Product Description
The Jimi Hendrix
Thank you for taking time to review the product description of my hoochies. There's is nothing like my product on the market today! Every attempt to "consistently" put fish your boat is built into each and every one of these baits. The quality of the components, knots, ingenuity, attention to detail, workmanship, and pride is, without a doubt, evident in every hoochie I build. I wouldn't have it any other way for my fellow anglers. More importantly my hoochies are proven fish catching machines! Their demand can be overwhelming during the spring and summer months so please plan orders accordingly.
The hoochie skirt (bait)- I have chosen Yamashita/Golden Bait skirts from Silver Horde for their amazingly brilliant colors, tapered tentacles, thin yet extremely durable vinyl bodies. A hoochie tied with a Golden Bait skirt swims exceptionally well and is a proven killer all over the world. Simply the best skirt available.
Hooks- Gamakatsu octopus hooks are extremely sticky sharp, extremely strong, and thinner in wire diameter. All three of these attributes are very important for hooking and keeping fish on the end of your line.
Leader material- A superior hoochie cannot be built without a superior leader material like Maxima Ultragreen. Maxima is, and has been, my first choice for leader material for many years. Extremely abrasion resistant, stiff and less visible than most lines on the market today. My standard 4.25-inch hoochie leaves the angler with a choice of Maxima Ultragreen in 50# or 60#, and new for this year, is the addition of Cajun Red in 50#. This is some super stiff and tough line! Both Silver Slayer Series and mini hoochies are tied on 40# or 50# Maxima Ultragreen. Each leader is approximately 65-inches long enabling the angler to experiment with longer lengths or possible use the leader with different baits/lures such as Bait Buster, Apex, or even herring helmets.
The Knots- The quality of my knots are superior! Please note the below photo- there are no spaces between each wrap and more notably the wraps appear to be flat. Yes they are slightly flattened and the line is 50#! There is no one, and I mean no one, producing custom-tied quality like this! The first turn, or "bumper," is absolutely snug against the eye and will not slip (nor should not move). The forward portion of the Bumper Knot starts with 7 extremely tight wraps followed by 8 extremely tight wraps to complete the hook. A total of 15- wraps. That's 100-percent (plus) more protection over the hook shank than standard leaders. No more knots slipping up and down the shaft or unraveling around the hook shank or eye. Finally, no more sharp teeth cutting through just a couple of turns of line resulting in lost fish.
Twinkle Skirt Material- Having been a commercial fly tier for many years I brought a few ideas and tricks to my hoochies... Before we had colorful twinkle skirts, anglers had two choices- silver/gold piping material or being very creative. I opted for being creative and chose a metallic fabric material called Lame'. Lame', at the time, came in quite a few colors and was a great reflective material for broadening color combinations of flies and hoochies. However, Lame' was a little too stiff and didn't help with the swimming properties desired. (Lame' was the forerunner for materials like Flash-a-bou, Mirror Flash, Krystal Flash, Krinkle Flash, etc.)
For "twinkle" material on the Lighthouse and Silver Slayer series, I am using a rounded material. The reason I chose rounded over flat is very simple... on my hoochies, a rounded material absorbs all available light and surrounding colors of materials then disperses it in a magnified and highly visible flash/glimmer over 360-degrees; whereas, the same light would immediately reflect off a flat surface in the opposite direction ( at an angle relative to the light source). I have showed several people these two effects by simply slowly cupping the hoochies in my hand leaving a gap of the viewer to see. It is absolutely amazing to see the difference! Please note: Rounded "twinkle" material on the Lighthouse and Silver Slayer series lays over the top of the yarn and not surrounding it. I use standard twinkle skirts on all other hoochies which provided a 360-degree view of the entire skirt.
Yarn- Why yarn? The yarn has a four-fold purpose: (1) adds bigger profile and better silhouette, (2) wonderfully provides a beautiful and unique color combination ( See Dolphin Point below- Blue splatterback with chartreuse Scent Lock), (3) should the fish miss (or push) the hooks off to the side during the strike, the yarn will hopefully catch the fish's teeth and aid in the hooks finding their mark, and (4) the most important attribute... holds liquid scent. How many times have you witnessed your scent dispersing immediately upon hitting the water? Yarn locks a lot of scent and provides a great scent trail for the fish to find and follow.
Dolphin Point
The formula for being consistently successful
I briefly touched on the components of my hoochies, but haven't discussed way I rig and fish them this way.
Hooks- I always get a lot of unique looks when anglers first see the hook arrangement. But I'll be the first to tell you, hooks tied close together at the rear of a lure is nothing new to the Northwest. In fact, I can remember my grandfather running double offset siwash hooks tied close together on wire leader back in the 1970's. I am sure hooks tied close together will date back even further...
Over or the last several years I have been tying and fishing the hooks opposed to one another (as pictured above). Prior to that I was rigging them commercially with a single siwash hook or tying them "on keel-" meaning: both are tied facing down and riding in the same direction. However, when tied in these fashions I discovered I was missing too many fish for my comfort level on solid strikes. I had to rethink my approach and find out why. What I visualized and learned from the two different ties during one fishing trip was: (1) the hook points on the Octopus style hooks were facing the same direction because of their offset bend. (As you can see on the Dolphin Point above, the forward hook point is up and off the level surface of the background. This is because the hook shank is offset (bent) to open up the "biting area" of the hook.) Now imagine both hooks tied "on keel." We would still have two hooks back on the bait instead of one however, the two hook points would be pointing the same direction and to one side of the hoochie. What if a fish approached and hit the hoochie of the far side? The hooks points would be pointing away from the fish and possibly decreasing our chances of hooking the fish. (2) The next observation I made was on the water. I had just placed my gear over the side and noticed the flasher and hoochie rotating as normal, but then it dawn on me the hooks where also rotating with the movement. Again, if the fish approached and struck the hoochie from an 7 or 8 o'clock angle, my hooks could have quite possibly been pointing away from the fish's mouth (opposite direction) or been pushed away from the fish during the strike by hitting the back of the hook shank(s) and not the bite area of the hook(s). This, I believe, resulted in a lot of miss opportunities to put a fish in the boat.
In order to correct the aforementioned issues I simply opposed the hooks which dramatically doubled the opening of the bite area on both sides of the hoochie. and as my hoochie rotated with flasher movement I had at least one hook point facing the fish's point of attack from any direction. Not only did this immediately resulted more hook-ups, but a tremendous amount of hook-ups! To this date and numerous fish, my hook-up ratio continues to hover around 90-percent. An interesting fact to this style of tying is that normally both hooks are firmly secure in or around the fish's mouth.
At many of the seminars or presentations I conduct, the question always comes up, "Do you really place the hooks that far back?" The answer is, "Yes." Salmon, by nature, are short striking fish because they have a difficult time catching prey. Short striking is further complicated by poor vision in the depths where light has already begun to filter out. It is also believed that a Chinook's cone of vision is different because of their instinctive inclination to deepwater thus becoming near-sighted. Have you seen the video of the Chinook trying to strike the plug cut herring? The fish misses the hooks over 20-plus times! If this isn't short striking.... Salmon always strike your trolled lure from behind and hook placement is absolutely critical to be consistent at catch salmon.
Another question that is often asked is, "Do fish see the hooks? Why do they hit the bait or lure if the hooks are exposed?" The answer to the first part of the question is, "Quite possibly." I believe fish are more intent or focused in striking the bait if you have presented it correctly (or to the fish's liking). As far as expose hooks... if fish knew what hooks were we would never catch them- right?. The key factors to remember with any fish are: Sight, Sound and Smell. Your lure must have: (1) (Sight) some form of movement/action mimicking crippled, wounded, fleeing forage; (2) (Sound) Unlike spoons or plugs, hoochies do not provide sound/vibrations of their own however, a flasher provides a tremendous amount of vibration and movement; and (3) (Smell) A quality scent for masking and attracting is imperative when fishing for salmon. Remember the olfactory sense of a salmon is one of the most acute on the planet.
Leaders- You are probably wondering why such a heavy leader material. It isn't to guard against breakage from large fish. I am transferring the maximum amount of action from the rotating flasher down the leader to the hoochie. A stiff and heavy leader material will really make a hoochie dance in the water. A hoochie tied on a smaller diameter lines are restricted in their ability to dance well because the thinner a diameter becomes the limper the line becomes too.
Pro Staff Tested
This last year I amassed a group individuals that each have over 30-years of experience chasing salmon on our local waters. They're not your normal "weekend warriors" or "summer warriors," they breathe fishing the saltchuck year around in all conditions. Simple put, these guys know how to fish! Each and every new color or style of a Captain Downriggin hoochie is thoroughly field tested before they hit the website or the retail shelves. Why? If it works- it works! If it doesn't... I damn sure don't want my name on it nor you wasting your money! I want you to catch fish
Quality Assurance
I am committed to providing anglers with a superior and unique product. Each hoochie is manufactured by me, and only me, with a tremendous amount of pride and attention to detail. I carefully inspect every leader and all components 3-times before packaging. I spare no expense in obtaining first rate material and components for the manufacturing of my hoochies. If you chose to purchase products from Captain Downriggin's, I am going to give each and every product my full attention and devotion to quality. These hoochies are not whipped up in 3-minutes just to get them done and out the door. They are methodically constructed receiving the same professional commitment that I demand at the end of my line every time I fish. If I wouldn't fish with the finished product, I can't expect you too either.