Huddgill Rigging

[WRB]

For those of you who have Huddgill and haven't fished yet, you maybe disappointed with getting a hook set with this weedless small swimbait.

The new Huddgill is an amazing small 1 1/2oz life like female bluegill and bass like it. The problem I had, because it's spawn season now where I fish, the bass strike it but very difficult to get a hook set. If the bass eats it and you let it turn to move away, you can get a hook set without modifying the lure.

Here is what I did; use the Burch Brown treble technique except; don't place it on the head or wire the hook to the lure hook. Use a cross link snap and #2 round bend treble, 40# wire, 2 each A3.crimp sleeves.

Use 1 sleeve to crimp on the hook, the other to make a small loop 1" away from the treble hook eye for the snap. Place the small loop onto the open snap, run the snap through the lure hook eye, one treble hook point goes into a small rectangular opening In the Huddgills belly.

The Huddgill is no longer weedless, however the fins help hide the stinger hook.

Good luck!

Tom

PM your email if you want a photo.

[Montanaro]

One fella here mentioned that cutting the hook slot longer will help some

[BassObsessed]

That may come in handy soon. Thanks.

[gulfcaptain]

I'm still waiting for mine, but a buddy got his and got one on it Thursday.  Good advice and tip for stinger rigging though.

[Montanaro]

Some people add frog hook as a stinger with braid tied to eye of the hudd. Looked into a bit ago and a 3/0 frog hook is too wide for the gill.

[WRB]

These folks have obviously not tried to rig a HuddGill. The gill is small, the hook eye is inside the mouth and difficult to thead any line through, braid would require a needle threader. You must push back the gills mouth to expose the hook eye, while keeping pressure, then try to thread line through the eye...it's not easy. A average size 3 snap works a lot easier.

If you slice the head open to increase the hook point, you may ruin the lure, don't try that, it may tear open during the hook set and fighting the bass.

What I have posted works, doesn't damage the Huddgill, it is independent of the treble hook.

Tom

[rippin-lips]

The appeal of the Hudd gill to me is its weedless design. From what I've seen most people haven't had anything bad to say about the hook up ratio of the gill. Most actually say it's quite good. I did read that an upward hook set works best. If I have troubles I might give this a shot. Thanks for the tip. There are a lot of reports of it not running straight though.

[Dogmatic]

These folks have obviously not tried to rig a HuddGill. The gill is small, the hook eye is inside the mouth and difficult to thead any line through, braid would require a needle threader. You must push back the gills mouth to expose the hook eye, while keeping pressure, then try to thread line through the eye...it's not easy. A average size 3 snap works a lot easier.

If you slice the head open to increase the hook point, you may ruin the lure, don't try that, it may tear open during the hook set and fighting the bass.

What I have posted works, doesn't damage the Huddgill, it is independent of the treble hook.

Tom

I take a razor and make just a small slit to open up the hook slot to all my weedless, from the grass minnow and shad all the way up to the 8" have never had a problem. I usually do more damage hooking it to my keeper, and nothing rips the crap out of my hudds more than a BB rigged treble w/o. the barb cut off.(Toothy critters are the worse). Also, of course, there's this stuff called Mend-It(or Hudd-bond) it works wonders. No offense, but if I want a bed gill, I tie on a Mattlures. I bought my Hudd gills for "weedless" applications.

[Montanaro]

I managed to tie a Palomar knot twice on my gills...took a while though...

No bites but it's very weedless, the thought of using it to punch lily pads went through my mind. I swam it up and over timber too. Quick tip, if you bring the rof5 to the surface it will want to lay on its side and you can 'surf' it along slowly like a dying wakebait.

[WRB]

The reason I posted this was from 4 hours of several strikes from big bass in the area of nest sites, not on beds. The bass would strike the Huddgill hard reject it instantly and leave. I caught 1 that actually ate it and turned with it. Got out my swimbait kit and made up a wire as discribed, attached it to a clip and went on to catch nearly every bass that hit the Huddgill. Weeds in our lakes don't show up for another month.

Use a SD jam knot, easier knot for lures like a Huddgill.

The stinger hook is easy to add on, no lure mod needed.

Tom

[SPEEDBEAD.]

My only concern with adding a treble to the top of the bait for this purpose would be adding top weight to a bait that is already proving to be unstable in motion.

 

There are TONS of reports out there of baits running incorrectly out of the package, leaning to a side. If you try this, it may exacerbate the problem without adding some type of counter weight on the bottom of the bait.

 

Just a thought.

 

 

LOL Edit: Just re-read where you say the hook goes on the bottom. Disregard.

[WRB]

Bumped this up for those who are just receiving the Huddgill.

Tom

[ib_of_the_damned]

I still have a couple Huddgills still in their packages... Have not fished them yet. For all you SoCal city park hoppers, would now be the time to throw them? I haven't seen any beds yet at the lake I fish (MSP - Pretty dingy green water 1-2ft visibility) but was going to head to my old stomping grounds and hit up Tri-City Park or Laguna Lake.

[Big Bait Fishing]

i am not a fan of belly hooks on swimbaits , i'd rather tale my chances with a top jig hook .