FRESHWATER
6 Feb 2 - 16 , 2018 VOL . 37 • ISS . 04
Hoochie Tips …
^Both natural baitfish colored hoochies and bright super visible hoochies should be represented in your tackle box . With the exception of Wiggle Hoochies , hoochies have no built in action , so you ’ ll have to team them with a dodger . For trout and kings put the hoochie 2 to 3 dodger lengths behind the blade . When kokanee are the target you might want to go as short as one dodger length .
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Hoochies with their tentacles and hollow body are perfect for holding scent and adding scent to hoochies is a critical part of maximizing success . These pansize Kokanee fell in love with a pink Wiggle Hoochie charged with Pro- Cure Bait Sauce teamed with a Mack ’ s Lure Double D Dodger .
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Hoochies are a great tool for imitating the baitfish that big reservoir trout and salmon feed on . Gary Miralles of Mack ’ s Lure / Shasta Tackle tempted this big trout with a pink Shasta Tackle Wiggle Hoochie teamed with a 6 inch UV pink Sling Blade .
^Hoochies are fun to play with . Here , Cal Kellogg has teamed a hammered Mack ’ s Lure Wedding Ring with a champagne colored hoochie during a late morning kokanee trolling session .
Hoochies : Low Cost , Highly Versatile Tools For Trout & Landlocked Salmon Trollers !
Have you ever noticed that the simplest lures and presentations are often the best ? Lures that are painstakingly created to exactly match the forage gamefish feed on are often , indeed almost always upstaged by simple impressionistic offerings .
In terms of simplistic lures there are few that are simpler than the hoochie . For folks that aren ’ t familiar with them , hoochie are nothing more than hollow plastic “ squid ”, basically a plastic skirt that can be slipped on a leader , rear hook of a lure or even on a jig head .
FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg
Hoochies in the 4 to 6-inch range first stormed onto the West Coast fishing scene as lures used for ocean salmon trolling . Commercial salmon anglers in particular embraced hoochies because they found them nearly as effective as anchovies and herring , but much simpler and faster to rig than baitfish .
These days hoochies remain an important tool for ocean salmon anglers , but relatively recently anglers that target trout , kings , kokanee and coho salmon residing in lakes , discovered how deadly small hoochies in the 1.5 to 2-inch size range can be .
If you are a trout or landlocked salmon angler that has yet to try trolling with hoochies , it ’ s time for you to get started . Not only will hoochies help you catch more fish , but they also help you save money since they are significantly cheaper than a lot of other offerings .
I would say that one of the things that really appeals to me about hoochies beyond the fact that they catch fish and don ’ t cost an arm and a leg is the versatility they offer . There are a bunch of different ways to rig them depending on whether you are fishing
presents
them alone or teaming them with another lure or natural bait . Fished alone they closely match the shape and action of a small baitfish .
Teamed with baits and lures they add a dimension that few fish have seen and when you show fish something they haven ’ t seen your chances of getting hit rise dramatically . Let ’ s take a look at some of these rigging options and how you can use hoochies to the best advantage .
For starters , there are three kinds of hoochies you ’ ll find on the market . These include loose unrigged hoochies , rigged hoochies and wiggle hoochies .
Wiggle hoochies come prerigged with a long leader and a pair of hooks and are fitted with a special clear plastic lip that make them wiggle pretty much the way a crankbait does .
Rigged hoochies come out of the package rigged with a fairly long leader and a pair of hooks . Some companies offer plain pre-rigged hoochies , while other companies offer hoochies that are downright fancy with added tinsel and flashabou .
As you probably are guessing I use all three types , but most often develop my own rigs using loose unrigged hoochies . For basic trout , king or kokanee fishing I rig a hoochie like this . I take a piece of 12-pound fluorocarbon leader material that is about 20 inches long and snell a pair of No . 6 or 8 octopus hooks on the end of it , such that they are from 1 to 1.25 inches apart and facing in different directions . Next , I slide on a pair of 1 / 8-inch glow in the dark beads . With the beads in place I slide a hoochie on the leader with the skirted end facing toward the hooks . I slide the hoochie down to the beads and
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