Here is my rig. I like jugs with built-in handles (milk jugs, cooking oil, detergent bottles, etc), heavy nylon/cotton twine, large barrel swivels, and 2/0-4/0 Eagle Claw O'Shaughnessy hooks, #2 or larger trebles, 20-50# mono, and 3/4-1 oz weights. Any catfish bait will work...I normally use livers, crawlers, or cut skippies. Line length depends on depth you plan to fish. My most productive depth is 10-25'...I try to keep bait 2-3' above bottom. To get my depth, I start with a 2-3' leader of mono, add a swivel to one end and hook to the other. Make up the depth with an appropriate length of twine (i.e. to fish 10', the twine will be 7-8' long). Tie one end to the swivel, slide on the weight, and tie a large loop on the other end. Loop the entire rig around the handle of the jug and you are done. When finished fishing, I unloop the rig from the handle and wrap it around a large piece of pool noodle for storage.

I have a friend who uses 2 liter soda bottles and wraps the rig around the bottle and stores it all in an empty "egg crate" container.

Try to put out a spread of jugs at different depths. Sometimes they will only hit one depth and other times they will hit all depths. Obviously, if one depth seems to be hot, drop all jugs at that depth, regardless of the jugline length...they will still produce as long as the bait goes by the fish.

For night fishing, use clear, or opaque jugs, and insert a 6" green/yellow glow stick. I like the opaque jugs, such as milk or windshield washer fluid, the best...the light will make the entire jug glow, making it easier to see from a longer distance. We will put out a few jugs while drifting with down rods to entice a little extra action, Sometimes the fish will keep us so busy, we can't keep the rods in the water for chasing down the jugs.

My kids love the jug fishing more than anything else. When that jug starts jumping up and down and then shoots across the water, they just go nuts. I still get pretty excited as well! Good luck and enjoy.

Joe