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When should I fish a mojo rig?

The Mojo Rig, also known as the Split Shot Rig, is an excellent choice for bass fishing under certain conditions and scenarios. Here are some ideal situations for using a Mojo Rig:

  1. Finesse Situations: When bass are pressured or the bite is tough, the finesse approach of the Mojo Rig can be very effective. The light-wire hook and subtle presentation can entice bites from finicky fish.

  2. Clear Water: The rig works exceptionally well in clear water where bass can be more line-shy and a stealthy approach is necessary. The rig's subtle action can be more appealing to bass in these conditions.

  3. Cold Water: During the winter months, bass metabolism slows down, and they tend to prefer slower-moving baits. The Mojo Rig can be dragged slowly along the bottom, making it ideal for cold water conditions.

  4. Deep Water: As Glenn May from BassResource.com suggests, the Mojo Rig is great for targeting deeper structure like main lake points, rock piles, humps, creek channels, and ledges, especially during summer and winter when bass are holding in deeper water.

  5. Spawning Bass: Mike Iaconelli mentions that the Mojo Rig is perfect for targeting bass that are spawning deep, where visibility is limited but light penetration allows for deeper spawning activity.

  6. Weedy or Rocky Bottoms: The cylindrical weight of the Mojo Rig is designed to slide through rocks and weeds with less snagging, making it suitable for areas with sparse vegetation or rocky bottoms.

  7. Versatility in Depth: TackleJunky81 points out that the Mojo Rig can be fished at any depth, allowing you to keep the bait in the desired water column by adjusting the weight and buoyancy of the bait.

When fishing the Mojo Rig, it's important to use a medium-light action spinning rod with thin line for the best presentation and to avoid overpowering the light-wire hook. The rig is typically cast with a gentle lob and worked back with a slow, steady retrieve or a lift-and-drop technique.

Remember, the Mojo Rig is a finesse technique, so the key is a subtle and slow presentation. Targeting the right areas during the appropriate seasons with this rig can significantly increase your chances of catching bass.

Related videos
Transcript
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01:15
Video
The Mojo Rig (Split Shot Rig) | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource Hey, folks, Glenn May here with BassResource.com. Today I want to talk to you about the split shot rig or the mojo rig in some instances. Depending on where you live in the country, some people call it a mojo rig. Really all it is, it's a cylindrical weight with a finesse bait at the end of it, about 18 inches between it. All we're using today . . . I'm going to talk about the rigs, the outfit we're using, and then we're actually go out and fish it. And all we're doing today is we're using a 1/0 light-wire extra wide gap hook. That's important. Nice thin wire hook. This is the finesse approach, we don't want a heavy hook in this case. We want this little bait to be able to flow about and swim about naturally. So we don't want a heavy hook that's going to weight it down. This is just a hand poured worm. I don't even know the brand of this one right now. But, anyway, green pumpkin. About 18 inches up the line. I using an eighth-ounce mojo weight or split shot weight. Eighth-ounce is a great starting point. It's an eighth-ounce to a three-eighth ounce, the weight's in between that. That's going to cover the majority of your fishing with the mojo rig. Think of this as kind of a baby Carolina rig. It's really all this is, but finesse style. So this bait's going to come up and flip behind the weight, come back down.
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The Mojo Rig (Split Shot Rig) | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource I'm ready for the strike, and I just drag it. I use this almost exclusively during the winter time. Because they want it nice and slow, and they're deep. And you bring it right by their face, and they're going to pick it up. Speaking of that, here's the different places you want fish it and when you want to fish it. In the summer and in the winter, that's when the majority of the fish are out in the main lake, and they're out in a little bit deeper water. So during those times, I like to fish deeper structure. In main lake points, rock piles, humps, creek channels, creek bends where it comes near the shoreline, ledges, that kind of stuff. That's where I want to fish it. And then in the spring and the fall, the fish, they're much more shallow during that time of the year. That's when I want to go in the back of the coves, back of creek channels. I want to fish protected bays and coves. Grassy flats are my favorite. Love doing that, especially when it gets near a creek channel, near a drop. Those are the areas you want to target. If you target those areas with the techniques I just showed you, you're going to catch a lot of fish. Have fun with it. For more tips like this, visit BassResource.com.
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Fishing the "Mystery" Rig: The Forgotten Finesse Technique That Will Catch You More Fish! by Mike Iaconelli Fishing um a Mojo is great for when fish are bedding deep and when I'm saying betting deep a lot of fish in a lot of places spawn eight 10 12 even deeper right and remember the clearer the water the deeper those fish can spawn because it's about light penetration so when you can't actively see them but you think they're spawning deep Mojo rig is perfect okay so a lot of great scenarios uh like a Carolina rig but more finesse all right let's look at okay we're going to show you how to rig it I'm going to show you the components we'll talk about the rod and the Reel and then last but not least we're going to show you how to fish it and it's super easy how to fish it okay so a Mojo rig let me let a little line up for you real quick uh a Mojo rig like a Carolina rig has a sliding weight a bead and a barrel swivel okay just like in Carolina ring sliding weight bead and Barrel Swivel but remember this is a Mojo rig so everything's going to be scaled down right this is MoJo's system is a finesse Carolina rig system so let's start with the weight you could use any sliding weight you want regular worm weight works great uh egg Sinker works great but man oh man I'm telling you this is the best weight to use for a Mojo rig and it's
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Are YOU Rigging It RIGHT??? This RIG Gets BIT! by TackleJunky81 tackle junkies what's going on fellas today we're going to rig up the Mojo rig [Applause] alright guys if you've been following the videos lately to see me fish in the ponds pretty often with my boys and we're using the Mojo rig it really is a killer rig at the ponds very very effective I mean he pretty much out fishes me every time we go all right now the Mojo rig is basically it's a Carolina rig that you can fish at any depth ok you're talking light line light wire hook lighter weight in a very buoyant bait okay pretty much the opposite of a Carolina rig normally using heavier pound test again heavier weight you want to keep it on the bottom again you can work this mojo rig at any depth and really your weight and your hook and really your bait determines really how slow it's going to fall and you can keep it up in the water column okay again you can be worked at any depth slow fall to the bottom work it on the bottom again you can worker within the water column that's why lighter weights a Boyett bait lighter wire hook light line all that is key to keep it up in the water column okay so we do have two rods up here I got to re-rig my son because we were fishing the river last week and he hadn't breaking off right before we left
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The Mojo Rig (Split Shot Rig) | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource really famous back in the 80s when it first came out, made the split shot as successful as it is. And it still works really well today. So here I'm watching the weight, watching the bait fall, making sure the line doesn't twitch or anything like that till it hits the bottom, which it just did. So now all I'm going to do is I'm going to lift up the weight off the bottom and just slowly reel it in. That's all it is, just nice, slow, steady action. That worm under there with that tail, it just swimming right along. Looks like a little bait fish. And it works fantastic. You'd be surprised how well this works, especially in clear water. But even in dingy water, this works anywhere. If you're throwing a crank bait, this is a great candidate to throw as well. Especially say, for example, you're throwing crank baits and the bite dies down. Go back through that area and follow back up with this bait. Because you're going to catch a lot more fish that way. You can clean right up. Or if you're fishing with a partner, for example, he's fishing a crank bait up front, you can follow him with this. And you can catch the fish that he missed. Great tactic to use. All right. So that's tactic number one. The next one I'm going to show you is the one I like to use a lot. And that's just a simple lift and drop retrieve.
Transcript
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The Mojo Rig (Split Shot Rig) | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource And you're not going to break off the line or you're going to straighten out that hook, say if you're using a medium-heavy action rod or something stouter than that. Just a spinning outfit to handle that thin line. Bait casting doesn't handle real thin line very well. So spinning is what we're using today. All right. So that's the equipment we're going to use. Now, let's go out and fish it. All right. So what we have here is a rocky area, a rocky bottom with sparse weeds, which is a great place to fish the split shot rig. Because that cylindrical weight that's going to slide through the rocks a lot easier. It's not going to get hung up as much. Plus, the bait itself is Texas rigged, so it won't get hung up on the weeds or on the rocks as much. So, when you throw it out there, it's a lob cast. We're not trying to win any distance competitions here. So it's a real light lob. If you've thrown Carolina rigs, you know what I'm talking about. You just bring it back, let the bait settle down for a second, and then just a nice easy cast. This medium light action rod is going to do a lot of the casting for you. So you don't have to really throw it really hard. As a matter fact, if you do, the weight and the bait, they're going to spin in the air and get tangled up before it even hits the water, which is going to ruin your presentation anyway.

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