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What's the best way to setup a wacky rig?

A wacky rig is a popular finesse technique used in bass fishing. It involves rigging a straight-tailed worm by sticking the hook through the middle of the bait. This setup allows the worm to flutter and move in a natural and enticing manner, attracting bass.

There are several ways to set up a wacky rig, as mentioned in the videos. Here are a few common methods:

Weightless Rigging: This setup is effective for shallow and spooky fish. Start by selecting an exposed or weed guard hook, depending on the amount of cover in the area. Then, you can add a tungsten ring weight if you need a little more depth or casting accuracy. The weightless rig allows the worm to fall slowly and naturally, enticing bass to strike.
Drop Shot Rigging: This method is ideal for fishing deeper waters and targeting bass that are set up deeper. Use tungsten dropper weights to quickly get the worm to the bottom and maintain its position in the strike zone. Drop shotting is particularly effective when fishing vertically over a school of deep bass.
Jig Rigging: Rigging a wacky worm on a jig is the most versatile setup. It allows you to quickly adjust the depth, retrieve speeds, and actions of the bait. Simple weed guard jigs work well around cover, and you can further customize the worm's actions by using different weighting accessories.

When fishing a wacky rig, it's important to choose the right gear. You can use a spinning outfit with eight-pound test line for lighter cover or switch to a baitcasting outfit for heavier cover. The choice of gear depends on the fishing conditions and the amount of cover you're targeting.

To fish a wacky rig, cast it out and let it fall naturally. Watch the line as it falls, as this is when the strike is most likely to occur. If you see any movement or line jumps, it's a sign that a bass has taken the bait. Reel down and set the hook.

Once the bait hits the bottom, you can lift it up and let it fall straight down again. Reel in the slack as it falls and watch the line for any signs of a strike. This lifting and falling motion mimics the natural movement of a wounded baitfish, which can trigger bass to strike.

Remember, the wacky rig is a subtle presentation that can be highly effective, especially in waters with heavy fishing pressure. Experiment with different setups and techniques to find what works best for you and the bass in your area.

Related videos

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Various ways to Present Wacky Rigs for Bass Fishing by Wired2Fish → Wacky rigging is a deadly way to catch fish, here's a bunch of ways to rig it. Enter wacky rigging: a simple finesse rig that causes both sides of the worm to gently flutter. It's fished on three primary set ups. 1. Weightless rigging is deadly on shallow spooky fish. Select an exposed or weed guard hook depending on the amount of cover. Then, add a tungsten ring weight if you need a little more depth or casting accuracy. 2. Drop shotting excels when fish are set up deeper. Tungsten dropper weights quickly get the worm to the bottom and maintain its position in the strike zone. This method is particularly effective when fishing vertically over a school of deep bass. 3. Rigged on a jig is the most versatile, allowing you to quickly adjust depth, retrieve speeds, and actions. Simple weed guard jigs fish well around cover and endless weighting accessories further customize worm actions.

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Wacky Rig...The Most Common Rigging Mistake Even Some Pro Anglers Make With Them by Intuitive Angling With Randy Blaukat → with the heavy fishing pressure we have in our lakes a wacky rig is a real subtle presentation it catches big fish and it's just a really good technique and what i wanted to share with you all today a little bit was was probably there's a two or three mistakes that anglers make when they rig a wacky rig even professional anglers in my opinion and i sort of want to explain why i feel that way based upon my own experience and talking to other people so let's get into it first of all this is how most people rigged the wacky rig they this is a zoom zlinky uh soft uh plastic stick bait most people take the you know the o-ring put it in the middle put the hook in like this and a lot of people even some some people even use like a uh like some type of a snail stipe hug which is terrible you always want to use a straight shank you'll you'll get a lot more better hookups with a straight shank than you will any type of a of a snails type snail type hook on there also it's fairly weedless even though it's an exposed hook but anyway this is how most people rig it even professional anglers a lot of a lot of mo in fact most pros probably rig it like this but i'm here to offer the viewpoint

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5 Tips For Fishing A Wacky Rig Senko | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → If you want to fish it on a spinning outfit, eight pound test, say, for example, nothing wrong with that. You can do that. Again, it just depends on the cover. If you're fishing heavy cover, then you want to heavy up. I'm using bait casting outfits, so why I use it on this. All right, so, that's the gear and that's how you use it. Now, let's go out and fish it. Okay, so the most straightforward way to fish a wacky rig is just to cast it out there and let it fall. That rig itself is just going to be doing this all the way down. Okay? It's just doing that motion, like I told you before. So, let it do the work for you. So, just cast it out and let it fall and just watch the line. Watch the line as it falls, 'cuz that's when the strike is going to happen. So, you want to watch to see if it pops, twitches, the line jumps, something like that. If you see that, then you just reel down, set the hook. Now, once it hits the bottom, all you're going to do is lift up on it and let it fall straight down again. Just reel the slack and let it fall, hit the bottom and lift back up and let it fall. And watch that line. Reel up that slack as it's falling and watch that line very carefully because, again, that's when the strike is going to occur.

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How to Fish a Wacky Rig for Bass | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → Hey folks, Glenn May here with BassResource.com. Today I want to talk with you about fishing wacky rigged worms. This is a great way to catch fish, almost year-round, really. It's a great method to do it. And all's it really is, you're just taking a straight-tailed worm, any size, and just sticking the hook through it. That's the basic setup. Just sticking the hook right through the middle. That's all it is. Looks like that. Okay? Very basic. It's kind of an odd way of fishing it. There's many theories on how it came to that origin, but I'm not going to get into that today. Now, to rig it, there's all kinds of different ways to do it. Matter of fact, it's been so popular that it spawned kind of a cottage industry. There's all kinds of O-rings, there's weighted O-rings, there's specialized hooks, special jig-heads. It goes on and on and on. You can go hog wild with all the specialized things you can get for fishing wacky rigs. For me, I like to keep things simple and basic. I want to keep my tackle organized and clean. So I try to shy away from one-off stuff, things that are just one-trick ponies that are useful for only one type way of fishing. You can't get completely away from it, but with wacky rigging, you can. So I don't buy any O-rings. I don't buy specialized weights and hooks. I just re-purpose the stuff I already have in my tackle box.

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How to Rig Wacky Worms for More Hookups by Wired2Fish → you know here's a quick little tip to help you the next time you're fishing a stick bait what I like to do is I actually use the wacky rig o ring tool and I'll just slide my bait in there you'll notice on this particular bait we've got that smooth part and I like to be a little bit off set to get a little different action whether it's a little bit more tail or a little bit more head but I like to have a little bit more action on one side or the other so I don't get just a direct straight fall one of the things I'm going to do versus what a lot of people do is I actually use two o-rings I'm going to slide the first one off and the second one off but what I'm going to do is create an X I'll just lift that one up slide it over the top of the other one and now what I've done is created an X and you can see it right here I'm going to be fishing around vegetation today so I'm going to take my hook and I'm going to go just not even into the bait itself but just under those old rings and what that's going to do is keep me more effective because my bait my hook isn't going to want to lie over flat if I use one old

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The Power of a Wacky Rig by Wired2Fish → hey everybody this is Dave Dudley I want to teach you a little bit about a wacky rig wacky worm rig it's really wacky if you want to ask me and get point-blank to it it's kind of wacky I don't know who invented it or how they came up with it somebody had to have jerked and the worm come half way off and why they were reeling it back in somebody said oh look at that maybe we can catch a fish and one bit I don't know but this rigging is just simple as it can get my choice to bait is of course going to be a yum dinger it's a straight tail it's just as straight as you can get complicated watch hook directly in middle that's wacky okay and as I know I'm joking about it and I know I'm making a lot of fun about it but this technique has absolutely elevated my game to a whole nother level I don't care if you're a beginner experienced or what but what style of fisherman you are this wacky rig is a powerhouse do not overlook this now when you're throwing it it's pretty simple you're going to want to throw it out I'm going to use it on a weightless hook normally a to walk straight shank hook is my choice but you're just going to throw it out and just as soon as it hits the water you're going to let it

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