L.E.D. Hoochy rig for off-shore WCVI

[spring fever]

I've been asked a couple of times for rigging instructions and type of large hoochy's I was using in off-shore Nootka a couple of days ago. The LED lights you can get at Lighthouse lures or any of their direct sales stores-the large hoochy's are kind of like a clear turd-very glow in the dark. Like any lure-there is a time and place for them. The lights only enhance the lure-they are not the lure-so if the presentation doesn't work the LED.s won't fix it. So top lure is together and the next is the component parts. I find a 36 inch tie handles the size and weight for my usual speed and the bottom hoochy is a normal size cuttle fish. I fish these close to the bottom-usually in deep water and honestly I never know what I'm going to get-ling ,hali or Spring. I do crimp the barbs-just because I am using a flasher and Springs love them and would probably have a tough time with DFO. I did see a hootchy similar to this on a Trotac video showing various leader lengths for hootchys-they may carry them.

 

[UkeeDreamin]

Thanks SF, I've always been curious. Looks straight forward and love the look of the large hoochie, very close to the size of the real squid! Question - do you always run tandem snelled octopus hooks or do you ever run a larger siwash on a swivel? I switched a couple of years back to siwash and swivel for octo and cuttlefish hoochies and looks like it'd be ideal for those larger models.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers!

Ukee

 

[spring fever]

Thanks SF, I've always been curious. Looks straight forward and love the look of the large hoochie, very close to the size of the real squid! Question - do you always run tandem snelled octopus hooks or do you ever run a larger siwash on a swivel? I switched a couple of years back to siwash and swivel for octo and cuttlefish hoochies and looks like it'd be ideal for those larger models.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers!

Ukee

I always run tandem singles with this hoochy-more a space thing than anything else. If a single is your preference and you like swivels only thing to worry about is hook placement and after a layout on a table you will see the number of beads or spacers required to get good hook placement. I should add that I use the 2 singles because I crimp the barbs and I feel that a get better, more secure hook-ups with Hali's and lings

 

[Pippen]

How long does one of the LED inserts last?

 

[spring fever]

..

How long does one of the LED inserts last?

They claim 150 hours-I have had them last much longer than that and others shorter of course. Depends on how and where you store them -if you throw them in a wet old tackle box they are liable to go off and shorten the life. I just make sure they are dried off like you would a decent spoon. They are enhancers-if you believe in glow then this is the ultimate but it can't make a badly made or put together hoochy "good". I have some I inserted into Tomic plugs from 3 years ago and they are still flashing up but believe me when one of those goes dead it is a sad day because of all the work involved!!

 

[hambone]

How much smaller are the new mini LED lights? Fit inside an octopus sized hootchie?

 

[Rayvon]

Nice looking rig and that cuttlefish is one of my favourites.I would think leader length would be critical to get the flasher to throw the heavier lure to give it the right action.A smaller lighter LED should be a plus.

 

[spring fever]

How much smaller are the new mini LED lights? Fit inside an octopus sized hootchie?

They are about 3/4 of the size of the old ones. No nose loop-they slide easily into a standard cuttlefish hoochy without lube-I use a single 5/0 with them and work well. Haven't tried them in an octopus hoochy-might be a tight fit-it would split some brands-so I wouldn't recommend it. The big cuttlefish or turd size hoochy in the pic is the old size. Weight isn't a factor as they are neutrally buoyant in water and 36'' seems to work well on the big cuttlefish for a tie.

 

[hambone]

They are about 3/4 of the size of the old ones. No nose loop-they slide easily into a standard cuttlefish hoochy without lube-I use a single 5/0 with them and work well. Haven't tried them in an octopus hoochy-might be a tight fit-it would split some brands-so I wouldn't recommend it. The big cuttlefish or turd size hoochy in the pic is the old size. Weight isn't a factor as they are neutrally buoyant in water and 36'' seems to work well on the big cuttlefish for a tie.

Great thanks.

 

[seadna]

OK because of this post, I HAD to go to Lighthouse Lures and order up some more LED flashy do-hickeys. The splatterback hootchies have done well for me in the really early AM but I also couldn't resist the big squid. I think I will try some of those for tuna at night this summer.

 

[Slabby20]

What is the best color light overall in your opinion?? Blue, white green...................?

 

[spring fever]

What is the best color light overall in your opinion?? Blue, white green...................?

I like the white and green-haven't really tried the red but I intend to. They have a single flash multi-color which is interesting but as usual there is only so much time to fish. I am a bait guy and only switch when I have to or somebody on the boat is not catching fish. The lights are not magic and work really well in the right situations but I certainly don't fish them exclusively. So that is my take on it.!! Oh by the way 'don't let anybody tell you that the colour disappears the deeper you go-that is true for light coming down through the water from above but believe me a red light that flashes at depth is still a red colour. I was a ships diver for many years and if the light is introduced at depth -such as a flare or artificial light it is the colour it is intended to be--what the fish see's is another question but it will be brighter than GLOW

 

[spring fever]

Ok-had a great trip to Nootka with this LED hoochy-fished a bit better than chovie's(did I just say that)LOL see Nootka fish report-discovered a little gotcha about this lure-after fishing with it and you are finished-pop the light out and dry the electrode ends with paper towel. If you don't because the light stays moist inside the hoochy it continues to flash for sometime and uses up the batteries needlessly

 

[Fish on John]

All Good stuff spring fever!!
Yes anchovies rule but these newer Light House lit lures are a great option. Especially when fishing deep where a strike that does not hook up with anchovy rig usually needs to be pulled up for re-baiting, while the Light House set up usually keep fishing.
Evidence of your entire post is they are flying off the rack at the tackle shop.
FOJ

 

[TheBigGuy]

Ok-had a great trip to Nootka with this LED hoochy-fished a bit better than chovie's(did I just say that)LOL see Nootka fish report-discovered a little gotcha about this lure-after fishing with it and you are finished-pop the light out and dry the electrode ends with paper towel. If you don't because the light stays moist inside the hoochy it continues to flash for sometime and uses up the batteries needlessly

Come on Spring Fever that's heresy. You can't expect all those die hard bait guys on the west coast to actually believe plastic out fishes bait.

Just ribbing ya. Good for you for experimenting with new methods, and proving that not all new gear is just designed to catch fishermen. Thanks for posting the information.

 

[spring fever]

Well !!! if you like the lights in the Hoochy -just finished putting an LED in a Tomic. Now I have done this before but this is a 5 inch plug which had an LED in before-burnt out-wanted to see if I could take out the old one and put in another. Took 4 hrs of playing-just finished coating the bottom of the plug with Strotium aluminate impregnated epoxy-man does it glow-even without the light. So-ooooo why does a bait guy do this?? I'm going to put this plug on the bottom rod and then stack the LED Hoochy above it-(only in deep water) say 220 ft of wire. WHAT HERASY!!! Plug and another type of lure together and both LIT!!
Probably get 1/2 hour trial and the bait will be back on-but you never know. Might bomb over to Nootka and give it a try. LOL . Kind of like making a lure out of your Moms best spoons when you were a kid!!

 

[Fishin'Zinn]

Nice job, I do the same setup with the beads and pin pulled (sometimes use the soft ones, different sizes & colours, I think I am smart but really a crap shoot if the chartreuse ones work better than clear or glow right?). I have a bunch of wicked plugs I have to try... Maybe with the LED insert.

I agree with the gear dilemma. Great fun to come up with your own modifications, however I have yet to really honestly give them a good try. Still use bait all the time as well, especially when the bite happens to come on lol!!!

 

[spring fever]

I still swear by bait but that big hoochy has given me pause to reconsider-I gave that hoochy to a guy who has never used a rigger, never used a center pin reel-admittedly I was calling the shots, depths etc but still a steep learning curve. We were fishing deep-160 to 220 ft of wire on a quite sporty day-end of the day he caught as many Springs as I did-missed a few as well. So what happened-firstly- a good lure, secondly not many false hits, and when he got a hit he left it for awhile. Third-it was very rough and loading a new chovie takes time. So I figure his lure was in the water 30% more than the chovie-I have to think about this and do a few more trials etc. but maybe it is counter-productive to fish a chovie below -say 150ft-if the fish are biting! Pre-loading several heads helps which is normally what I do but in this case I was helping him ,running the boat and trying to stay reasonably vertical! Going to Nootka again this weekend and going to look at it again.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Well !!! if you like the lights in the Hoochy -just finished putting an LED in a Tomic. Now I have done this before but this is a 5 inch plug which had an LED in before-burnt out-wanted to see if I could take out the old one and put in another. Took 4 hrs of playing-just finished coating the bottom of the plug with Strotium aluminate impregnated epoxy-man does it glow-even without the light.

Hey Spring Fever. I'm curious about your process for inserting the LED into a plug. Do you drill a hole, then use a plastic bung glued into the hole to seal it?

 

[spring fever]

It is quite an involved process but essentially you get a translucent plug or better yet there are clear ones and drill a hole on an angle sufficient to take a light. You cut all the extra plastic off the light with a dremel such as the nose loop and the 2 side loops. Then very carefully using a rope cutting attachment on a soldering gun take the bottom 1/4 inch off the light to expose more electrode. Then solder an inch of the same size wire to each giving a light with extra long wire electrodes. Seal the end of the light and your solder connections with clear epoxy. Insert the light into the plug and also bend your wires so they come out the middle of the light. Check that the light still works at every stage. Insert the light into the plug about mid way-only thing sticking out now is the electrode wires. Make sure the light is centre line and epoxy in place. Fill the hole-cut electrodes flush and paint as required. The larger plugs are the easiest -5 inch is the smallest I've done. That's it.