sometime during the day to feed," he notes. "Place some jugs shallow and others out over deep water."
According to Duckworth, fall crappie can be really shallow.

"They'll move into the back ends of creek arms to gorge on minnows before heading out to deep water for winter," he says. "Try juggin' around shallow coves and tributary cover first. If you don't connect with fish fairly quickly, move out to tributary points and creek channel ledges and run your lines in the 10-foot zone."

Duckworth hasn't had much success on jugs when crappie are positioned deeper than around 18 feet.

"I'll bump bottom on deep-channel structure using a Kentucky rig instead," he adds.

Of course, part of the fun of jug fishing is that you never really know what you're going to catch.

"Besides crappie, I've caught blue and flathead catfish, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, spotted bass, hybrids, stripers, walleye, sauger, drum and gar," Duckworth says. "After all, everything that swims will eat a small minnow."