The Handbook of Flappin' Hog Tactics
June 25, 2008
Chapter 1
How To Fish Flappin' Hogs on Weddless Skirted Jigs
In this chapter, let's leap head first into using Yamamoto Flappin' Hogs on weedless skirted jigs. We'll be using the Flappin' Hogs as trailers with the Yamamoto 11-series skirts on weedless jig heads. The color codes for particularly good pairings of skirts and trailers will be referenced throughout the article.
Top three colors worldwide plus new color #318 (green pumpkin with red flake). Yamamoto offers in excess of 150 soft bait colors. Yet the three most popular and productive Yamamoto colors worldwide are:
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Watermelon pepper #194 (shown far left),
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Green pumpkin pepper #297 (2nd left), and
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Watermelon pepper with red #208 (2nd from right).
Now, green pumpkin with red #318 (far right) is one of the newest colors in the Yamamoto product line, and should grow in popularity to quickly become one of the top-selling and best-catching colors in GYB's product line.
New color #335 (blue with blue flake). The Flappin' Hog is partially submerged here. It's perched on a brush limb like an emergent larval insect crawling out of the water.
New color #335 Flappin' Hog underwater. A silicone rubber half-skirt (also called a "finesse" skirt) is shown here. You can see how the skirt expands and flares out when paused.
Looking closely at this underwater shot shows how the strands on a Yamamoto soft plastic skirt (color #221) flare straight out when paused under water. Photo also demonstrates the many different "grab points" or multiple handles by which bass can grab a piece of the Flappin' Hog. Those grab points can often be a key to Flappin' Hog fishing success.
Color #208 (watermelon pepper with red) skirt and #208 trailer.
Color #208 skirt and #051 (black with red) trailer
The Flappin' Hog was originally designed for the Japanese market. I'm not sure what action the Japanese designer was aiming to achieve with all the many different appendages. Their are eight attachments to the main body - two balls on the end of stalks, two short flat shovel scoop type arms, two bean-shaped ridged pods and two flat, floppy treaded bunny ear-shaped tails.
Color #051 Flappin' Hog and #208 skirt rest on lake bottom, looking like a plump crawdad.
Underwater shot is a little hazy but clearly demonstrates how Yamamoto's 11-series skirt puffs out when paused.
Color #021 Flappin' Hog with #021 skirt looks like a dark critter crawling cautiously through flooded brush.
There are plenty of floppy appendages for a bass to grab in order to yank this critter around and injure it before eating it.
A silicone rubber half-skirt is shown above with color #301 Flappin' Hog. I favor using Yamamoto's 11-series skirts or silicone rubber half-skirts ("finesse" skirts) rather than full-sized silicone skirts. Why? Because the shorter skirts expose more of the grab handles.
Who knows what the Flappin' Hog imitates, but bass love to take a piece of it, and that's their downfall. Once they get a small piece, they can't help but come back for the rest of it. They can't eat just one piece and not want to eat the whole thing. Color #221 skirt shown with #301 Flappin' Hog.
Flappin' Hog on a flipping jig head with an 11-series skirt as it swims through shallow weedy brush cover.
Flappin' Hog perched quietly on a limb like some kind of aquatic critter barely above water.
Yamamoto's 11-series skirts. Yamamoto's 11-series skirts are long-lasting and durable. You can often expect the same Yamamoto skirt to last all day or even all weekend. Occasionally, a fish will tear a skirt apart, but that's unusual. A bag of 20 Yamamoto skirts can last you a long, long time.
Flipping jig dressed with color #221 skirt and #194 Flappin' Hog.
Flipping jig dressed with color #297 skirt and #213 Flappin' Hog.