What Is Hover Strolling? The Pro Who Named It Explains How It Differs From Mid-Strolling

What is hover strolling? A mid-stroll with far slower horizontal travel

Yamaoka: "Hover strolling is a name I came up with for this technique after talking it over with Tiemco (the Japanese tackle maker behind the PDL soft plastics and the Fenwick rods I use). It's a word we made up. 'Hover' is what a bird does when it beats its wings to stay in one spot in midair, and a 'stroll' is a slow, easy walk. Compared with mid-strolling, what defines hover strolling, and what makes it catch fish, is that the bait travels far, far slower. There are differences in the action too, but that's the main thing. Naturally you end up using it just under the surface or high in the water column a lot, but don't assume it only works at those depths. Once you get used to it and can do it at depths where you can't see the bait, you'll catch more fish with this technique. You don't have to stick to one depth, either. It's fine to let the bait slowly sink as it drifts. Also, some people are calling it a topwater technique, but that's not hover strolling (laughs)."

How to set up a hover rig

The key to hover strolling: keep the slack in the line above the water constant

Watching Yamaoka hover-stroll, what struck this writer as key was keeping the slack in the line between the rod tip and the water constant. It's the same trick you use to swim an I-motion bait (a bait designed to swim dead straight with no wobble) cleanly in a straight line.

Breaking it down, there are two points: don't reel too much, and lower the rod as the bait (the hover rig) comes closer. On the first, if you reel too much the line goes tight, and that breaks the basic rule of hover strolling: retrieve dead slow. On the second, many anglers probably already do it without thinking whenever they run any moving bait near the surface, not just I-motion baits. A hover rig is light and has little water resistance, so adjust your rod position even more carefully, focusing on keeping the slack constant.

Because you hold the rod out in front of your body, you can keep both the slack line and the bait in view at the same time.

Yamaoka: "Hover strolling is easier to get into than mid-strolling, and I think you'll get the hang of it quickly. Once you're used to the retrieve, keep your eyes on the bait, the water around it and the water below it as you bring it in. With hover strolling, bass very often rise up to the bait or follow it. Sometimes the bait drifts or lifts softly, as if 'something' pushed water at it. That something is a bass, of course. And if the bait suddenly disappears underwater, set the hook. It's been eaten."

Shaking is easy, and the bait doesn't need to roll

If you can't mid-stroll or don't feel confident doing it, or more specifically, if you can't get a consistent rolling action, forget about that. It has nothing to do with hover strolling a soft plastic.

Yamaoka: "Because of how a hover rig is built, it doesn't fall over on its side or roll much even with slack in the line, and it doesn't need to. You shake it as you retrieve, but at a glance it can look like a straight retrieve. It's fine if the hover rig is just drifting. Even then, with the Super Hovering Fish, its three thin, whisker-like tails are quivering."

If you work hard at a rolling action you don't need (and that's extremely hard to get with a hover rig), your eyes tend to drop to your hands. Then you miss follows and bites, and your slack control gets sloppy, too.

Yamaoka: "I'm sure you're wondering how to shake it, but honestly, just shake it the way you normally would. It feels like tapping the slack in the line over and over: tap-tap-tap-tap."

Choose a rod that makes small, quick shakes easy

How wide and how fast you shake depends partly on the rod. With a moderate-slow mid-strolling rod, for example, even small movements of your hands make the rod swing widely, so they reach the line as long, slow waves.

For hover strolling, you want a faster cadence: tight, quick shakes. But you don't want to pass that action straight to the bait. Just pick a rod built for shaking, with the action and power that make it easy to keep tapping the slack line. That isn't something this writer is repeating from Yamaoka or Tiemco; it's what I felt firsthand when I got to try it after a 60 cm (about 24 in) bass was landed during our shoot. It was easy to do, and fish were easy to catch. (The rod was the LINKS version of the "Tight Shakin' Special," the LINKS61SULJ, released in 2021.)

Yamaoka: "Try the 'Tight Shakin' Special,' which makes it easy to keep doing small shakes. I made it for hover strolling, but it's built as a shaking rod, so it's versatile. That's why it isn't called the 'Hover Stroll Special.' I can also recommend it as a basic ultralight spinning rod for all kinds of finesse rigs."

Yamaoka's hover strolling tackle

- For the hover rig
Rod: Fenwick ACES 61SULJ "Tight Shakin' Special" (6'1" ultralight spinning)
Reel: Vanquish 2500S
Line: Super Light PE braid #0.4 (7 lb)
Leader: Solaroam Exthread fluorocarbon 4 lb
- For the modified Picro
Rod: Fenwick ACES 66SLJ "Mid Strolling Special" (6'6" light spinning)
Reel: Stradic CI4+ 2500S
Line: Super Light PE braid #0.4 (7 lb)
Leader: Solaroam Exthread fluorocarbon 4 lb
*Rods by Tiemco, reels by Shimano, line by Toray Monofilament Co.