Hoochies

[salmon slayer]

I want to thank all of you for your suggestions.
Happy fishing to all

 

[Kildonan]

@Discus Those blue and gold needles are one of my goto's for winters. Still have a pack and a half left.

 

[ReelDreams]

What's your best way of storing bulk tied hoochies. Rolled up on pool noodles? Line folded and kept in a small piece of a straw?

This is a great thread. I'm learning a lot from you boys.

Thanks

 

[IronNoggin]

... Thanks Nog. Man I'd sure like to see your hoochie collection. It would probably give me wet dreams.

LOL! Only problem of course is when you are looking for a specific hoochie amongst all those bags!!

Hey Nog, did you ever use an old pattern that was a half very dark navy blue/half gold over on the west coast.

Yep. That's another quite old one. Worked very well when there were pilchards around. Still works on and off (when I remember to toss one out that is). Not many of those left as I recall...

I'll be wandering down to the boat sometime before the next opening this month. Let you know what I find...

Cheers,
Nog

 

[TheBigGuy]

Thanks again, Nog. Don't know why, but I've found some years a hoochy with gold in it or a gold mini or needlefish is the best producer on the west coast. When I was a kid the average tackle store only carried a handfull of colors, but gold was always on the wall.

To store hoochies, I usually just cut twist ties into about 1" sections, wrap the leader around 3 fingers, then secure it with the twist tie. The straw method works too, but tends to leave the leader with kinks that are a pain to straighten out. The pool noddle method is great if you only use a few pre-tied rigs, as it is bulky and takes up a lot of space if you have a smaller boat. Everyone has their own way they prefer.

For those that might be interested here's some pics of alternate ways to rig a hoochy. Not my pics, just ones I saved from the net.

 

[Prairie Locked]

These are some creations from last year.

I agree about wrapping TBG and not using a straw (used to do it that way). I buy a roll of the gardening 'twist tie' material from Canadian Tire and put it through an eye of the swivel.

Then store in Plano water tight cases. My 'jewelry' collection! Lol

 

[TheBigGuy]

Very nice crossection of productive colors there Prairie Locked. I only see a couple of colors I don't use fairly regularly. You can't go wrong with most of those colors. I see you have a white or clear bead in front of a few of your hoochies. I often rig a white bead in front of the nose of my hoochies. I used to put a red or green bead in front in the past, but started using white beads and for some reason it seems to add an extra attraction. Especially on my Hali hoochies where I rig a very large white bead in front and use a toothpick and bead to peg the hoochy and bait together on the leader. Down deep, white is one of the few colors seen as it's true shade. Don't have a clue why but I always add a big white bead in front of all my Hali hoochies. Maybe it's all just in my head, but the bottom fish seem to like them. You'd think a glow bead would work the best, but I've found a white bead actually seems to work better.

 

[RogersonCrusoe]

Public Service Announcement: Alpine Marine (Langford) is having a Buy 2, get one free, sale on all their Supertackle brand hoochies. Not sure what people's appetites are for Supertackle as they have pretty off-the-wall colour selections, but I like their gusto.

 

[Prairie Locked]

Very nice crossection of productive colors there Prairie Locked. I only see a couple of colors I don't use fairly regularly. You can't go wrong with most of those colors. I see you have a white or clear bead in front of a few of your hoochies. I often rig a white bead in front of the nose of my hoochies. I used to put a red or green bead in front in the past, but started using white beads and for some reason it seems to add an extra attraction. Especially on my Hali hoochies where I rig a very large white bead in front and use a toothpick and bead to peg the hoochy and bait together on the leader. Down deep, white is one of the few colors seen as it's true shade. Don't have a clue why but I always add a big white bead in front of all my Hali hoochies. Maybe it's all just in my head, but the bottom fish seem to like them. You'd think a glow bead would work the best, but I've found a white bead actually seems to work better.

The beads I have are only when I have a spin-n-glo but I think I'll add that to all when I tie new ones. Thanks for the suggestion. New spin-n-glo's this year are all white glow pattern. We will see how they perform soon enough.

 

[CIVANO]

T-Rex aka chartreuse spackle back.

I use the old Angelos TRex 1st thing in the morning and have done very well in Port Renfrew. It seems to stop working after it gets a little brighter out

 

[TheBigGuy]

The beads I have are only when I have a spin-n-glo but I think I'll add that to all when I tie new ones. Thanks for the suggestion. New spin-n-glo's this year are all white glow pattern. We will see how they perform soon enough.

I used to put beads in front of every hoochy in the past. I do it only sometines now, but I always do it on my Hali hoochies. That was an old recommendation from Jack Gaunt, the inventor of the hot spot and Apex. I always followed that in the past because I figured he knew a thing or two about fishing.

Civano, you are totally right, some hoochies definitely work better in different light conditions. One of my favorites is a pink shade (a little towards the mauve spectrum), half pink/half white. It works great just before dark or in really low light/heavy clouds/fog. Light conditions and water color make a huge difference on how well some hoochies work

 

[Derby]

I use the old Angelos TRex 1st thing in the morning and have done very well in Port Renfrew. It seems to stop working after it gets a little brighter out

Angelo's used Yo-zuri Hoochies ....

 

[CIVANO]

Angelo's used Yo-zuri Hoochies ....

What is the Yo zuri number if you don't mind

 

[TheBigGuy]

As I have already posted before, blues and golds have been some of my most productive colors on many trips to the west coast. The golds are always most productive in smaller sizes such as mini plankton or cut down needlefish. Very hard to find these days, but if you find some buy them. As I've stated already, this is a color that some years the springs and coho really key on. No pic or number required, gold metal flake is the same with any manufacturer that produces them.

Many guys pm'ed me last summer wanting the brand of the blue and white hoochies that were working so well in Barkley Sound. I wasn't being stingy, I just couldn't help them because the ones that were working were all long out of production. Blue comes in a ton of different shades and sizes. I tend to find a 3-4 1/2 inch size works best, although a larger blue glow Kajiki Bait works really well at times too.

I posted this pic recently on anther thread about crimping. This is the closest match I have found to my old out of production versions. Note, the most productive versions have no red slash behind the eyes. I ordered this version through ebay in the US.

Most of the blue and white hoochies I have do not have line exit holes centered at the nose. I poke a hole with a hook point off center and a half inch or so back from the nose. Rigging your hoochies this way can sometimes result in way more strikes. It can give the hoochie a little extra action that the fish really like sometimes. The only down side is the fish can tear up your hoochies much quicker with the off center rigging method.

 

[OnTick]

I've had good luck with the Yamashita Pistachio hoochies...very strong glow on these.

90% of my fish this year bit those hoochies, they have been on fire.

I'm not usually a hoochie user

 

[advTHXance]

I notice a lot of you run tandem single hooks with your hoochies. Does anybody know the legality of this setup? On the DFO site it says that you may only run a single hook setup when fishing for salmon, and then it goes on to list a number of exceptions, none of which seem to apply to fishing hoochies. A somewhat relevant exception would be when tipping your hoochies with a chunk of bait. Am I interpreting the regulations correctly? I also see a lot of guide posts on social media with tandem rigged hooks, as well as some of the big tackle manufacturers like gibbs-delta.

Anybody know for sure? Not a huge deal for me since I almost never fish hoochies, just one of those things Ive always wondered about but never bothered asking.

"
Gear restrictions

• Only barbless hooks may be used for all salmon and sea-run trout fishing.
  • Treble barbless hooks are acceptable in most areas; except in tidal areas of coastal rivers and in areas where special management measures are in place. Check the regulations for the area you are fishing before you go
  • Partially crimped barbs are not allowed; the barb must be crimped flat against the shaft
• In tidal waters, there’s no limit to the number of fishing rods you can use. In rivers and streams, including the tidal waters of the Fraser River, there’s a limit of one rod per angler
• It is illegal to angle with more than one fishing line in any lake, stream or river. The only exception is if you are alone in a boat on a lake, in which case you can have two lines
• It is illegal to angle with a fishing line that has more than one hook, artificial lure or artificial fly attached except:
  • in the tidal waters of the Fraser River, where you can attach two hooks, artificial lures or artificial flies to a bar rig
  • in tidal waters, where you can attach any number of hooks to a fishing line if using the hooks in combination to hold a single piece of bait and if they’re not arranged so as to catch more than one fish. This does not apply in areas restricted to the use of only one single barbless hook
• It is illegal to fish with a fixed weight (sinker) greater than 1 kg except on a downrigger line, in which case the fishing line must be attached to the downrigger by a release clip
• When an area is restricted to fly fishing only, you may not attach a weight or float to the line
• It is illegal to angle or sportfish with nets, including dip nets, minnow nets, gillnets or cast nets
• Be aware of hook and line, downrigger and trap gear entanglement risks in the vicinity of the UVIC Venus project in Pat Bay, Saanich Inlet. For more information, visit: http://www.oceannetworks.ca/installations/notice-mariners"

 

[casper5280]

• in tidal waters, where you can attach any number of hooks to a fishing line if using the hooks in combination to hold a single piece of bait and if they’re not arranged so as to catch more than one fish. This does not apply in areas restricted to the use of only one single barbless hook

This makes it pretty clear that a hoochie setup with 2 hooks is fine.

 

[advTHXance]

In my interpretation, the and before the portion you highlighted means both requirements must be met. Its all listed under one bullet point.

 

[RogersonCrusoe]

I would interpret a hoochie as an artificial Lure, so you can have only one of those, but it could contain multiple hooks. Same reason why you can fish with a stinger hook on anchovies.

As an aside, I've been busy tying and buying for the upcoming season.

 

[advTHXance]

Why could it contain multiple hooks? The regs state that you can only use a single hook when targeting salmon except for the listed exceptions, and I dont see anything about attaching multiple hooks to artificials.

And sorry if this is derailing the topic, I thought it might be relevant to the discussion but I didnt intent to start a big debate on DFOs clear-as-mud regulations.