Yamashita Hoochies
Yamashita hoochie colors, left to right: Mexican flag (top & bottom), blue-silver (top & bottom), green-chartreuse (top & bottom), dark purple, hot pink, silver.

These are the plastic skirts (aka hoochies) popularized among Baja anglers by The Baja Catch. They're not only extremely effective trolling lures, but they're also relatively inexpensive.

These are our go-to lures for dorado in the Cortez. Year after year, a blue-silver-pink hoochie catches more dorado in our home waters off Mulege than any other lure. It's not that we don't try lots of other stuff; it's just that time after time, dorado (and lots of sailfish too) bypass a whole spread of $15 trolling lures and nail that hoochie.

It never hurts to put a hoochie or two in your spread for tuna, but frankly albacore and, to a lesser degree, yellowfin seem to prefer Zuker's-type lures that run just under the surface. These hoochies skip and splash more than Zuker's jigs, and we think that's why the dorado and sails like them so much.

To "make" a trolling hoochie, insert a 3/4-oz. egg sinker into the head of one of the larger skirts. Then snip the very tip off the head to make a small hole. Then insert a 1/2-oz. egg sinker into the head of one of the small skirts. Thread your leader through both egg sinkers so the smaller hoochie is "inside" the larger hoochie. Finish by tying a hook to one end of the leader and a swivel to the other.
Yamashita hoochies come in literally hundreds of colors, but starting with the recommendations in The Baja Catch, we've found a few particularly effective combinations, and that's what we carry.

Again, a large blue-silver hoochie over a small pink one is hands-down our top dorado lure for the Santa Rosalia to Punta Pulpito stretch. Mexican flag over pink and green-chartreuse over pink (the "hula skirt with pink panties" described by Kira and Kelly) are also consistent producers. For some reason, sailfish seem to especially like Mexican flag.

If things are slow, we'll experiment with other combinations--Mexican flag over green-chartreuse, blue-silver over blue-silver or straight silver, and green-chartreuse over green-chartreuse have all caught lots of fish on particular days.

When there's a lot of very small bait in the water (particulary baby flying fish) and the usual patterns aren't working, we sometimes slow down a few knots and run just a small silver or small blue-silver hoochie--or maybe one small hoochie inside another to create a bit more "body." Sierra love this, but they tear hoochies to shreds.

For tuna fishing and for low-light conditions, try dark purple over either hot pink or silver.

You can also make your own very inexpensive daisy chains with these hoochies.
Need rigging supplies? Click here for egg sinkers, here for hooks, here for leader.

--Scroll down for rigged hoochies--

Large (5-1/2") Single Hoochie
$3.15 each
$2.00 each
(ship weight .02 lbs.)
Choose color

Small (4-1/2") Single Hoochie
$2.00 each
$1.25 each
(ship weight .01 lbs.)
Choose color

Large (5-1/2") Hoochie Five-pack
$14.40
$9.00
(ship weight .1 lbs.)
Choose color

Small (4-1/2") Hoochie Five-pack
$8.65
$5.50
(ship weight .05 lbs.)
Choose color


Rigged Hoochies
Don't feel like doing your own rigging? Or don't need enough lures to justify buying the leader, hooks, etc.? Let us do it for you!

We offer rigged hoochies in several of our favorite color combinations:
  • Blue-silver over hot pink -- Year after year, our top dorado-catcher in the Cortez.
  • Mexican flag over hot pink -- Our second choice for dorado and first choice for sailfish. For some reason, sails seem to prefer this combo.
  • Lime-chartreuse over hot pink -- Kira and Kelly's famous "hula skirt with pink panties," which they also refer to as "old reliable."
  • Blue-silver over silver -- A somewhat more realistic baitfish imitation that sometimes outfishes blue-silver over pink.
  • Dark purple over silver -- The albacore special, but it also works well on yellowfin.
Hoochies can be rigged three ways:
  • Standard -- Six-foot, 80-lb. Izorline mono leader, 8/0 single hook, finished with a crimped offshore loop. Hook is crimped to leader. Good all-around rig for dorado and schoolie tuna.
  • Stealth -- Six-foot, 60-lb. Izorline fluorocarbon leader, #24 double hook, finished with a double perfection loop. Hook is tied to leader with a three-turn double uni knot. Good for picky fish, especially albacore.
  • Sailfish -- Eight-foot, 150-lb. Izorline mono leader, 8/0 single hook, finished with a crimped offshore loop. Hook is crimped to leader. Good for targeting sailfish and also for not losing as many lures in places where you get a lot of incidental sails while fishing for dorado.


Standard Rigged Hoochie
$9.00 each
$7.50 each
(ship weight .20 lbs.)
Choose color

Stealth Rigged Hoochie
$13.50 each
$11.00 each
(ship weight .20 lbs.)
Choose color

Sailfish Rigged Hoochie
$9.50 each
$8.00 each
(ship weight .20 lbs.)
Choose color
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