Since I have been talking about Humpies, I figured it was time that you all got a look and a small explanation of the rigs I use. Anyone that has fished for humpies before has probably seen these rigs in one form or the other. This is mainly for those that have wanted to join in the madness but wasn’t quite sure what to use or what to do. With this post I will try to enlighten those folks a little bit so they can have just as good a chance at catching a humpy as anyone else =) .
Lets talk about salt water fishing for the humps first. There are only a few rigs most people use for fishing these feisty little critter out in the salt.
If you have a boat with down riggers they have a pre-made kit that you can use called the Humpy Special. What it consists of is a 8-11″ White Dodger with a 16″ leader tied to a 2/0 hook with a Pink Squid above the hook. You can also use this without down riggers by using an 8-10 oz cannon ball or banana weight 30″ in front of the White Dodger. You could also use 8″ silver Flasher with the squid. Some people also like to use cut-plug herring behind the Dodgers/Flashers. This is pretty much the only rigs or some variation of them that are restricted to boat usage. Remember if your trolling for Humpies SLOW SLOW SLOW, 1 – 1.5 mph.
Since I do most of my Humpy fishing from the beach or the river bank the following rigs are the ones I am most comfortable with, plus some of these can be used from a boat.
The first rig is pretty simple, Buzz Bomb, it comes already packaged and ready to go all you have to do is take it out of the packaging put it on your line and your ready to go.
Here is a pic of what it would look like ready to fish….
Now if you wanna fancy it up, you can add some 4 or 5 mm beads and a pink hook……
If your feeling real froggy you can throw on a 2.0 – 2.5″ Mini Squid with the beads and pink hook, just make sure to put the squiddly BETWEEN the beads….
Now that you know what Buzz Bombs look like, I will show you a shot of the Rotators, you set them up the same exact way as the Buzz Bombs. For reference there is a Buzz Bomb at the top of the picture, which is another color I like to use when the Humps are being picky.
Here is some of the jigs i tie up, these you can use both in the salt and in the rivers. I tend to stick with the 3/8 oz in the salt, and the 1/2 oz and 1/4 oz for jiggin’ the river.
Next up some river rigs and lures I use. First up is the selection of Dick NIte lures that work for me. Not the best picture so from top to bottom is Pink, Copper with a pink tail, Silver with a pink tail and White with a pink tail.
The actual rig I use for Dick Nites can also be used for many different lures, Wicked WIllies and the Small Quik Fish come to mind, pretty much any smallish lure that you want to drift.
The last setup I will cover is called a “Plunking Rig”, its a rig that you use when you wanna do some lazy fishing. You set it up, throw on a sand shrimp, cast it out and let it sit there until a fish strikes. Simple and effective way to catch Humps on the river. The rig consists of a triple swivel off your main line, to that you attach a small leader with a lead weight, that will range from 3 oz as high as 8 oz depending on what river your on and the amount of flow the river is producing. Off the last loop of the triple swivel you will attach your main leader which will typically be 24-36″ of line on which you will add a “Spin N Glow” (these come in a multitude of colors, sizes and shapes), most of the time you will want it to have at least some pink on it, next will be 2 5mm beads and finally a 2/0-1/0 hook, The trick to this leader is to tie them yourself because you want to attach the hook with an Egg Loop Knot, in a future tip I will show you how to tie these up. It will save you tons of cash when you learn to tie them, not to mention it will give you something to do while you wait for a fish to grab your hook.
Alright folks that will wrap it up for this post, these are the rigs I find the most useful, and the ones I teach folks I fish with or folk on the bank or beach that look like they need some pointers.
Until next time, “Fish On Bitches”
Fishin with Winkstr 