visited my dad this weekend .he is 73 and with arthritis cant hold a pole so he puts out noodles and runs after them with his trolling motor.usually all lines are about 20 ft deep and catch lots of cats between 5-20lbs in water 25-50ft. shad and squid work. can anybody explain why sometimes noodles work but poles are useless ?

Don't know, but I thought I was the only one using stinking squid. poor man's bait at the coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOjA8Puh1BM

I was hoping grandpaw was really noodling.
lol

Noodling....my father in law introduced me to this and I have been hooked ever since. Anytime I spent more than a day on the lake, I put out about a dozen of these simple rigs. Why does it work so well? Simple...The waves on the lake give it motion. I wouldn't say poles are useless. My dad and I used poles all the time during daytime summer cat season. We would be on Lake Sam, Sam Rayburn for you non Texas types, fishing 30 ft of water with poles and catch all day 3-9 lbs. Noodles work great in the shallows as well. A lot of people overlook these areas. Cats at night cruise the shallows as well. My father in law and I generally don't put noodles out more than 15 ft of water. I'll even leave them at night. Do be careful when you check these. You never know when a giant decides to take a nibble. Pulling a 25+lb cat off a noodle isn't as easy at it looks or sounds.

I guess things are called different any where you go but the Noodling I was raised on was feeling under the bank and rocks , logs with your hands. My cousins from SC & GA do this under boat ramps. The cats make holes under the ramp to bed. They use a hook on a pole with bait and they get some whoppers. Smiles, G

Yeah...won't catch me reaching in a hole like that. I have seen that version of noodling before as well. The noodling we do is like a jug line, but no jug. You use a swimmng noodle. Cut it in thirds and you have 3 noodles!!! Put a weight on one end and a hook on a swivel somewhere in the middle, bait it up and toss it overboard. You can either float with them or leave them out and come back later.

One reason noodles work better than poles a lot of times for some people is because most catfisherman don't seem to think about using slip bobbers when in the Spring and Summer I have actually noticed that I could only get bites on slip bobber rigs while the bottom rigs caught nothing but very small fish.

KATMASTER JR.,Could you explain what noodling is? Thanks,Lightin

zack where have you been? I have jug fished in the past (15years ago)I turned a buddy onto the swim noodle a year ago,yes they realy work.I think there should be some stiffer rules for that!!In the last 30 days we have found 3 noodles hung up on stumps with fish on them over 30 lbs.All this technique will do is destroy the catfish fishies!!!!!!!!!!!! 1bigblue

I agree with you there. Anyone using noodles should have to be in visible sight of the noodles. I have seen, LITERALLY, sixty or seventy noodles in an area and no boats or fisherman. If the rules are going to allow people to use noodles (which is fine!! I do it myself sometimes) the rules should make you stay with them, not leave them unattended. Also, there needs to be some rules in regards to the # you can use. COME ON, SIXTY OR SEVENTY NOODLES??? That is crazy!

Toby

Ive been hearing alot about noodles lately. Ive set jugs with my dad but never seen a noodle, My question is, which is harder to pull under and keep down, a gallon jug, or a noodle. I have seen a 60lb cat caught on a jug, He could pull it under but only for about 10ft and it would pop right back up. If people are Losing noodles because the noodles are easier to pull under, Then the noodlers should start tying jugs instead. Last summer there was a guy on here talking about tying 20oz coke bottles,how stupid can you be!! The one redeeming factor of jugging is that you dont lose jugs So if someone could answer my question I would appreciate it.

I can't speak for other noodlers, but I run mine to a certain depth, not more than 20ft. The weight is on the bottom and not suspended like most jug lines are. I agree that you should keep track of your noodles/jugs. 60-70 noodles or jugs is excessive. I can't see more than 8-10 max and that is with someone helping me.

Of course people loose jugs, they are all over the lake. The noodles are much more convient because they can be cut to the size you want, you can store and handle them easily, and they take up much less space. They support more weight in the water than jugs on a cubic inch basis. Thats why life jackets and boats have foam flotation and not jug flotation. They are just higher tech and better than jugs. Everyone will make the switch sooner or later.

It is very disheartening to see a boat put out 80 which many do. (It makes a nice stack in the boat). But it is perfectly legal and anyone has the right to do it. But the primary reason it is not controlled more tightly, is that it may help control the out of control populations of cats. If not controlled somehow, the cats will eventually destroy the forage and they will starve themselves just as deer have done in so many parts of the US. In PA alone it is believed that several hundred thousand deer starve from overpopulation. The same thing holds true of other dominate species of fish but the cat is the one that is the problem in most of the country today. Each time a catter takes a large number of smaller cats out of the lake, they are making the lake a better place. Thank you all. Jenx

You can take a large number of smaller cats without putting 80 noodles in the water though. Some common sense has to apply when putting these things out.

I agree with the limited numbers. its just like ice fishing here in nh. You are limited to 5 devices for ice fishing per person. If you want to see tyhe lake full of jugs or in my case tip ups just get a bunch of buddies together and all put out your fair share. I think it is also a waste to put out 70 jugs i mean how can you account for all of them its impossible! I cant wait to get down there and try it myself though.

Well, Im not really concerned about the small fish. Your right the lake is full of them. What I am concerned about is the 20lb fish and bigger pulling the things under and never being seen again. The new size limit will go a long way towards stoping some people from jugging, in virginia. but In carolina you can still go out with 30 jugs and catch 500lb of cats in one night, fairly easily.