Spring Hog Fishing

Called Keith McDowell from Sportsmen's Warehouse and asked him how he would fish for spring hogs from a boat in the Columbia River. "There are a couple of ways but a real quick and easy standard rigging is going to be about an 8 foot 6 to 9 or 9 1/2 foot rod, usually one of the heavier actions. You will want to use at least 20 pound monofilament or 65 pound braid. You are going to come off of your mainline out of the pole right down to a three way swivel that is going to go out about a foot or foot and a half to a triangle flasher, hotspot makes one called the Agitator, then you are going to run back from that another between four and 5 feet to your double hook rig, cut your leader in half, put a bead chain swivel in there because you are going to hook a herring on there that is going to spin just like a top so we want a bead chain swivel in between there to prevent line twists. That is pretty much your standard rig except going back to the three way swivel, the third dropper on that is going to be about an 18 inch dropper of a lighter pound test so I would usually run 15 to 17 pound test or if you're running braid you can run a little bit higher and that will drop down to a cannonball weight and that can vary depending on how hard the river is running or if it's an incoming or outgoing tide, how deep it is."