# Is this legal in Alabama?



## paddlin samurai (Jul 26, 2009)

Earlier this month i was fishing Guntersville by the dam and i saw these foam floaties that were attached to bait floating all over the place.  This guy had a bunch of them floatin around and he would just  pull up fish left and right.  Of course i must admit i was alittle jealous since i didnt have my nucanoe with me and was fishing from the bank. I guess he was having a fish fry or something- didnt look like catfish though.


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## tnhikr44 (Jul 26, 2009)

Pretty sure those were catfish 'jugs'. I just spent a week on Logan Martin and they were all over that place. No name tags, no numbers, no nothing. I was down by the dam fishing a hump that SHOULD have had some bass on it when I saw a big block of Styrofoam float by. It was like two foot long and a foot thick and wide... and it was bobbing. I trolled over to it and it went completely under... like in the movie _Jaws_. It popped up about fifty feet away and went under again. For the sake of comedy (hey, I was not catching any fish) I said "That's one bad hat, Harry" and "We need a bigger boat". It had to be a big one to drag that 'jug' under for that long.
I am not one to steal someone's fish, but how do these 'jug' fishermen know which 'bouy' is theirs?


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## lagrangedave (Jul 26, 2009)

Telepathy.


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## NCHillbilly (Jul 27, 2009)

In most states, jugs are legal, but in most cases the owner is supposed to have their name and address on them. The name and address law is abused a lot. It is definitely illegal for Tom, Dick, ands Harry to take fish off of someone's legal jugs. This also happens a lot. It is also illegal to leave your jugs in the lake for eternity. This also happens a lot. In most states, it is illegal to use live bait on jugs or keep gamefish caught on them. I like running catfish jugs, it's a lot of fun and a good way to get a mess of fish for a fish fry. It's also aggravating when you spend a bunch of time and money to make jugs and put them out legally and passers-by steal all your fish. It's also a durn shame to see half the lakeshore covered with abandoned jugs, especially ones that probably had fish on them at some point.


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## Trizey (Jul 29, 2009)

lagrangedave said:


> Telepathy.






Bout spewed on that one!


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## Spurhunter1 (Jul 29, 2009)

Yes, legal, but as mentioned they must be marked. we run some every summer but we stay out there and monitor them as to not loose any fish or jugs I pay to create! LOL
We used pieces of pool noodles and bait with cut shad, bluegill, live bait if we can find it or chicken. Sitting in the dark, and hearing a "ka-thump" of a jug getting yanked under the first time is a blast let me tell you. 

As far as bothering someone else's jugs, I will do it it I feel it is a runaway fish that the jug owner will not find. Since we fish the river, we get "travelers" coming by us. we can see for a mile or more in most places, so if there is not more jugs nearby, we collect it, and most times the fish has clearly been on the line for a while, so releae it from its death-line.


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## paddlin samurai (Jul 30, 2009)

shoot when my kids were little we had the whole garage filled with those noodles...i should have strapped two or three on my back and dove into the water and waited for a big catfish to come get me-would have saved a ton of money on lures and rods!


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## riprap (Jul 30, 2009)

Spurhunter1 said:


> Yes, legal, but as mentioned they must be marked. we run some every summer but we stay out there and monitor them as to not loose any fish or jugs I pay to create! LOL
> We used pieces of pool noodles and bait with cut shad, bluegill, live bait if we can find it or chicken. Sitting in the dark, and hearing a "ka-thump" of a jug getting yanked under the first time is a blast let me tell you.
> 
> As far as bothering someone else's jugs, I will do it it I feel it is a runaway fish that the jug owner will not find. Since we fish the river, we get "travelers" coming by us. we can see for a mile or more in most places, so if there is not more jugs nearby, we collect it, and most times the fish has clearly been on the line for a while, so releae it from its death-line.



Good Post!


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## ellaville hunter (Jul 30, 2009)

i know trotlines have to be marked but i dont think jugs have to be


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## germag (Jul 30, 2009)

Jugs do not have to be marked in Georgia (I mark mine anyway when I use them). Trotlines do have to be marked. It is also not illegal in Georgia to use live bait on jugs. It is however, illegal to keep gamefish caught on jugs. You can have up to 50 hooks out total. I use jugs when I'm getting ready to put on a fish fry, other than that I use a rod and reel. Alabama laws I'm not sure about, but it's easy enough to Google "Alabama Fishing Regulations" and find out.


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## riprap (Jul 30, 2009)

The only alabama law I could find about jugs was at just one lake. I'm not sure about other lakes in the state. One guy had a ton of them out Sat. and they took up the whole lake. I had to slow down and dodge them.


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