How to Catch Hogfish on a Rod and Reel
- 1). Dig through the fish trash and remove all the fish parts. Leave only the crustacean parts. Drop them in the bucket and grind them up with your dowel. Reduce all the pieces to less than 1/4-inch. Dump the parts in the fish chum bag. Tie your bag to 100 feet of 12-pound test fishing line and attach your two-pound weight to the bag.
- 2). Move your boat over a shallow grass bed, a patch reef, around a ship wreck or any area that is inhabited by crustaceans. Most hogfish will be within 30 feet of the surface, but if you are fishing for bigger hogfish, you may have to go a little deeper. Rarely are they in water deeper than 100 feet. Drop your anchor.
- 3). Tie your 12-pound tackle to the 12-pound test line on your pole. Three or four hooks on your line is usually best. Hook shrimp to your tackle. Add a two-pound weight above the tackle on your line. You want the weight to sink to the bottom and force the tackle to rest on the bottom as well.
- 4). Drop your chum bag into the water and feed it line until it rests on the bottom. Tie your chum line to the boat. Drop the fishing line into the water and let it sink to the bottom. The closer the line drops next to the chum bag, the better. Monitor the end of your line. Hogfish are trash fish and do not fight particularly hard. As a result, any extra weight on the end of your fishing line means you may have one. Set the hook at the slightest hint of extra weight. Chumming and fishing with this technique will hook you snapper and grouper, pompano, sheepshead and porgies in addition to hogfish. What you catch is luck of the draw.