# A night out on Conroe



## Bucksnort (Jun 29, 2004)

Went out on my first juggin trip with my "old" buddy Texas Palerider. We went out to Conroe under a howling North wind counting on it to lay as the weatherman promised. Sure enough it did. It was a gorgeous night. The moon and the stars and plenty of fishies. We caught a few on rod-n-reel but most were under the jugs. Ended up with 41 mixed blues and channels for the night and 1 gaspergoo. PR inisted on keeping it because he swore it tasted like lobster. No problemo, I would rather eat lobster. It was a great evening and I'll be looking forward to the next trip. Here are a few pics.


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## Harbormaster (May 26, 2000)

Good trip and report!

PR, how do you cook them goo to make them taste like lobster? :biggrin:


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## waterspout (May 21, 2004)

Palerider has one of Medulla's recipes. LOL Medulla can make a piece of pine knot taste good Harbor. I think they do them like you would crawfish but put the fish in a bag(net type) so it doesn't fall all apart in the pot.


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## medulla762 (May 24, 2004)

Let's hear about the one that got away. 

'spout no bag necessary. The gou will not fall apart. While it does not taste like lobster it is purdy darn good grazin'!


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## Bucksnort (Jun 29, 2004)

medulla762 said:


> Let's hear about the one that got away.
> 
> 'spout no bag necessary. The gou will not fall apart. While it does not taste like lobster it is purdy darn good grazin'!


Ugggg,,,I am gonna leave that story up to Palerider.


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## capn (Aug 11, 2005)

I've medulla style gou - it's tasty. Boil it just like crawfish and the meat absorbs the spicy flavor.


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

medulla762 said:


> Let's hear about the one that got away.
> 
> 'spout no bag necessary. The gou will not fall apart. While it does not taste like lobster it is purdy darn good grazin'!


Gou is good boiled fried broiled, you name it. Very firm meat. The Poor Man's Lobster!

So far as the one that got away...Here's the Reader's Digest version. It goes like this. We pull up on a 3 jug set about 5 am, I glance around and can see all 3. Check the first two but can't find the third. So we circle back around to take another look. No jug?? _"That's strange. I know I saw all 3." _Then all the sudden "ploop" it pops up about 50 yards away. So we start heading that way and _"Damm! Where did it go?" _About a minute later, there it is again. _"OK guys, we got us a big girl here, this is gonna be fun!" _About the time we get next to the jug. Gone again! FAST FORWARD...This goes on for 2 hours. It was like the movie JAWS. Everytime we get close, she pulls the jug under. Now it's 7 am and I finally get my hand on the jug. It's a BIG fish, but, she's got us hung in something on the bottom _"****! What do we do now?" _I've got about 5 feet of line and the jug in the boat, trying to make a decision, when she takes off!!! Jerks the line through my hand like I was trying to hang on to monofilament. I was just glad to get clear of the jug as it careened wildly over the side. Both James and Bucksnort are looking at me like _"I can't believe what I just saw." _After staring at each other for a minute, we decided to lock the GPS position and go pick up our other jugs and come back when we got done. After pulling the other jugs, we saw the jug about 3 more times and finally had to give up as it was already about 8:30 am and James was out of beer.

Sure hated to leave that fish, but, I didn't know what else to do. We couldn't get close enough to grab the jug and it had been about 15 minutes since the last time we saw it. I was afraid she had hung the line up some more and we wouldn't ever see it again.


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## Bucksnort (Jun 29, 2004)

Yep, thats the way I remember it.


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## Rog (May 27, 2004)

That's a good story!
Tell me where you lost it and Ill go get it for you 

What were ya'll using for bait?


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

Rog said:


> That's a good story!
> Tell me where you lost it and Ill go get it for you
> 
> What were ya'll using for bait?


Set the jugs initially with beef heart then went and caught shad and a few live perch. First run was slow on the beef heart, but the shad did much better. All in all, the fishing was pretty slow. I guess it was the typical "day after a front."


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## Woodrow (Jun 17, 2004)

You had company out there Sat night...Wildman was out there and limited...they had a quadruple on one jug...nothing over 10# though.


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## Capt. Robert Liebert (May 21, 2004)

*How many*

How many jugs do most of ya'll put out in a average night.

Thanks Redfish Bob


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

Woodrow said:


> You had company out there Sat night...Wildman was out there and limited...they had a quadruple on one jug...nothing over 10# though.


No kidding!! We probably would have had at least a 2 man limit (50) if we hadn't spent 2 hours chasing that fish all over the lake. Do you know if he was fishing down there where I took him the first time?



RedfishBob said:


> How many jugs do most of ya'll put out in a average night.


 Usually about a dozen. I fish 3-4 hooks per jug. We had out 13 Saturday night.


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## Woodrow (Jun 17, 2004)

Not sure where he was...I think he tried to e-mail you yesterday though.


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

Yeah, he sent me an email late yesterday. Said they brought home 35. Also said they caught a quadruple on one jug(4 hooks/4 fish). The cool thing is that the smallest of the 4 weighed 4 pounds and the biggest was 8(24pounds of catfish on one jug). Now that's impressive!! Me, you and Shawn need to go sometime.


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## Woodrow (Jun 17, 2004)

I Agree...i've Only Fished Once This Year!!!


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## bigfish210 (Mar 6, 2006)

*catfish*

Sounds like you had a good night on Conroe. We have had similar tugs on the jugs that have prompted us to tie a loop about 2-3 feet below the jug. Carry another jug or two that are connected and have a caribiner or large snap-swivel attached to a foot of line. When you catch up to the jug, attach your extra jugs to the loop and let 'em pull those floats for a few minutes. We have made quick work of some large cats. Good luck.


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## capn (Aug 11, 2005)

Another option is to tie a trotline clip onto a rod and reel. Grab the jug quick, clip on, then back the boat up 30-40 yards. Use the rod and reel to wear the fish out.


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

Those are great ideas. The problem we had was, it took us 2 hours to get our hands on the jug the first time.


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## LIONESS-270 (May 19, 2005)

Nice trip ole pale one.....you shure ain't lossed your touch.....you need some bigger jugs or a lasso..









they are bitin here too...but the lake is low and I'm to lazy to walk to em....


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## capn (Aug 11, 2005)

C'mon palerider, be creative! lol Rattletraps were not invented to catch fish, they were mostly intended to be used to retrieve hats and stuff that blew in the water.  I imagine it would snag a jug just fine as well!

Seriously though, I've had a couple hot ones like that where I've had to shut down and drift into jug and make a real quick grab and clip. A good rod will wear them out good without straightening out a hook or threatening to put one of your other hooks in your hand.


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## waterspout (May 21, 2004)

ya capn has these good ideas, BUT, if he would have been holding on,, over the side he would have gone and the last thing yall would have seen would have been a midget water skiing with no bote in front of him! :slimer: :rotfl: !!!


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## capn (Aug 11, 2005)

The worst ones are the ones that you see go under but never come up again.


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## TXPalerider (May 21, 2004)

waterspout said:


> ya capn has these good ideas, BUT, if he would have been holding on,, over the side he would have gone and the last thing yall would have seen would have been a midget water skiing with no bote in front of him! :slimer: :rotfl: !!!


Spigot, my bigger fear in this case is that I would have ended up looking like your avatar!!:rotfl:


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