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The Hum-Jig Trolling Combo
is Born
I had the good fortune to meet Howell Dodd (of
HD Guide Service)
this spring and have hired him quite a few times since then. In that time he
has become a great friend and my sand bass mentor. (More like a drug dealer
encouraging my white bass addiction) The first time I went out with Howell
he showed me how to Hell-Pet even though it was not the best time time of the
year to do it. Slabbing, cast and retrieve and chasing birds was the order of
the day but I had read about it and wanted to learn so like a great guide he
showed me how to do it purely for educational purposes.
Clearly it is a great and well proven technique but as the
owner of a small jon boat the idea of trying to handle those rods with that
hellbender pulling like hell (pun not intended) and running my boat alone
seemed like it would be a real pain in the butt. I also noticed that guides kept
rods permanently rigged for Hell-Pet and this might be fine for them but unlike
professional guides I don't have a garage full of rods each rigged for a
specific purpose. So I decided for the time being why worry go slab and you
will do fine. That worked for a while but summer came and when that happened the
fish suspended. So I considered the options.
Option One - Go to Academy, by all the stuff
to rig up Hell - Pet and try it. Further do so knowing that I would have a hell
of a time running this in my tiny boat when I fish 90% of the time alone.
Option Two - Give up Sand Bass till early
fall or only fish them at the tail end of the day (clearly this was not an
option for a new addict)
Option Three - Find a way to mimic the hell
pet technique in the key ways that made it work. To me these were the
following:
- It put the lure at a consistent depth that was
controlled by how much line one let out and could be adjusted to a degree
simply by raising or lowering the rod tip.
- Used a shiny lure that was small enough to attract the
strike of a suspended sandie that was not really on the feed.
My first thoughts were of a very heavy lure that Howell
had also introduced me to namely the
Humdinger. These come in a 3/4 ounce size and are like a much improved
version of the famous "Little George". You can read a review of this
lure by Howell
here.
One other thing Howell had taught me was to use a double rig while slabbing.
This rig consisted of a heavy slab and a small crappie jig about 12-18 inches
above the slab. Doing so provided two benefits, one it often appeared, to the
fish, that you had a small sand bass (the slab) chasing a minnow (the jig) so it
triggered competitive feeding and further if you hooked a sandie and allowed the
bait stay deep for a bit, you would often hook a double.
Now when I was slabbing I decided to come up with a leader
that used snap swivels so I could change out slab and jig sizes and colors
quickly. When I wanted to slab, I attached a jig to the upper snap and a slab
to the lower one. I also used a snap swivel on the main line so I could remove
the entire leader and change to a more conventional rig in just seconds. I
decided that this leader could form the basis of my new trolling technique. So
lets start with how to tie this leader.
First I take about 2 or so
feet of heavy clear mono, say 20 Lb line (because it is what I had around
the house you can certainly go lighter). At the top I tie a standard
snell type loop like this.
http://www.marinews.com/fishing/Knots%20&%20Rigging/fk_droploo.htm
That is the top of my rig so I can use the snap on the main line to attach
it. Next about 6-10 inches below the loop I tie a dropper loop that looks
like this
http://www.marinews.com/fishing/Knots%20&%20Rigging/fk_droploop.htm When
I do this knot though I don't just tie it I put a snap swivel on the line
first and tie the loop so the snap hangs off it. This will be later used to
attach a sassy shad or jig.
Then about 12-18 inches down from there I use a standard palmer knot to
attach the last swivel. So in the end I have a leader with a loop on top, a
dropper loop holding a snap swivel and a snap swivel at the bottom. If you
click the image on the right you can see a full sized picture of this
leader.
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Here is a picture of the
leader I use, now the cool part is I can tie up a few leaders like this and
just snap them on quickly. |
| Now the terminal tackle. I
put a Humdinger in the 3/4 ounce size on the bottom snap swivel then at the
top snap swivel I put on a small sassy shad or some type of small jig.
Because I use snaps I can change out jigs or hummers to different colors and
sizes quickly. Best on my first outing seemed to be a silver hummer and a 1
inch sassy shad.
I troll with this stuff about 2.5 mph which is top
speed for my Min Kota Trolling motor. To me this may sound complicated but
in reality it is far less complicated much easier then Hell Pet. After you
do it once you will be amazed by how simple it really is. I believe this
rig runs about 14-18 feet if you let it out for a 15 count. I did hang the
bottom a few times, during s-turns, in 20 or so feet of water so it gets
close to that depth anyway. I thought to myself, that is pretty damn close
to Hell Pet Territory, huh?
The results of my first attempt were impressive. I
trolled for about 90 minutes with the rig pictured to the right and in that
time I boated and boxed 12 keeper sand bass in the 11-13 inch range (nice
fish for Joe Pool) and released another 18 or so that were dinks or just
barely legal. Had I trolled for say 2 1/2 hours and kept all legal fish a
limit would have certainly been the result. I would also say that by
letting the fist hooked fish drag for about 10 or so seconds before reeling
him in, yielded a double about every third catch. It also appeared on
singles that 90% of the time the first fish hit the humdinger. |
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The addition of a
humdinger on the lower snap and a sassy shad or small jig on the upper one
completes the newly named Hum-Jig trolling rig. |
I am now doing a few things to experiment
with improving this method. One thing I have tried in my swimming pool and will
soon try on the lake is the removal of the sassy shad or jig and replacing it
with a second humdinger. This should drive the depth even deeper closer to the
20 foot mark. Another adjustment that may indeed drive the rig deeper and
leave the shad-hummer combo as is that I will also try on my next outing is
attaching a 1/2 to 3/4 ounce bass casting sinker to the swivel on the main
line.
A few important tips are in order if you want
to give this method a shot. First, one very important thing is the line used as
your mainline. If you use 18 or 20 lb line you are not going to get the depth
you want out of this rig. I used 12 and it seemed to run fine that is plenty
strong enough for even the toughest sand bass. If you troll where hybrids lurk
you may want to use a premium line that allows for the strength of 20 lb line
and the diameter of 12 like Spider Wire or similar. One last tip if you try
this HOLD ON TO THE ROD. When on occasion you hook up with two 12-13
inch sandies with your boat moving along at 2 1/2 miles per hour a weak grip is
going to result in a lost rod. While this technique has only been used a few
times it has consistently produced anywhere I have seen others doing well with
Hell-Pet. Only time will tell how consistently it will work day in and day out
but it seems to have a lot of promise with out some of the headaches of hell-pet
and also seems far more flexible. As I experiment and improve this technique I
will keep ya'll posted on my progress.
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