Let’s talk about the Spine Rig, which influencers on social media are calling the Hover Rig/Hover Juggle/Hover Strolling. Its exact origin is unknown but it is a Japanese finesse fishing technique that uses a light wire jig hook threaded along the spine of the bait, hence the name, with a nail weight inserted through the head of the bait. The bait of choice in Japan for the Spine Rig (Hover Rig) is the Fish Arrow Flash J, a little minnow-style bait with foil in the middle of it giving it a nice flash action in the water that hovers (the other namesake) nicely on the spine rig, along with darting erratically side to side as you twitch it. 

Typically, on the spine rig, you should try to use as light of wire hook and weight as possible. When fishing shallower with little wind or current you can use a light size #2 hook with a 3/64th oz nail weight but if you plan on fishing deeper or in windier conditions you will want to upsize your weight. In Japan, the main hook for the Spine Rig (Hover Rig) is the Spine Hook by Fish Arrow which was first available in 2018. Now that the spine rig has been taking off there are other manufacturers entering the market, most notability Ryugi who upgraded on the original Fish Arrow hook by adding in a bait keep and Core Tackle that went a step further adding on the weight to the jig hook which allows anglers to save on weights and baits. 

What you will need to fish the Spine Rig (Hover Rig)

As it is a finesse technique you will want to be using a spinning rod – if you really want you can use BFS baitcasting gear. We recommend using as light of line as you can get away with while using braid to leader. Here is our recommended set up after fishing the spine rig (hover rig) extensively over the last few years – 

Rod Setup

• Rod: 6’8” to 7’6” ML to LSpinning Rod with a Fast Action
  • We prefer a long rod to make long casts with it in clear water situations. A P5 Baby Plugging works great. The Steez MML the one is great too but what isn’t that rod good at!
• Line: 10 – 20 lb Braid (we use 15lb) to a 6 or 8lb Fluorocarbon leader. We prefer D-Braid with Sunline Sniper as the Leader
• Reel – Get the reel wit the best drag your money can buy

To Rig It

• Hook: A size 1 or 2 light wire jig hook – if you want to do it the original way we recommend a size 2 Fish Arrow Spine Rig Hook. Can use larger sizes for larger baits
• Weights: 1/64, 1/32, 3/64, 1/16 ounce nail weights – you can do tungsten or lead but we prefer tungsten – the weight you use depends on the depth you plan on fishing along with the wind/current.
• Pro Tip: add a touch of super glue to the weight before inserting it along with a touch of super glue to the base of the hook to go through less baits.

What baits go well on it?

Well, there are a lot of baits that work on the hover rig but here are a few that we’ve had really strong success with. Lures with less salt content tend to suspend better so we prefer them but baits with heavy salt work well too. Here are a few of our favorites using our favorite dropshot colors in the various baits:

• Fish Arrow Flash J in the 2”, 3”, and 4” sizes
• The Berkley Flat Worm
• Deps Bull Flat
• Megabass Hazedong
• Net Baits Stumpy Crush
• Strike King Dream Shot or Magnum Dream Shot (Even Better)
• Beast Coast Magic Flick
• Fish Arrow Split Tail Shad
• 6th Sense Juggle Minnow
• Strike King Caffeine Shad
• Many Beaver Style Baits (go with a bigger hook size)

How to fish it – 

Their really isn’t a wrong way to fish it but here are a few of the main ways we’ve used to catch fish on the hover rig. 

• Colder Water – find a piece of cover with it be a dock, laydown, shell bar, etc and cast in on up there letting it fall on a semi-slack line as you reel the bait in slowly. During the cold weather months, a straight slow retrieve with your rod tip up high will allow the bait to hover back to you slowly. When doing this in cold weather we will often do a reel, reel, reel – pause cadence but remember to do it slowly as the baitfish we’re mimicking aren’t moving fast during this time. The bites are often easy to miss as fish will grab the bait as it is falling and swim right at you, so watch your line closely.
• Warmer/Warming Water – this is where you can fish it slow like in the cold water mentioned above (but c’mon let’s speed it up!) or you can start to get erratic with it! Pitch it out there along a weed line, skip it under a dock, but just make sure you’re around cover that fish could be holding. (captain obvious over here) Let it sink to your desired depth then give it a twitch and start reeling slowly but doing more of a reel, reel – jerk, reel – jerk, reel, reel, reel – jerk – type cadence that is more aggressive to trigger the fish. This has been a killer underneath docks for largemouth and around boulders in 10ft of water for smallmouth up in the north country. Again, watch your line and if it feels a little heavy set the hook on’em!

And that is it, that is the spine rig/hover rig and everything you need to know on how to fish it! Now go put the hammer down and catch you a toad.