<Previous—–Lure of the Month—–Next>

The Jiggn’ Hogy

Hogy Lure Company
P.O. Box 1052
Falmouth, MA 02541
508-444-8764
www.hogylures.com

 

By Eric Harrison

As soft-plastic lures continue to evolve and diversify, so too do the methods that fishermen use to rig and fish them. When the soft-plastic Slug-Go stickbait became popular in the early 1990s with freshwater bass anglers, a single, offset worm hook rigged “Tex-posed” style was the most popular way to present these deadly baits. But when saltwater fishermen in the Northeast adopted the soft-plastic stickbait as a go-to striped bass lure, they started fishing the largest available baits to target larger stripers. To fish these 9-inch and larger stickbaits, surfcasters developed the tandem-hook rig, threading Dacron line through the center of the baits and tying in two hooks affixed with Super Glue.

From the growing popularity of the tandem-hook-rigged soft-plastic stickbait, the Hogy soft-plastic bait was born. Hogys are the creation of Mike “Hogy” Hogan, a licensed Cape Cod charter captain and owner of the Hogy Lure Company. Hogan was a big fan of using soft-plastic baits on his charters, but he found that rigging them with tandem hooks was time consuming. He decided he needed a less labor-intensive soft plastic, and as long as he was designing a better mousetrap, he wanted it to have a more sinuous, eel-like action in the water.

Hogan began experimenting in his basement, making his own molds and melting different blends of plastics in his microwave. With some trial and error and countless hours of testing out on the water, Hogy soft plastics were born.

The Hogy series of soft plastics entered the market offering both pre-rigged and unrigged configurations. The hallmark of the Hogy system was the Hogy Quick Rig, an easy-to-use tandem rig featuring heavy-duty bait hooks pre-tied on heavy monofilament line, which could be inserted into a specially designed groove in the Hogy for fast on-the-water rigging. True to their slogan of “Fish Big, Fish Hogy,” the Original Hogy comes in four sizes: 7-inch, 10-inch, 14-inch and 18-inch.

In response to demand from innovative fishermen, Hogy has expanded the line of soft-plastic baits and rigging options. “More and more anglers were fishing our ten-inch and fourteen-inch Original Hogys with jigheads,” explains Hogan. “But anglers had to exercise some finesse when rigging the bigger soft-baits on jigheads, especially the heavier jigs. The larger baits require grip barbs to hold onto the baits, which would sometimes split the bait. Anglers also, looking for a seamless fit, would cut – or bite – the tips of their soft plastics. I said, ‘I can fix that!’”

Hogan’s solution was to introduce the 10-inch Jiggn’ Hogy in 2008. It featured a blunt, jighead-ready head and no hook groove, giving the jighead more “meat” to grab onto. Even with a thicker front section, the lure has that snaking Hogy action that the fish seem to love.

I quickly became a big fan of the 10-inch Jiggn’ Hogy because most of the time, I fish my soft-plastic baits with jigheads. I’m not a fan of the double-hook rig because I think that using only a single hook at the front of a large bait like the Hogy frees up the rest of the body to swim with more action. I found that standard 9- and 10-inch soft-plastic stickbaits often didn’t last very long when the bite got going because the plastic would rip around the collar of the jighead, but the Jiggn’ Hogy’s wider body kept them on the head and kept me fishing longer without wasting time changing baits.

Sometimes anglers can be intimidated by big lures, especially when they look at a big soft-plastic bait and see almost 10 inches of plastic hanging behind a single hook. Don’t be intimidated by the size of the lure – keep in mind that when you tie on a big soft-plastic lure, your target is a 28-inch-plus striper, and a big bass has no problem completely inhaling a bait that big. If there are shorter bass around, they may hit and sometimes miss, but most bass will not have a problem finding the hook. In fact, I think smaller fish actually attract the larger fish to the bait by chasing it – many times I have felt a tap or two from a smaller fish, only to have the bait crushed by a bigger fish a few cranks later.

Last fall, when I knew that there were a lot of big striped bass around, I decided to go bigger than the 10-inch Jiggn’ Hogy and spent most of my nights bouncing and swimming the 14-inch original Hogy on a jighead. The stripers were stacked up in 15 to 20 feet of water at night, but they were not very active because they had been chasing pogy schools all day. Slowly working those bass schools, keeping the lures within a couple feet of the bottom, was a killer technique. However, the Original Hogys weren’t designed to be fished on a jighead and would often rip or split after catching a fish.

At the end of my season, I sent Hogan an email suggesting that he make a larger Jiggn’ Hogy. I guess I wasn’t the only one with that idea because a couple hours after I sent the email, Mike Hogan emailed me back saying that they were already working on a 13-inch Jiggn’ Hogy.

The 13-inch Jiggn’ Hogy is a big bait. At 13 inches and 2 ounces, it isn’t your standard soft-plastic bait, but as anglers have grown more accustomed to using large plastics, their reluctance to fish a big bait on a jighead has gone away. The big baits are now more popular than ever.

The Jiggn’ Hogy comes in a number of colors including black, bubblegum (pink), bone (white), amber, black pearl (black and white), blamber (black and amber), and bally smoke (iridescent purple with flash). I’m a big fan of black lures at night, but I prefer to use two-tone colors to add a little contrast, and the black pearl and blamber colors have been very effective. Bone and bubblegum are standard daytime colors, and the bally smoke color is a great baitfish imitator. They are very easy to rig – just line up the jighead to see where the hook will come out and thread the bait onto the hook. I always put a little glue on the collar of the jighead to make sure that the tail doesn’t slide down the hook after a few fish.

Jigheads aren’t the only way to rig the Jiggn’ Hogy. Rigged weightless with a single hook, they can be splashed and popped on the surface. The flat face of the lure creates a good pop and is a great fish attractor. Inshore anglers are experimenting with the Jiggn’ Hogy as a tail behind a swimming plug. Some custom plug makers are getting in on the big-plastic craze by incorporating them into their plugs.

The Jiggn’ Hogy has become very popular with the offshore crowd as both a trolling and casting lure. The solid body and blunt head seats perfectly on the large big-game hooks. Anglers are rigging the 13-inch Jiggn’ Hogy behind trolling heads or in daisy chains as a big sand eel or ballyhoo imitator. This method has become so popular that Hogy came out with a Blue Max series of rigged offshore lures.

The Jiggn’ Hogys are a heavier, more-castable bait, especially when combined with a jighead, making them a popular choice with anglers casting to bluefin tuna. But striper fishermen stepping up to bait this size will probably need to upgrade their tackle. Two ounces of plastic plus a jighead is a heavy bait to throw, and you are more likely to encounter larger fish, so stepping up to a heavier rod is necessary.

I’m addicted to fishing big soft-plastic baits for stripers, and I start off my fishing trips with several rods, each rigged with a different bait on a different jighead. I start every trip with at least one 13-inch Jiggn’ Hogy tied on. My standard striper tactic has been to use the 10-inch Jiggn’ Hogy to locate a school of bass, then I switch rods and work the fish with the 13-inch Jiggn’ Hogy to find the biggest bass in the school. Almost invariably I will catch my largest fish of the trip on the 13-inch bait.