The Texas rig simply is likely to be a bass angler’s best choice for early summer season motion. There are limitless choices of bait kinds you may put in your hook, and relying on the scale of your bullet weight, there are infinite methods to fish it.
Most bass anglers study the Texas rig as one in every of their first bass-specific strategies, and for a superb motive. It’s an extremely versatile rig that methods each aggressive and torpid bass. It’s additionally easy to rig up, making it a go-to for newbie anglers.
You may fish a Texas rig wherever, however it actually shines in and round underwater vegetation or in laydowns alongside the financial institution. In any case, when you’re headed out for a day of early summer season bass fishing, don’t sleep on the Texas rig. Right here’s every part you must know to catch bass on this method.
Matters Lined
The Texas Rig
Photograph by Derek Horner
The usual Texas rig consists of a bullet weight and an EWG hook with a mushy plastic rigged onto the hook to make it weedless. In the event you’re fishing in thicker grass, generally it will probably assist so as to add a small rubber peg, also referred to as a bobber stopper, on the road above the bullet weight to maintain the load and bait involved to scale back the quantity of weeds that might get caught in your line. In most eventualities, nevertheless, I want to go together with an unpegged Texas rig to maximise the motion of my mushy plastic.
As for the mushy plastic you select, your choices actually are infinite. To make your life a bit simpler, I like to recommend utilizing a stick bait, a ribbontail worm, a creature bait, or a crawfish imitator. These 4 mushy plastics are my go-to choices once I’m rigging up for some early summer season post-spawn motion.
Tips on how to Rig a Texas Rig
Photograph by Derek Horner
A Texas rig ought to take not more than a minute to be able to fish. The toughest half can be rigging your mushy plastic straight and weedless on the hook. Beneath is a step-by-step information.
Step 1: Choose your Texas rig hook. Usually, a 2/0 or 3/0 EWG hook.
Step 2: Choose your bullet weight. Usually a lead or tungsten bullet weight from ⅛-ounce to ½-ounce.
Step 3: Thread your bullet weight onto your line. Then, utilizing a Palomar knot, tie your line to the Texas rig hook. (In the event you’re utilizing a bobber stopper, thread that onto your line previous to including the bullet weight.)
Step 4: Choose your mushy plastic and rig it onto the hook weedless. For additional rationalization, right here’s a fast tutorial.
What Makes the Texas Rig so Efficient?
The Texas rig has caught bass in each state the place bass exist. It’s not only a newbie’s method, {many professional} anglers depend on the Texas rig to supply bites when it issues most. However why?
The flexibility of a Texas rig is what makes it so efficient. Being able to place virtually any mushy plastic bait in your hook and fish it successfully can’t be understated. Most different strategies gained’t be very efficient when you’re not utilizing the suitable kind of sentimental plastic. However the Texas rig appears to shine it doesn’t matter what you wish to throw. Swimbaits, stick baits, creature baits, crawfish imitators, and large ribbontail worms will all catch fish on a Texas rig. Having a banner day merely requires determining the place and the way you’re going to fish this weedless rig.
Furthering a Texas rig’s versatility is controlling your bait’s fall charge. Fall charge could also be a bit extra of a complicated time period, however it’s fairly self explanatory. With the flexibility to pick out any measurement bullet weight, you might have all the energy to have your mushy plastic slowly sink by way of the water column, or have it rocket to the underside. Relying on the temper of the bass and the climate circumstances, these choices might make all the distinction in getting a chew or getting skunked.
Photograph by Derek Horner
The autumn charge can be affected by way of a bobber stopper. Placing a bobber stopper above your bullet weight can preserve your entire rig collectively, permitting it to slide out and in of holes within the grass extra simply. The draw back is that you simply don’t get practically as a lot motion out of your mushy plastic. With out a bobber stopper, on a slack line, your bullet weight will sink to the underside, however your mushy plastic will slowly glide in direction of the underside whereas attractive hungry bass into biting. As you hop the load alongside, the mushy plastic will dance behind it, leaving house between the load and the bait, inflicting motion within the mushy plastic that’s exhausting to duplicate utilizing some other method.
Nonetheless, my favourite a part of this method is that it catches each largemouth and smallmouth the identical. Within the early summer season, each bass species congregate in and round grass traces to feed. As ambush predators, the aquatic vegetation supplies the right spot to take a seat and look forward to an unsuspecting baitfish or crawfish to meander by. When that baitfish or crawfish is your Texas rig, they gained’t know the distinction.
For my part, in relation to fishing for springtime or early summertime bass, there’s no higher method than a Texas rig.
For a deep dive video on the Texas rig, take a look at this nice video from my good friend TylersReelFishing.
When to Throw a Texas Rig
Usually, fishing a Texas rig round aquatic vegetation within the early summer season is a surefire solution to get a number of bites. By the early summer season, a lot of the bass have completed spawning within the shallows and have now pushed again to deeper water to seek out their summer season haunts. Grass traces in 8 to fifteen toes of water make an ideal location for ambushing their prey and hiding from different predatory fish like muskies.
I’ve discovered through the years that the perfect grass line or weed mattress consists of two forms of grass converging collectively. Whether or not that’s milfoil and hydrilla, eelgrass and waterweed, or some other mixture you may dream up, discovering these areas can result in a number of the greatest days you’ll have fishing a Texas rig.
Photograph by Jonathan Dietz
I wouldn’t suggest utilizing a bobber stopper once you’re fishing youthful, emergent grasses. You’ll see far more profit having the elevated motion in your bait and also you shouldn’t reel again too many weeds. However because the summer season wanes on and the grass will get thicker, a bobber stopper is likely to be essential to get your bait by way of the holes within the grass and to the underside the place the bass lie in wait.
As you fish in and round grass, you’ll study that dropping fish within the grass is simply part of the sport. Not each hooked fish will find yourself in your fingers, they’re fairly good at digging into the thickest weed patch they will discover to keep away from seize. The Texas rig, nevertheless, appears to be a method that results in fewer misplaced fish than different common grass fishing choices.
The explanation why boils right down to how the fish are usually hooked on a Texas rig. It looks as if 9 out of ten instances, once you set the hook with a Texas rig, the hook is buried proper the place you need it, within the roof of their mouth. This location permits you probably the most management over the bass in the course of the combat, and as soon as the hook is in there, it’s not simple for the bass to shake it. Having the suitable rod, reel, and line setup will solely enhance your probability of success and cut back the quantity of fish you lose to the grass. Right here’s the gear you want.
Texas Rig Setups, Baits, Hooks, and Weights
Choosing the Proper Texas Rig Rod
As a result of versatility of the Texas rig, choosing the right rod actually comes down to non-public desire and realizing the place you’ll be fishing a Texas rig more often than not. For me, that’s in emergent or medium-density grass traces, so my rod of alternative will mirror that. However, when you plan to fish in heavier grass, a heavier motion rod will at all times be a safer wager.
You may fish a Texas rig on a spinning rod, however I nearly at all times attain for a baitcasting rod because it provides me extra management when casting and preventing the bass again to the boat. Usually, I’ll decide up a 7 foot, medium motion with a reasonable tip. My favourite rod for that is the Shimano Zodias. The flexibility of this rod alternative matches the flexibility of the Texas rig fantastically.
Choosing the Proper Texas Rig Reel
Since I’ve really useful fishing your Texas rig on a baitcasting reel, we’ll stick in that vein, however if you wish to fish it on a spinning rod, take a look at the greatest spinning reels to make use of with it. As for the baitcasting reel, I want a low-profile reel with a stable drag. The low-profile reel provides me much more management once I’m casting or pitching the Texas rig in and across the grass. My favourite reel for these Texas rig eventualities is the Daiwa Tatula Elite 100HSL. It presents an extremely easy casting expertise, and the drag works flawlessly, even when the bass digs into thick grass, which requires some persistence and pulling to get them out.
The Finest Texas Rig Baits
As I’ve talked about earlier than, you may fish virtually any mushy plastic on a Texas rig. However, for the sake of brevity, I’m going to listing out three of my favorites.
When fishing round laydowns within the early summer season, I typically discover myself reaching for some kind of creature bait like a Zoom Child Brush Hog. The Child Brush Hog presents simply sufficient motion to entice bass holding tight to the tree limbs into biting.
When fishing in youthful, emergent grasses, I are inclined to rig up a 7-inch Berkley PowerBait Energy Worm. The motion within the tail is unbeatable, and once I placed on a smaller bullet weight, this worm dances by way of the water column simply above the grass and drives bass nuts.
If I discover myself fishing a Texas rig in thicker grasses like milfoil or hydrilla, I prefer to go together with a beaver model creature bait. My favourite is the Response Improvements Candy Beaver. This streamlined bait paired with a bobber stopper and heavier bullet weight permits the Texas rig to slide by way of thicker grass and discover its solution to the underside the place hungry bass are ready to ambush.
The Finest Texas Rig Hooks
When deciding on which hook to throw in your Texas rig, don’t stress over it an excessive amount of. So long as your hook is sharp and isn’t going to interrupt on you, any EWG hook will do. My alternative is sort of at all times a 3/0 Berkley Fusion19 Superline EWG Hook. These hooks are sharp and have by no means let me down.
Bullet Weights for Texas Rigs
The bullet weight you select to your Texas rig is without doubt one of the most vital items of the puzzle. Selecting the correct weight for every state of affairs is paramount. Fortunate for you, bullet weights are provided in practically any measurement you may think about. Usually, I keep inside ⅛-ounce to ½-ounce for my bullet weights.
As for the fabric the weights are fabricated from, you might have choices there too. For the typical angler, lead weights must be simply effective, however when you’re seeking to up your Texas rig to the subsequent stage, a tungsten bullet weight will give you extra sensitivity and suggestions as you’re employed your bait alongside the underside. Beneath are my favourite choices for lead and tungsten bullet weights.
Line for Texas Rigs
When it comes time to spool up your Texas rigging baitcasting reel, look no additional than 12-pound Sunline Tremendous FC Sniper Fluorocarbon Line. The fluorocarbon line would be the best choice to your Texas rig as the road is sluggish sinking in and of itself, serving to the motion of your bait because it falls by way of the water column.
Closing Ideas and Tips about Tips on how to Fish a Texas Rig
As you may see, there are one million and one methods to rig up a Texas rig. From weight choice to deciding the suitable mushy plastic, rigging a Texas rig might be daunting when you let it. As an alternative, I’d suggest selecting a 1/4-ounce weight and your favourite mushy plastic bait and heading to the water. Greater than doubtless, you’ll get a number of bites earlier than the day is over and your confidence will skyrocket.
From there, experiment with totally different baits and weight combos. Every weight and bait mixture can have a special fall charge and motion. Determining a number of favorites will show you how to slim down the gear you actually need to your subsequent fishing journey.