<font size="4">Texas Rigging Plastic Baits</font>
Deadly for Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass Fishing
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If you've read Rigging Plastics the Right Way, you're ready to begin reading about one of the deadliest ways to catch giant smallmouth and largemouth. I don't know who decided it should be called a Texas rig, but in fishing circles, it is universally used to describe the technique of snugging a bullet shaped sinker up next to the nose of a plastic worm, lizard, grub, crawdad, or any other bizarre soft plastic you have in your tackle box. Texas rigging is very easy to get the hang of, and if you try it a couple of times in bass country, and I mean all kinds of bass country, I guarantee you will become a believer in plastic baits.
<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/texas/worm7.jpg" width="219" height="236">
The key to the texas rig is the use of a bullet-shaped sinker. Some of these sinkers come with a small, coil-shaped spring which is used to screw the weight into the nose of the plastic. Regardless of what kind of bullet sinker is used, all one does is thread their line through the nose of the sinker, tie on a hook, put the plastic bait on the hook and finally do what needs to be done depending on the kind of sinker that is selected. Having a selection of sinkers of different weights is important for ensuring you are able to fish your plastics the way a particular situation dictates (deep vs shallow, weedy vs not weedy).
<font color="red"><b>SCREW-IN BULLET SINKERS</b></font> - These are the pricey option for texas rigging. A package of four will typically cost you $4.50. While costly, they are probably the easiest way for the novice texas rigger to ensure they get things right. The coil-shaped spring will screw into the nose of the plastic bait and help keep the sinker snug against the plastic.
<img src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/texas/ribworm.jpg" align="right" width="350" height="142"><font color="red"><b>REGULAR LEAD BULLET SINKERS</b></font> - These kinds of sinkers are less expensive than the screw-in kind and are just as effective, but a little more difficult for the novice to get the hang of. Most anglers prefer to have their bullet sinkers snugged up against the plastic bait, and to do that with a regular bullet sinker requires a toothpick. With the sinker properly placed on the line, the toothpick is jammed inside the sinker so that it wedges the line against the inside of the sinker, making the sinker unable to slide up and down the line. The toothpick is then snapped off. I find this works better with a mono than Fireline. Another option is to not use a toothpick at all and simply let the sinker slide freely along the length of the line. This option is not the best for precision casting however, because the sinker and worm will often not stay together as one package when sailing through the air. If you are trying to cast into pockets in a patch of weeds, keeping the worm and sinker together will increase your odds of hitting the target.
<font color="red"><b>TEXAS RIGGING FOR SMALLMOUTH</b></font>
Start off with a 1/8 oz bullet sinker with a Power Worm (purple is my favouite). Head for a deep weed edge and cast your texas rigged plastic along the length of the edge. Simply retrieving your bait by reeling slowly will cause your bait to bump into stuff which will make it hop and dart occasionally, and that kind of action will entice bass. If it doesn't work for you, change your retrieve to the same kind you would if retrieving a jig and grub - a slow hopping retrieve. Finally, picking up the pace on the retrieve and swimming the worm back can produce some great strikes when all else fails.
<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/texas/smallie.jpg" width="350" height="250">
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/texas/crawdad.jpg" width="350" height="200"><br><br>
<i>Québec smallmouth taken on the rocks with a texas rigged crawdad...</i><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
If you fish for smallmouth where you find them on rocky structure, then texas rigging a crawdad will produce great strikes. Crawdads hide out in the rocks and are a delicacy for smallmouth. Retrieving the crawdad slowly so that he looks as if he is crawling backwards in his defensive posture will drive the bass on those rocks crazy.
Whether you are in the weeds or on the rocks, few bass will turn their nose up at a texas rigged plastic grub. Is there anything more infuriating than losing jig after jig after jig to hangups on the bottom? You know the fish are there but you have wasted too much time being hung up on God-knows what! The answer is to fish the same grub texas style. You will usually slide that same grub over all the logs and sticks that caught all your jigs. And if there is wood, and your hook ain't stuck in it, there will be fish.
<font color="red"><b>TEXAS RIGGING FOR LARGEMOUTH</b></font>
The size of the bullet sinker is more critical for largemouth than it is for smallies and I usually let my presentation of the bait dictate the size of the sinker. I love early mornings when fish are aggressive. A light 1/8 oz sinker allows me to swim the worm or lizard through patches of lily pads, on the surface or just beneath. My favourite retrieve will periodically swim the bait to a lily pad and have the bait crawl onto the top. I'll let it sit there for a few seconds and then gently pull/slither the bait back into water. Often the bait will be only half way in before the slurp of a giant largemouth sucks it under. When the fish aren't pounding a surface-swimming bait, then you need to get down to the bottom where they are. If you are in the salad, getting a plastic down through beds of cabbage, even lily pads, can mean punching it through with the use of a heavier bullet sinker in the 3/8 to 1/2 oz range. These fish will be non-aggressive as well. After you are confident the bait has gotten through the weeds, let is sit for a few seconds and then shake it a couple of times before moving it a few feet or extracting it from the slop to cast again. Most of the plastics you will fish will have a wiggly tail or tentacles that will still move in the water (due to currents) even though you are not retrieving the bait.It does not take a lot of action to make a bait appear as it is alive - give them a chance to do their thing once in a while. If you don't try texas-rigging plastics this summer, I guarantee you that you will miss out on a lot of action.
<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/texas/lizard.jpg" width="350" height="198"><img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/tips/texas/peters.jpg" width="350" height="226">
<i>Peter's 3 pounder fell to a texas-rigged worm dragged over the branches of semi-submerged spruce tree.</i>
