We have added two new soft bait series to our line up this year: the Skinny Hogy Series and the Paddle Jerk Series. Not only that, but have also added another great Hogy Fresh flavor: Herring! 

The Incredible Edible Soft Bait

At Hogy Lures, we love soft baits for so many reasons. Not only are soft baits the most life like baits available, but they are so versatile in terms of how you can rig them. With the same bait, you can rig it for top-water, intermediate depth or fished down deep. You can cast them, troll them and even drift with them. As a result, with only a small amount of rigging supplies, you can adapt to just about any fishing situation imaginable. Here's a break down on how we rig 'em!

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Light Tackle Spin-Fishing for Stripers

Owner Cutting Point Offset Worm Hook

Rigging a soft bait Texas style (see how in this video) is a method that's been well established in the world of largemouth bass fishing for decades. It can be done with just about any hook with a long shaft but offset hooks that feature a 90-degree jog in the shaft and another 90-degree bend slightly behind the eye of the hook work best. Hooks of this type allow the angler to easily Texas-rig their soft baits so the baits are weedless and still maintain the flexing action that makes soft baits so effective. The problem is that most of the smaller offset worm hooks on the market are made for relatively small baits and are available only up to 5/0 size, which is just too small for most larger soft baits. Also, many of them are made with a fairly thin wire, fine for largemouth bass but not nearly strong enough for bigger fish including musky, big striped bass and school tuna.

That's why we were thrilled to discover the Owner model 5110-171 (7/0) and model 5110-211 (11/0). These hooks interface perfectly with our most of our baits. Beyond that, the quality of these hooks is superb. They are made of a super hard forged steel alloy and feature Owner's patented Cutting Point, a triple-edged cutting surface that penetrates the mouths of even the toughest gamefish - and the hook point stays needle sharp for fish after fish. How strong are they? Mike has caught bluefin tuna breaking the 100-pound mark with the 11/0 model and has taken stripers to 45 pounds on both the 7/0 and 11/0. The finish on these hooks is a black chrome that is amazingly resistant to corrosion, too.

Perhaps the best feature of the large Owner offset worm hooks is the length of the "nib" - the portion of the hooks where it is bent. A bigger nib means more "meat" on the hook, which results in a more secure Texas rig. Less time is spent adjusting the hook and there is less of a tendency to tear the bait, a major problem with shorter nibs on most of the hooks on the market.

To say that we love these hooks is an understatement. They just plain work, and there are no hooks on the market that come close in terms of durability and hook-setting potential. Rigged correctly with the Owner Cutting Point Offset Worm Hook, your Hogy soft bait will be virtually weedless and will still swim with the amazing Hogy action. Give them a try!