3 Great Fishing Rigs
Bob McNally 07.26.17
Here are three classic rigs to help shorten the time between strikes.
Carolina Rig: This innovative rig has become one of the most popular ways to fish soft plastic lures for bass. It also can be used with floating-diving plugs and natural baits.
The Carolina Rig allows anglers to cover water faster than when using a standard bottom-bumping worm, especially in deep water for suspended fish, or ones hanging above weeds, rock or other snags. The Carolina Rig is excellent for deep-water fishing, and can be slow-trolled or drifted.
Some important modifications have been developed for the rig which incorporates fish-appealing sound to the lure. By using a heavy brass slip weight, glass bead and brass barrel swivel, each time the brass parts hit the glass bead a sharp “clack” is made, which draws the attention of fish. This is a real plus in deep or muddy water.
For clear water, using a small plastic worm, lizard or “creature” with exposed hooks makes the Carolina Rig very effective. Leader length determines how “high” a lure floats above bottom. In places with tall weeds or brush use a long leader. Where weeds and moss are minimal try a shorter leader.
Texposed Rigging: This is a great light-line soft plastic lure rigging for bass, walleyes, panfish and trout. The hook point is worked completely back through the body of a soft plastic lure. This is unlike the Texas rig that has the hook point buried inside the lure. The hook point and barb are exposed from the plastic, and then just the very tip of the hook point is buried back into the lure. This makes a soft plastic lure weedless, yet the point and barb are easily “set” even with light tackle and fine line.
Because the hook tip is only lightly buried in the plastic, the barb can be set simply by winding the reel handle – even with 6-pound test! No hard hook set is needed!
Stinger Hook Rigging: Many bass, pike, muskies, redfish, flounder and other species hit spinner-baits out of reflex action, so they often strike short. For this reason, veteran anglers frequently rig a “stinger” hook to a spinner-bait.
A large, long-shank, ring-eye hook slipped over a spinner-bait barb and held securely with small pieces of hard plastic (like that from a coffee can lid) make an ideal “stinger” arrangement.
Positioning a stinger hook point in the opposite direction of a main spinner-bait hook allows for the best barbing of striking fish. However, this makes a lure considerably less weedless, so having both stinger and spinner-bait hooks lined up in the same direction (as pictured) is most often used.
