Our trolling line up consists of a handful of rigs that cover every spectrum in the water column and match every baitfish you will likely imitate on the troll. Each lure is designed with light tackle trolling in mind. Our trolling lures are easy to use and are designed to interface with our interactive trolling techniques.
Cheers!
Captain Mike
There is a big debate amongst tube fans as to whether a tube imitates a large eel or a sea worm. I personally think that they imitate a sea worm. If you watch in eel in its natural habitat, it moves around quite fast and slithers from rock to rock. I picture a sea worm losing it’s way from the bottom and flowing with the current which is why I think that trolling a tube needs to be done so slowly to reach maximum effectiveness. The Hogy Tube has a thru-wire system with uniform weight to allow for a horizontal presentation when the boat is out of gear.
The Hogy Perfect Squid checks a lot of boxes. It can be fished out of the holder or jigged. It has light drag in the water allowing for use with light tackle. Depending on the size, the Hogy Perfect squid can mimic very large bait, up to 12”. The Perfect Squid sheds weeds very well and can be fished at very high or low speeds. Although pink and amber are the most popular colors to imitate squid, the variety of colors that the Perfect Squid comes in allows you to imitate most other baitfish.
Canvas Factor: The Hogy Perfect Squid is great for covering large areas. For starters, it is weed resistant which makes covering large areas far more efficient; more lure time in the water and less weed checking typically adds to more fish. If a weed check is necessary, the Hogy Perfect Squid can be reeled in quickly with very little drag. The Hogy Perfect Squid comes in three sizes (6, 8 and 12-inches), and they are all large baits combined with highly visible colors, making them an easy target for fish to see from afar. It is easy to control the depth of a Hogy Perfect Squid as the amount of line you stream behind the boat determines how deep it runs and keeps it there consistently.
Tactical Approach: As far as trolling lures go, the perfect squids are the most nimble. They have minimal drag and track a nice straight line and will follow turns with ease. Hogy Perfect Squids have 2oz., 3oz. and 4oz. weights built into the nose, making them great candidates for the drop technique on marked fish.
Set It and Forget It: The long soft tentacles of the Hogy Perfect Squid have a very fluid and natural action, making them 100 percent effective even if you decide to set your rods in the holders.
Interactive: While they perform well for anglers who prefer the set it and forget it approach, the angler who prefers a “hands on” approach can vary their action in multiple ways, whether it is dropping them back quickly by taking the boat out of gear or putting the reel in free spool or giving them some extra scoot forward through a sudden, short increase in boat speed or even simply cranking the reel at high speed.
Capt. Mikes Favorite Situation: I use the Hogy Perfect Squid when I want to work a large section of water that is holding scattered schools of fish that I have easily identified because of birds working or marks on my electronics. When schools of fish appear and disappear quickly on the surface, the Perfect Squid allows me to make sharp turns of my boat while still maintaining the lure’s fish attracting action. I also bring them out when there are a lot of weeds in the water as they shed them really well. They are also extremely tough and stand up well to bluefish.
The Hogy Charter Grade Squid Lure is designed specifically to be fished in rips for stripers while stemming the tide. They can be cast or trolled on lead core. The play here is to stem the tide and jig the lure in various positions in the rip.
Canvas Factor: Low: This lure has a sleek profile and doesn’t make much commotion doing through the water; rather it’s a lure that draws reaction strikes due to it’s imitative finish.
Tactical Factor: High: It is difficult to distinguish this lure from a real live squid fleeing across the surface. When big stripers are keyed in on highly visible live bait, they can become very selective. This is a go to lure in a situation where bass are keyed in on squid. Place this lure in the rip where the bass are and keep it there!
Set It and Forget It: Medium: This lure will fish well enough with the rod in the holder, a handy trait when you have youngsters on the boat with you.
Interactive: Medium High: While the Charter Grade Squid Lure fishes “well enough” in the holder it is best trolled with short jigging motions paired with a series of “drop backs” by letting line up and “surges” by cranking the lure in a bit.
Capt. Mike’s Favorite Situation: This lure shines on the troll when bass are stacked in a rip feeding on squid. A very common occurrence nearby the Hogy/SaltyCape HQ on the South Side of Cape Cod.
In my opinion, a “lipless” slider used as a trolling plug is the most under rated trolling play going. The lure is easy to use, adaptable and fishy as hell. A lipless swimming plug that can be fished at all depths. Suitable for striped bass, bluefish, bonito, albies and ground fish. Can be fished at all boat speeds up to 8.5 knts. The Hogy Charter Grade slider comes in a variety of natural and attractor colors.
Canvas Factor: High: This lure was designed for canvasing. The carefully balanced body has a deadly wobble that wobbles with ease at all possible striper trolling speeds. For best canvas style searching, go with bright highly visible colors such as the Albe Crack glow color.
Tactical Factor: High: A very noteworthy feature about this lure is that it has a a perfectly horizontal descent when stopped due to its precise balancing weights. This feature is huge for those anglers who employ the “search and drop” technique where you take the boat out of gear and let the lure drop to the fish. (A technique especially effective on lead-core) The slow, horizontal drop is a more natural presentation, similar to that of a wounded herring. A jig would sink quickly and a traditional trolling plug would flat up to the surface. The lure is weighted so has some natural sink rate but would swim deeper than a few feet under the surface when trolled. This is a very useful trait in a swimming plug because unlike a traditional billed swimmer, you can easily alter the depth of this lure with lead-core by shortening the length of line out to reduce depth or letting more line out to go deeper. You can really dial the depth of this lure in and keep it there. Match the hatch with size and clolors. 5” for juvinile squid, peanut bunker, small herring and tinker macks. The 7” for full sized versions of the aforementioned and also to imitate ground fish when trolling in rocky areas for striped bass.
Set It and Forget It: High: The Hogy slider will swim perfectly with the rod left in the holder. The tip of the rod will bounce slightly when the lure is swimming properly and stop bouncing if weeds are dredged up. This lure trolls at all speeds: from snail’s pace to high speed. You don’t have to worry much about this lure once it’s deployed.
Interactive: High: Again, when paired with lead-core, you can adjust depth two ways: 1. By letting out/shortening trolling line length and 2. By taking the boat out of gear. Since this lure has a fairly nuetral buoyancy, it repsonds well to drop backs to stalk a fish that missed a strike. Furthermore, since the lure swims well at all speeds, you can surge the lure by cranking the handle on the troll to induce a strike.
Capt. Mike’s Favorite Situation: My favorite situation to use the Hogy Charter Grade slider is in situations with scattered targets where the fish could be anywhere in the water column. In open water, I find the slider really shines in a search and drop situation. (Boat out of gear to drop lure on a fish you mark on the fish finder). I also lure sliders for trolling along rocky shorelines where I tend to let enough line out so I can fish slow and low to the bottom. “If I’m not bumping bottom once in a while, I’m not deep enough.”
The Hogy Pro Tail Paddle is the best-kept secret as a replacement for trolling swimming lures or bucktail or parachute jig. The lure has a built in swimming action but also has the weight and control to fish a variety of depths. The Hogy Pro Tail Paddle has UV refracting pigmentation for greater visibility at depths. Often stripers will “hit” bait and follow up with a more aggressive strike, the soft but tough plastic of these baits will encourage that kind of second chance strike.
Canvas Factor: The Hogy Pro Tail Paddle series comes in a variety of sizes, weights and colors and they are easily swapped out to adjust for the depth, speed of current, and even how large the area is when you are tolling.
Tactical Factor: The life-like flutter of the Hogy Pro Tail Paddle during a drop on a fish marked on the finder is deadly. Once the boat goes out of gear, the lure will swim its way to the bottom. With weights up to 6oz, you can target a 30′ swing in the water column by adjusting for turns, free spooking and shifting in and out of gear. No striper-trolling lure will give you as much flexibility to work throughout the water column with so little effort.
Set It and Forget It: With the built in paddle, this lure can do all of the above from a rod holder.
Interactive: A Hogy Pro Tail Paddle can be surged, free spooled and even jigged to produce the kidn of action that a hands-on angler desires.
Capt. Mikes Favorite Situation: This lure is a rock star in areas of wide spread structure or pods of baitfish, I like this lure especially in 20-50’ of water in the 5oz and 6oz weights. By taking the boat out of gear, you can get really deep with braid, not to mention lead core or wire line.
A Tip from Mike: A simple way to target scattered fish you are periodically marking on you fish finder is to pull two Hogy Pro Tails on braid or lead core line. If you mark fish, take the boat out of gear and drop the baits on the targets. I’ll troll silver and green paddles when fish are keyed in on herring or mackerel and olive eel tails when they are keyed in on sand eels. If you are not seeing targets, but you know they are in the area, the Hogy Bait Ball Brella is the way to go. Although it looks massive with all the squids hanging from it, the frame has a very small profile, minimal drag and is lightweight. The dense pod of bait that this rig simulates will bring in fish from a far.
