To increase your bass fishing sucess, try my spin on wacky rigging

Bass fishing is an extremely poplar pastime. Fishing with soft plastic baits, or soft plastics is one of the best ways to consistently catch bass.

After over 30 years of targeting the largemouth bass, with 15 years of experience as a fishing guide, I have learned a few things about catching these amazing fish.

I do have one secret, well it is not really a secret anymore due to the fact that I have taken out dozens of groups of people and shown them how it is done.

What I have is my own spin on a relatively new presentation. The presentation I am talking about is known as wacky rigging. Wacky rigging is a method of hooking your soft plastic lure. The difference lies in the fact that when you are wacky rigging, you hook your plastic lure in the middle of the worm instead of in the head.

Hooking the plastic bait in the middle changes the way it sinks in the water. The lure will just slowly float down the water column.

My Favorite Wacky Rigging Bait

I have used every worm that was designed for wacky rigging that is on the market. The best one I have found for my spin is the 4 inch long Yum Dinger. This soft plastic lure, manufactured my Yum Lures, just plain floats down to the bottom. Wacky rigging worms made by other manufacturers tend to sink much more quickly. The F2 attractant that Yum now uses makes this lure even more effective. By far my favorite color is green pumpkin. 

My Spin On Wacky Rigging

the first thing you need to know about my spin is that you cannot use a "traditional" bass hook. Traditional bass hooks are huge. They can be anywhere from 1/0 all the way up to the huge 5/0 hooks. For this presentation, I use a red, size 4 octopus hook. Many anglers look at me funny when they see this for the first time, but they can't argue with how many bass I catch. The advantage of the small hook is that using it allows the Dinger to sink slowly. I have stood in my boat and watched this rig sink down 10 feet in clear water. I lost my patience because it took too long.

Think about this, this rig just floats down in the water. Most baits that target bass either crawl around on the bottom or they splash around on the surface. Crankbaits spend very little time in any one place. This rig looks like something that has just died and is now sinking down to the bottom. A bass is just not capable of turning down an easy meal.

Many anglers use the wacky rigging presentation. Over the years bass anglers have caught countless fish by twitching their rods in order to impart some action in their lures. I have learned over the years to just allow this lure to sink, I do not twitch this lure.

Here is my presentation. I cast the lure out and allow it to sink to the bottom of the lake while I "follow" the lure down with my rod. By following the lure I mean that I keep my line tight so I can detect a strike the second it happens. Once the lure hits the bottom, I twitch my rod tip so the worm will pop off of the bottom. Then I twitch it again and reel in.

This is a shallow water presentation. I usually use it when I am targeting water that is less than 10 feet deep. It is also a presentation that is used when I already know where the bass are. If I know that the bass are in shallow up against a rip rap shoreline, I will tie on my Yum Dinger and then cast it to every single rock.

If you want to "search" for bass the best thing to use is a crank bait or a spinner bait. These types of lures can be fished very quickly.

Wacky rigging a Yum Dinger puts hundreds of fish in my boat every year. Bass just can't help themselves when it comes to these small and simple soft plastic lures.