Hoochies/Pacific NW
lynn william lougheed
I would like to know what "hoochies" are, how much they cost, what special
gear I might need to rig them, how deep to fish them (for salmon) and what
colours work best in the northern Vancouver Island area.
Thanks, Lynn Lougheed. loug...@wfu.edu
Jim Pook
Hi there Lynn:
A lot of questions, but I'll try to give you an idea of what "hoochie"
fishing is all about.
First of all, a hoochie is basically a plastic squid imitation about 4"
long. Picture a tube with one end closed and the other end open. The open
end is cut about 3/4's the way up to form strands or legs.
A hook, (sometimes two hooks) is attached to a leader and run through the
hoochie so that it hangs in the open end among the legs of the hoochie. The
leader is anywhere from 18" to 60" and is attached to a revolving flasher or
dodger to give the lure action. A hoochie has no action of it's own.
Hoochies come in about a thousand color combinations with about 25 or so
being "popular" among fishermen.
Hoochies are coded as to size, color, etc. You will see codes such as OM55
and such. You may also hear them reffered to by names such as "Army Truck",
"Blood & Bone" "Oilslick", Purple People Eater, etc.
Here in Vancouver around the mouth of the Fraser, Army Trucks, Blood &
Bones, and all glow-in-the-dark hoochies are popular.
I was out today and trying some new ones which I got off the bargain table
for only $2.99 for a package of 10. They were the only ones that worked! One
was a hot pink with a white belly and the other was a white with two yellow
stripes down the sides. I rigged the white & yellow with a small glow
hoochie inside it. Each of these two caught two fish each.
The green Apex lures that worked last week didn't catch a thing!
Right now, in Vancouver, we are fishing at depths of 75' to 140' for feeder
chinook (Kings). While others were getting fish deep, all of mine came on
the shallow lines set around 85'.
BTW I use two downriggers and fish 4 lines at once. I have a false flasher
at the bottom, first line 10' up from the false flasher, second line up 20
to 30 feet from the deep line. The downrigger is then lowered to 130 feet.
That sets my lines at 120' and 100'. The second downrigger is set up the
same but lowered to 115' setting the other two lines at 105' and 85'.
This will let you cover the range from 85' - 100' - 105' - 120'
You can always change this to target any depth you want or cover from 20' to
120' or more.
One last item, I use a bait scent such as Charlie Whites X-10 Formula on
each hoochie to help induce strikes. It has to smell like food to the salmon
too!
I hope this helps you to get an idea of what hoochie fishing is all about.
- Jim Pook - jim...@wimsey.com
- Jim's Fishing Charters (604) 433-8817
- #316 - 2750 Cooperative Way
Vancouver, B.C. V5M 4S3
- New Fishing Guide at Eagle Pointe Lodge - British Columbia
- PO Box 24184, Seattle, WA 98124 - 1(800) 726-5810
- OR: PO Box 135, Prince Rupert, B.C., V8J 3P4
- Lodge Phone: May thru Sept. - (604) 624-0825
Brian Dixon
: In article <3ne083$l...@eis.wfunet.wfu.edu>,
: lynn william lougheed <loug...@wfu.edu> wrote:
: >Hello, Pacific NW fishing enthusiasts:
: >
: >I would like to know what "hoochies" are, how much they cost, what special
: >gear I might need to rig them, how deep to fish them (for salmon) and what
: >colours work best in the northern Vancouver Island area.
[snip]
: Here in Vancouver around the mouth of the Fraser, Army Trucks, Blood &
: Bones, and all glow-in-the-dark hoochies are popular.
Jim sounds like he's a real expert, so I'll keep my post short (better to be
thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, right?).
Anyway, I used to downrig for either Chinook (spring/summer) or black-mouth
(resident fish in the sound...winter time fishing) quite a bit with a
friend who was generous, had a nice 20' boat, and no other friends to
go fishing with (YEAH!!). We did basically the same thing all the time and
had pretty consistent luck. We'd be on the water right as the sun was
coming up or before and downrig at about 30-40' or so, dropping the depth
to 100-120' by 10-10:30 am, depending on how bright the sun was...sunny days
=> drop quicker. We used large (14" or so) flashers (dodgers?) with metallic
sides on top of green or red or white plastic (green being best). The
hoochies we used were (like Jim said) 'anything glow-in-the-dark', green
with whitish belly and metallic bluish stuff along the back, or the same
thing but without the bluish stuff, and 'skunks' (blackish on top, whitish
on bottom). I liked the green/blue/white belly ones the best. The
flashers rotate in big circles about 12' or so behind the downrigger line,
and the hoochies follow the rotation around (smaller diameter circle though)
and are about 3 to 4 'flasher lengths' behind the flasher...3 lengths is
what I remember using most. We didn't use any scents. We averaged 1 fish
per day per person, but only fished 4-6 hours on the average. I don't know
how that compares to other people, but there was always plenty of salmon
to eat. In leui of hoochies, if they weren't working, we'd get rid of
the flasher and use Tomics (#603 in the 6" size was my favorite...personal
record is a 44 lb Chinook caught out of Freshwater Bay...)
What I call a 'flasher' above is basically a flat piece of plastic about 3"
wide and 14" long, and has ends that are bent in opposite directions about
3" from the ends of the flasher. They come in solid colors, or metallic
(stick-on stuff) colors. They rotate rather than dive back and forth or
up and down. The key being "rotate". If someone has a better memory than
me, correct me if this is not a 'flasher'. If I'm wrong, then these are
called dodgers and you should replace 'flasher' with 'dodger' in the above
discussion...I never got the two names straight, but knew what to buy!
Brian
--
Brian Dixon, Machine Vision Engineer, Hewlett Packard (Corvallis, Oregon)
503-715-3143 (wk), bri...@cv.hp.com (email). "Opinions & attitudes are mine!"
Jim Pook
Brian Dixon gives a very good report on fishing with hoochies and flashers,
(yes, Brian, you do have it correct: flashers rotate - dodgers dodge side to
side and don't rotate.)
It has been proven that flasher USUALLY outfish dodgers.
The flashers I like best are made by Hot Spot - they are plastic with
stick-on tapes that have different types of flashing tape. Some even glow in
the dark - I like them best.
Also Hot Spot has an excellent booklet available free of charge that
explains how to fish flashers and Apex lures. Watch Gary Coopers Fishing
Diary (Sunday 4:30 pm on KVOS - Bellingham, WA) for the address at the end
of the show.