Hogy's

I mentioned in my last entry that I was fishing with a Hogy. For those of you that may not know about the Hogy lures they are awesome. Admittedly it took me a while to learn how to fish it correctly, but once I did I was almost guaranteed strikes if fish were around. At first my problem was that I was fishing it more like a rubber worm for largemouth bass. I recall my friend Chris Shrum loving to fish the Slug-go in freshwater, but I was always into my rubber worm. The Hogy is similar to a Slug-go but the plastic is more life like running through the water and the Hogy has many different sizes from 7 inches to 18 inches. Also, with their larger baits I suggest using their tandem rigging which has a second hook that enters the bait further down as to cash in on any short strikes. Plus, I like having that extra hook there because sometimes a plastic bait can have an eratic movement which may effect where the fish strikes the bait. Having the two hooks is better than one, definitely for the 14 inch and 18 inch baits.

When I finally mastered the speed and rod action required to properly fish the bait it was an immediate change in the amount of strikes. In my defense I did not have a lot of practice with the Hogy because my prime fishing months are July and August and I was unprepared to lose a Hogy to a bluefish that often. In the fall, as the stripers were easier to find I got more practice with it. One evening I was down at Parker's with Mike Earley and Kevin Clymer. Just as I arrived Kevin hooked up to a nice bluefish that hit his surface plug, but then after that getting bites were hard to come by. I was able to see a few schoolie stripers go by so I switched to a Hogy and I immediately started to get strikes. I had a few Hogy's ruined by bluefish, but I also had a few schoolies hit it as well. Neither Mike or Kevin hooked up the rest of the night, but I managed a few fish and I feel it was due to the Hogy. The following few weeks I killed the fish at Parker's with the Hogy's. Check out the action on this clip or visit them at www.hogylures.com