I figured I’d talk about some specialty rigs for soft plastics. By now everyone knows about the effective drop shot rig, the split shot rig, doodling and of course the Texas rig but there are other ways of rigging plastics that are not as well known yet they are very effective.
Today I’ll talk about wacky rigging and a few different variations of it. All a wacky rig consists of is a worm type bait, and a hook. The difference between this rig and your normal way of rigging is instead of hooking through the nose you run the hook through the “Egg Sack” on the plastic leaving the hook tip exposed.
Another way of hooking it is to place an O-ring on your worm and run the hook under it so the hook itself never penetrates the plastic. With this style of rigging you can save money because your plastics don’t get torn up as easily and we all know how expensive they can get, especially when were talking Senkos.
To fish a wacky rig you just toss it out, give it slack and let it sink. If you don’t get bit on the initial fall pull it up by lifting your rod tip slowly and let it fall on slack line. I cant stress this enough, WATCH YOUR LINE! The bites can be very light. If it seems to be sinking more than it should or moves to one side, especially if it moves up current, reel down the slack, feel the pressure and set the hook, don’t be asleep at the reel! Slow is the biggest trick to fishing a wacky rig. This is not a technique that will cover a lot of water but it will produce bass, especially when the conditions are tough.
Next lets discuss the Izzy rig. This rig is basically just a modified wacky rig with a nail weight inserted into the head of whatever plastic worm type bait you feel like using. Experiment as to how much weight you need to put in, let the fish tell you how quickly they want it sink. A floating worm seems to be the most effective type to use for this rig because the nose will go down and the tail will float up but any type of worm will work. Here again, it can be hooked either through the egg sack or you can utilize an O-Ring.
The origins of the name stem from a gentleman named Izzy Byrd from San Jose who brought this style of fishing into the lime light, at least here in the states. Rumor has it that he learned it while in Japan on a business trip Irregardless of where he learned it he fished Pro/AM tournaments out of the back of the boat and just smoked everyone. As to how to fish it, use the same technique as you would a regular wacky rig.
Another variation of the Izzy rig comes from Korea and its called a Neko Rig, I’m not sure of the origin of the name but instead of using a nail weight in the head you use a small round jig head. You can purchase specialty ones or you can get your basic crappie type jigs and either cut the hook and the bend or just straighten it out.
Experiment with various ways of rigging the wacky rig. I’ve seen people catch bass using full sized bass jig heads hooked through the center of their plastics as well as small crappie jig heads. Remember, nothing is written in stone when it comes to bass fishing, you just might come across something different that just whacks them by thinking outside the box.
Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
