Hover rigging is the summer’s hottest new bass tactic. Here’s what you need to know • Outdoor Canada

There’s one factor you’ll be able to say for sure about bass fishing: in case you snooze you lose, particularly in the case of the most recent shows. I imply, no sooner had moping taken centre stage—and virtually each high prize in professional bass fishing—when hover rigging pushed it apart. A part of the explanation it caught on so shortly was the arrival of forward-facing sonar. Find it irresistible or hate it, this expertise is now exhibiting us issues about fish behaviour we’d by no means earlier than realized.

For instance, we now understand how usually bass, particularly smallmouth, will droop in a single spot, from just a few ft off the underside as much as the center of the water column. Strategy the fish in your boat and attempt to sit over high of them, nonetheless, and so they’ll drop right down to the underside and go on excessive alert—in the event that they don’t break up up and scatter as an alternative.

That’s what we usually noticed once we relied on 2D sonar. Now due to forward-facing sonar, we’ve found the motion could be otherworldly if we keep again from the fish and flick a bait over their heads as an alternative. And that’s the secret behind hover rigging.

RIG IT RIGHT

Within the days earlier than forward-facing sonar, we’d connect a slender, fluke-style soft-plastic minnow to an appropriately weighted jig and fan forged it across the boat. If we had been fortunate, we’d swim it previous a bass and get a chunk. If we weren’t so charmed, although, we’d sit out the dance. Now that forward-facing sonar lets us know if there’s a celebration happening 20, 30 or 40 ft away, nonetheless, we will crash it from a distance. The important thing right here is to make use of a jig that’s a lot lighter than you’re accustomed to. It must be so mild, actually, that if you pitch it out and let it flutter down, you’ll be able to shake your rod tip and make the soft-plastic bait tremble like a mortally wounded minnow, simply inches above the bass. The presentation can get even higher if you trend your individual hover jig set-up.

My favorite manner is to make use of a pointy, unweighted light-wire jig hook with a 90-degree eye. As a substitute of inserting the hook into the top of the soft-plastic the normal manner, nonetheless, I pierce it by means of the again of the bait, about one-eighth of an inch behind the nostril. I then thread the hook by means of the physique of the bait in order that the shank runs by means of its high half, exiting the place the dorsal fin could be situated.

I additionally use a hook that’s one dimension smaller than if I had been utilizing an ordinary lead head. That manner, the hook eye will likely be flush with the again and barely rising as soon as I’ve completed rigging. Lastly, I slide a tungsten nail weight into the nostril of the soft-plastic so it runs parallel to, and just below, the shank. I then add a drop of tremendous glue to lock the nail weight in place, stopping an acrobatic bass from flinging it out because it hurls its physique out of the water.

One other different cool strategy to trend a hover jig is to put your jig hook in a fly-tying vice and wrap the nail weight to the shank of the hook, protecting the load’s pointed finish beneath and simply in entrance of the hook eye. That manner, the pointed finish can act like a bait keeper. And as a bonus, your customized hover jig will price simply pennies in comparison with a store-bought selection.

KEEP IT LIGHT

Regardless of the way you trend your hover rig, bear in mind to maintain it as mild as doable. That manner, if you forged it out—I favor to pitch it underhanded—you can also make it carry out a death-defying dance over the fish. You’ve by no means been ready to do this earlier than with a jig-hooked soft-plastic, and when the bass see it, they’ll go loopy. The identical goes for walleye, for that matter, positively making hover rigging the new new tactic of the summer season.

Bonus tip: Sort out

Since hover rigging is a finesse presentation, I favour utilizing a seven-foot to seven-foot six-inch medium- to medium-light-action spinning rod and reel spooled with six- to eight-pound braid. Utilizing an Alberto knot, I additionally connect a monofilament or fluorocarbon chief of comparable energy. And since the rig encompasses a needle-sharp hook, there’s no must slam the fish. Merely lean into it as an alternative, and the hook will embed itself.