Megabass Bumpee Hog fishing lure review

Lure Review

The Megabass Bumpee Hog, strong to a fault? (continued)

Retrieving: The profile of the Bumpee Hog is a cross between a worm and a crawdad and can be fished like either. I started fishing the bait on a Texas rig with a slow dragging retrieve. I didn’t seem to get much interest from fish so I went to a more aggressive popping retrieve down the bank back to the boat. It was using this more antagonistic retrieve that I finally drew strikes. Perhaps it was the imitation of a retreating crawdad or the extra movement of the appendages, but whatever it was fish were now taking notice. The only problem was I wasn’t sticking any of them.

Out of the package the lure is infused with scent, and is slick to the touch

Tick, Tick, Strike, Set….nothing, that was the routine, and I quickly got sick of it. When I retrieved the bait back to the boat I noticed that the lure would return hunched over but the hook point was still buried in the interior of the bait each time. It appeared as if fish were either short striking the lure or the VIOS material was so resilient that the hook was not able to penetrate the surface of the lure enough to properly stick the fish. I kept moving the hook point further and further up until it was barely skin hooked, and when I say barely I mean just a few millimeters of the actual hook point itself.

Time to see what this bait can do

When retrieving through structure I found that this was enough to keep the lure weedless, and sure enough the next few fish that hit the lure stayed pinned on. The Bumpee Hog is so durable and elastic that I had to change the way that I rig weedless to accommodate the attributes of the VIOS plastic.

Rigged weedless like normal baits I was losing fish

I also tested the lure with various jigheads and found the bait to catch fish as well, in our test tank we sunk the bait with a jighead and witnessed the bait rise up realistically in a defensive position with claws reaching outwards. The VIOS material offers unique buoyancy that helps deliver presentations not normally seen with traditional plastics. Rigged with a tungsten weight I also pitched the lure into tules and weed patches and found the lure to be effective as well.

The plastic is so tough that a buried hookpoint has trouble breaking through on some strikes, it is best to go to a very subtle skin hook rigging

One final benefit of the VIOS plastic is that there is a lot less adjustment necessary on your lure. Unlike other plastics the bait will not work itself down the hook, once the bait is rigged it pretty much stays in place until a fish strikes the bait. Less time wasted making adjustments means more time in the strike zone. This also makes the bait a good choice for use as a jig trailer (the 3” length is better for this) as the bait will stay on even punching jigs.

Pitching the Bumpee Hog into wrecks on the Delta

Durability: It goes without saying that this lure is durable, as far as plastics go this is as hard-wearing as they come. No fish ever ripped an appendage off this lure, repeat rigging did almost nothing to mar the surface of the bait, and perhaps most impressive was the Bumpee Hog survived plenty of tugging on from our staff trying to see just how far the bait could stretch. After fishing the lure for about an hour at a time the slick oily feel of the lure goes away, but there is still some scent infused into the lure itself. I found by putting the Bumpee Hog back into the packet it actually does pick the oil back up and within a day the lure once again looked as good as new. Over the course of the tests these baits held up well, and the only baits I lost were to nasty structure where the weight or hook became so snagged and the lures were lost when the line snapped during attempts to free the lures.

We tested buoyancy in our test tank, and the Bumpee Hog gets into defensive position quickly

Price & Applications: The Megabass Bumpee Hog retails for $9.99 per pack, and because there are only three baits per pack this works out to $3.33 per bait making each Bumpee Hog cost roughly about the same price as a mainstream crankbait. If you think back to the SnapBack plastics which made use of similar material they retailed for about 4-5 dollars per pack and there were five baits in each pack, this is only one third of the cost. The concept of a premium plastic is still somewhat of a tough pill to swallow as plastics usually are not good for as many fish, and are more easily lost to snags as they are designed to be contact baits.

The Bumpee Hog catches fish, but not any better than many cheaper competitors

The Bumpee Hog can certainly catch fish (once you have the appropriate rigging down) and the excellent durability makes it a good choice as a jig trailer as well. Still for more than three dollars per bait this is one plastic that will likely find a home mostly among fans of the Megabass brand.

Ratings (We've re-calibrated our ratings standard for 2008 and have included a key at the bottom of the following matrix as a guide):

Megabass Bumpee Hog Ratings (?/10)
Construction/Quality	Good construction that makes use of quality materials with distinct characteristics	7
Performance	Fair performance on par with other creature and crawdad baits, no better, no worse, but certainly more durable	6
Price	Ouch, at over 3 dollars to bait this is one expensive plastic. Is it worth the premium for the enhanced durability? I don't think so.	3
Features	The big feature on this bait is durability but this same attribute affects the rigging method and unless skin hooked it is possible to lose fish. The bait floats nicely but this is not always desirable either. As durable as the plastic is it still can be lost to a snag like any other plastic	6
Design (Ergonomics)	Overall the durability and the performance is a wash for me on this bait, and I didn't find the bait easier to fish than other plastics. Sure it lasted longer, but I also lost fish when not skin rigged carefully	5
Application	The Bumpee Hog scored good in this category as it can be rigged various ways and is durable enough to be used as a trailer as well	7
Total Score		5.66
Ratings Key: 1 = terrible : 2 = poor : 3 = lacking : 4 = sub par : 5 = mediocre : 6 = fair : 7 = good : 8 = great : 9 = excellent : 10 = unbelievable!

Pluses and Minuses:

Plus Minus
J Very durable	L Rigging deep prevents hook from exiting easily on strikes
J Differentiated buoyancy	L Expensive for a plastic
J Can be rigged different ways or used as a trailer	L Not any more effective than cheaper plastics in drawing strikes

Conclusion: There are many products that Megabass produces that I really have become fond of, but the Bumpee Hog is not one of them. While the bait catches fish it didn’t improve my numbers or quality and performed about the same as other proven baits like Zoom Brush Hogs or Yamamoto Kreatures. While the bait looks good, performs on par with competitive offerings, and is more durable than just about anything out there the VIOS material is a little tricky to rig at times and is very expensive. It is a valid point that the lures are somewhat worth the expenditure because they last so much longer than traditional plastics, especially those infused with a lot of salt like Yamamoto Kreatures, but the fact remains that no matter how well-built a plastic it still can be lost to an unfortunate snag as plastics more than any other lure are put into snag packed structure. At over three dollars per bait I’ll stick with my traditional plastics for now, or save that money and load up on some more Deep X and Vision 110 hardbaits that are worth the premium.

Looking for the Bumpee Hog? Try Tackle Warehouse.