Understanding Texas Bass Fishing Rigs
By Michael Anthony

Over the years, there has been a decided and deliberate move away from using live bait for largemouth and smallmouth

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bass fishing. Since bass are predators and will be attracted to or will attack something that is moving, the use of a lure will be an effective attention grabber. While is may seem somewhat distasteful to describe, the fact remains that live bait (worms, frogs, lizards, etc) will wiggle and move of the hook for a short period of time, but then they will eventually ‘expire.’ When this happens, their ability to attract bass will be nil. Also, live bait can be expensive. A single rubber worm can cost a few cents and last many years. This is not exactly a bad deal! Of course, there are certain areas of contention when it comes to using soft plastic lures such as rubber worms or night crawlers. Since the weigh of these lures are so incredibly light, rigs will need to be employed in order to make sure that the lures can be properly cast out and reeled in. Probably the most popular of these rigs is the venerable Texas rig, a simple rig to set up that is wildly effective when employed. Basics of Texas Rigs There are many variants to Texas rigs, but the most common form of the rigs includes taking the rubber lure, driving a hook deep into the lure and to an exit point somewhere in the lure and then affixing a ‘lead head’ to the top of the lure. This addition of a lead weight at the head of the lure will provide the proper weight needed to manipulate the lure. The lure needs to move up and down in the water and this movement must be under the control of the fisherman. If not, then the ability for the rigs to be effective will be greatly limited. Again, there are a number of other types of rigs, but the Texas rig is the most common. It is also believed to be the original version of the rig that played a significant role of moving people away from using live bait and heading towards using lures. Using lures is a great deal of fun and it is also clearly been established as an effective method of landing a number of bass. So, using a Texas rig is highly recommended and is a great starting point for learning the basics of rigs.