Ways to Rig Plastics
Ways to Rig Plastics
By Todd Reed
Texas-Rig
This is a mainstay for anglers searching for bass. It can be used with any soft plastic that you want banging around the bottom of the lake. NO matter the plastic you choose rigging is the same for each style of bait. Run the top of your bait over the hook point to the barb and poke the hook through. Give it a 180-degree twist and run the bait up to the top of the hook. This last part is crucial…mark the end of the hook with your thumb and run the hook straight through your plastic. Then you may decide to skin hook the plastic back on your hook point or leave it resting on top, the more cover you are around the more you will want to skin hook it back into your plastic bait. Key notes: Make sure plastics baits are straight when hanging freely, the larger profile baits such as tubes and thick craws will require an Extra Wide Gap hook (EWG). A 3/O size EWG hook is a great all-around hook for many different types of plastics. This is the all-around workhorse of bass fishermen. This can be used in the current, heavy wooded areas, thick weeds and rocky shorelines. It works extremely well to present any size or type of soft plastics to bass, making it a favorite of bass anglers around the country.
Drop Shot Rig
This rig was actually being used decades ago for panfish, especially in current situations. What began as a good way to present live bait has become a great way to rig plastics as well. This can be used for panfish or bass depending on what type of plastic bait you choose. The rigging is identical no matter the species. To begin you will need to match your hook size to the fish species. I like the octopus style hooks for this rigging and there are many pre-rigged drop-shot rigs on the market too. I like the octopus hooks as they are small, thin in diameter and stay hooked on the softest of mouths. Size 1 is perfect for bass species, and smaller ones will work for gills and crappies. Rigging your plastic on these hooks is as simple as skin hooking a live minnow. Just select your plastic (typically a small offering) and hook the front end of the bait to the hook. This will allow the bait to swing freely and act like live bait. When using just a hook tie a palomar knot to the hook with extra line for the tag end. Take the tag end and run it back through the eye of the hook going down, this will be where you attach your drop-shot sinker. Adjust lengths to experiment, there is no “one perfect” length for this rig. This rig is great for panfish, or bass. With this rig, using plastics or livebait, you have the capability to raise your offering just off the bottom to tempt those fish into biting.
Shakey-head
This particular rig has evolved a lot in the past decade. This is a finesse presentation for bass that typically utilizes a small plastic worm. It is the perfect bait for the beginner as it stays out of snags fairly well and produces many bites throughout the day. Many shakey-head hooks have a screw molded right into the lead head. These are great for attaching small worms to this rig. Simply screw in the worm and attach in a similar fashion like the Texas-rig, mark the end of the hook with your thumb and run the hook straight up the worm. This will help the worm hang without any kinks or bends in it. I always skin hook a shakey-head worm as the hooks are very light and pop out into the fish’s mouth very easily. If your shakey-head does not have a screw on the head, then thread your worm on exactly as mentioned in the Texas-Rig portion of this article. These types of heads seem to rip through more plastics, making the screw-on heads a top choice of mine. This presentation is fantastic for those “tough bite days”. Using a small, 4-inch worm for bass is tempting on the hardest of days. You can work this extremely slow or make small hops on the bottom to get their attention.
Open-Hook Tube
This is by far the simplest way to rig plastic tubes, however it will not perform well around weeds and wood. To rig it, simply take the plastic tube bait and shove the jig head into the hollow cavity. Once you have it all the way in, poke the eyehole out of the top of the tube and you are ready. To slide the jig head in easier put the tube in water to moisten it, or better yet squirt your favorite fish attractant inside the tube. This will act as lubrication for the jig to slide in much easier. This presentation is great for smallmouth bass, walleye, and panfish depending on the size of jig head and plastic you are using. This presentation of tubes is ideal for vertical jigging, and dragging the bottom of points and sandbars.
We all have pounds and pounds of plastic baits, rigging them properly will not only get us more bites, but it will also keep our line in better shape too. With all plastics you must make sure that they are lined up straight on the hooks. If there is any twist or kinks in the plastic it will make that bait oscillate in the water as you reel it in. This will in turn twist your line and cause line issues such as backlashes and “birds nests” on spinning reels. Rig ‘em up right for more bites and less operator error on the water…this will certainly lead to more happy times on the water.
