Thread: Hogfish Sunday Funday

Rare treat today when my oldest and I get a chance to get out by ourselves but Grandma and granddaughter wanted some chill time that didn’t involve saltwater.

Daughter #1 and I have always had a sweet spot for hogfish but regulations here in key largo have tightened over the years and we’re only allowed 1 per person in a limited season and aren’t allowed to spearfish for them making it difficult to harvest as they’re tough to get here on hook and line as your bait gets devoured by other reef fish.

So we’ve developed a technique called “hogdogging” where we get in the water with mask, fins and snorkel and a heavy duty 8’ spinning rig with small live blue crabs on a treble hook with a 1/8 oz weight and visually stalk our fish to locate a legal one 16” or greater and catch ‘em underwater trying to avoid giant barracudas and sharks. Over the years we’ve developed a tag team approach with one person fishing and the other person in the water watching their backs and netting the caught fish and getting it above water before the predators attack.

limit is 1 per person but they are by far the best eating salt water fish and usually come with a bonus of finding a lobster or 2.

Ayeeee!

—mud