Page 44 - Lady Bass Digital Magazine June 2023-Revised

The Texas Rig

The Texas rig is one of the most versatile and commonly used techniques in bass fishing. A wide variety of
soft plastics can be successfully used with this rig. It is also a technique that can be fished with no weight or
with weights ranging from light to heavy. The size of the weight is dependent upon the conditions and the
depth. The Texas rig can be fished anywhere from shallow to deep water as well as in and around a variety of
cover types. See the image below for the components of the Texas rig. Image courtesy of Norrik.com.

A Texas rigged soft plastic is simply a hook and a weight with a choice of soft plastic. The soft plastic is rigged
by taking the point of the hook and running into the top of the soft plastic to the bend or shank in the hook,
turning the plastic and running the point back through the body of the plastic at the lower bend. The hook
is either just barely to the edge of the plastic or all the way through and skin hooked. Either way, this setup
makes the bait weedless. See each of the images be-
low to model the steps just described.

It is important to keep the soft plastic straight with
the line. This straight line reduces line twist and
reduces hangups during the retrieve and working of
the bait.

The Texas rig is a popular rig for presenting soft
plastics in dense cover and submerged vegetation
along with underwater stumps and rocks where other
rigs tend to snag and get caught up.

When considering hook size, it is critical to consider
your bait size. Use as big a hook as your soft plastic
can handle. The bigger the bait the bigger the hook
and conversely, the smaller the bait the smaller the
hook. For me, the smallest hook I tend to use is a
3/0 EWG (extra-wide gap) hook. I like the wider gap
and I feel like I get a better hookset. The largest hook
44 Lady Bass Anglers Association