Jug Fishing Lessons

Between living in Georgia and being a big catfish fan, it would seem like I should have some experience fishing jugs for catfish.

Nope.

Until yesterday morning, I'd never done it before. Let me tell you, though, I'm hooked. It will not be the last time. Beyond being wildly efficient, watching for jugs that are standing or bobbing or swimming and then running them down is incredibly fun. When you grab the line, you don't know whether the fish at the other end will weigh 3 pounds or 30 pounds.

Of course it helped that I got to go with Tony Adams, who is knows Lake Eufaula catfish like few other people and has a refined jug fishing system, and with Eufaula mayor Jack Tibbs, who is also am expert on the lake. It didn't hurt that we had perfect weather and the fish were really biting.

Tomorrow night brings another first -- bow fishing, and I'm definitely looking forward to giving that a try!

Fast Action Cats at Reelfoot

Reelfoot Lake is nationally known as a panfishing destination, and most Tennessee bass anglers also know about it's stout and strong largemouths. Sometimes overlooked are the lake's abundant channel cats, which serve up fast action all summer long.

Blue Bank Resort guide Billy Blakley keeps thing simple when he targets Reelfoot cats. Focusing on shallow flats that are littered with downed trees, he moves from one downed tree to the next, fishing each with a night crawler under a Thill slip float that is set to suspend the worm just off the bottom. He'll anchor 20 or 30 feet from a tree on the upwind side, pitch his float rig next to the cover and wait for the float to dart under. Most trees have at least one willing cat sitting beside them. Some have three or four.

As long as it's not too windy to keep a float rig in place, Blakley can almost always fill a cooler with cats. Most are channel cats in the 1- 5-pound range. A few, though, are notably larger, and occasionally one of his clients will set the hook and find a big flathead catfish at the other end.

During the fall, the cats get under groups of cypress trees where water turkeys roost and Blakley targets them with shad, but that's another story for another day!