Some old timers I've fished with loved to blame jacks anytime the bite went dead.
Always is. We go a few times each spring and catch enough for the church to have a fish fry on Easter Sunday evening.This sounds like a blast
My Dad and I fished a 20 acre blackwater impoundment back before he passed away and I had tied on a gold Beetlespin with a green and black split tail catalpa grub as soon as we got under way. My Dad was paddling so I started wearing out the edge of the deep water where lily pads and milfoil grass proliferated and right away started catching jacks one after the other. By the time we got back to Dad's favorite spot I had caught 8-10 jacks so we switched sides and started catching crappie, bluegills and redbreast. By now the boat box is about full so we headed back to the truck and I continued a catch and release on the jacks all the way back to the landing. On my last 12 casts I boated 11 jacks, the last caught with the boat pushed up on the shore. Grand total: 27 jacks, 9 crappie, 5 bluegill and 3 redbreast, all in 2 hours and 35 minutes; never saw anything to equal that morning.
I just started doing some jug fishing last year, but my buddy that has jug fished for years tells me to always have a net at least under the fish before you bring it in. He says that the fish will have the bait in its mouth but the hook is not set.
Nobody needs a boat! But yes you probably need a boatWe call em delicious.every spring I say I'm gonna head south to my grandparents and get after em and I never do. I think I need a boat.
We don't really run into that many that spit the hook. If you get them up to the surface, you've got a hook in them. Biggest reason to net them is once they get to the boat they want to dive and you don't have the flex of a rod or any drag. So your option is either drop the jug and circle back to them or risk breaking off.
