Why a hogfish on a jig is special
Hogfish, often called hog snapper, are actually wrasse. They get the name from their long, pig-like snout, which they use to root through the sand for crabs, clams, snails and other small shellfish. That feeding style is exactly why they rarely hit a lure: most hogfish are taken by spearfishing, and the rest mostly on live shrimp.
So when one eats a jig, it's worth writing down how it happened. Our crew fished a shallow day off Crystal River, on Florida's Gulf Coast, right after a hard freeze. The bait anglers on board pulled up around 30 hogs that day. Derek Engle stuck with a micro jig the whole afternoon, and finally got the bite he was waiting for: a nice keeper male hogfish on a 20 g WYLD.
Where to find hogfish
Hogfish live on structure: hard bottom, reef edges, rocky ledges and wrecks, usually close to patches of sand where they can dig. Most are found in roughly 20 to 100 feet of water. On our trip, they were in 30 to 50 feet.
Before you commit to the jig, make sure they're there. Derek started the afternoon on bait, and only switched to the micro jig once he and a few others had pulled up some hogs.
The method: make the sand puff
The key came from the captain. Hogfish won't really feed any higher than a couple of inches off the bottom, and he makes his weight hit the sand from time to time so it puffs up and "calls" the hogs over. Derek turned that into a jigging method:
- Stay on the bottom. Lift the jig only 8 to 12 inches, never more.
- Touch down every drop. Let the jig hit the bottom on each fall so the sand puffs up.
- Let it sit. Leave it on the bottom for a couple of seconds before the next pitch.
- Keep it tiny. Make another small pitch and repeat, over and over.
It isn't fast fishing. Derek caught gags, grunts and flounder working the jig this way before the right bite came, and it was the only hog he got on the jig that day. But it was a good one: a keeper male, still with the 20 g WYLD in its mouth in the photo at the top of this page. You can tell the males by the dark band that runs from the snout back to the first dorsal spine, like a mask.
If the hogs won't commit to the jig, the classic backup is a live or fresh shrimp on a small hook, right on the bottom.
The gear
The jig that did it was the WYLD 20g. The WYLD is named for its erratic free fall, and its three-faced shape gives it a tight wobble when you pitch it; it's built for calm water with little or no current, which suits shallow, slow fishing like this.
WYLD 20g
- Erratic, wobbling fall from a three-faced shape.
- Made for calm water with little or no current.
- Small enough to keep right on the bottom for hogfish.
Micro jigs need light tackle to work properly. These are the two setups our team has used:
The Tribute SPJ in Power 0 is our lightest slow pitch rod.
Everything else that eats a micro jig
The hogfish was the goal, but the micro jig caught something almost every drop. On the 20 g WYLD, Derek landed gags, including some respectable keepers, tons of grunts, porgies, lizardfish, mangrove snapper and a flounder, a new species for him. Earlier that morning, with the gags stacked in 30 feet, a DEEP 50g went five for five. For the gag side of that day, see our gag grouper guide.
Light gear isn't only for shallow water either. At sunset over a wreck in a little over 400 feet, Tristan Terorotua dropped a STRYKE 80g on the Tribute Power 0 and hooked up on every drop for an hour: tuna and amberjack, all released, and a blast on such light gear.
You'll find all our micro weights in the slow pitch jigs range.
Before you go
Hogfish rules in Florida vary by area and change often. Check the current seasons, size and bag limits with FWC before every trip.
