hoochie question

[the shark]

what can i catch with hoochies ? i found a bunch brand new for cheap so i bought a crap load, then i went to a retail store and bought more. so what species of fish can i get when using these lures ?

 

[Seafever]

You can get all kinds of fish on hoochies in salt water.

But.......they need to be fished behind a flasher and trolled usually.

if you are using them for a jigging lure...you need to conceal a weight inside them somehow.

There are different kinds of hoochies too. usually they come in "bait" size (2 1/2 inch or less, "needlefish...also known as squirt"........these are about 4 inch long and slender.

"regular' hoochy:- about around 4inch long....used a lot by salmon trollers.

There are bigger ones but the 4inch seems to do it most times.

Then there are the "squid" hoochies....longer length and these work well on salmon.

Color can be important.....

Some popular ones for Chinook and Coho:-

Green Splatterback
Straight Glow
White
Purple Haze
Black top/Glow bottom

Sockeye...

Pink
Pink/green
Pink/blue
Pink /black
Straight white

all in the smaller "bait" size.....(2 inch or 2 1/2 inch etc.)

Around mid August and later......pink needlefish, pink regular and pink bait size also work for Chinook.

This very GENERAL info for hoochies and there are lots of variations.

Hoochies also work on Rockfish, Snapper, Lings, P-Cod, and Dogfish.

Most times I use a leader length (40lb test) of 38 inches back of flasher to nose of hoochy for Chinooks.......Coho will hit Chinook hoochies but you can go shorter leader length (30 to 34 etc.) as Coho seem to like faster action.

Sockeye you can go 25 inch leader.

I don't use hoochies for jigging any more........but like I said it can be done if you can weight them properly.

 

[fishin solo]

maybe you should return them ! LOL

 

[the shark]

k, well i would be fishing from a pier and like you mentioned im gonna try jigging them or just maybe cast out and have slow retrieve...

 

[spring fever]

k, well i would be fishing from a pier and like you mentioned im gonna try jigging them or just maybe cast out and have slow retrieve...

A hootchy will catch very little unless you give it some action-I might suggest if you are casting them from shore look at the Jughead Shaker site and perhaps if you replaced the beads in a jughead and hootchy combo you might be able to cast the hootchy and then it would have action and PERHAPS have enough weight to cast. Experimentation time for sure!!!

 

[Dogbreath]

These work much better on a slow retrieve-you need to spend more money.

 

[spring fever]

These work much better on a slow retrieve-you need to spend more money.

You are right there DB-spend more money like the rest of us-welcome to the world of fishing!!!!!

 

[Seafever]

It doesn't take too much weight to make a castable hoochy.

The only problem I found with that is that the force of the water when the hoochy hits pushes the hoochy up the line a lot of times (when the hoochy hits the water butt first).

So you have to figure out how to stop it from sliding up.

You can only put so much weight inside them.......but you can make a "sink-rate" that isn't too excessive.

On the retrieve you "jerk" them to give it some action.



Most inshore fish like Rockies and Ling etc. don't need to much action to get them excited.

 

[the shark]

im gonna try to stick a splitshot weight in the head of the hoochie

 

[lazylump]

We used to use hootchies rigged up on a 1 oz lead head jig, instead of using a grub tail or scampi. They worked well for rockfish and kelp lings etc.