The One Rig I’d Choose on a Desert Island
If you told me I was being dropped on a mysterious lake, full of unknown cover and structure, and I could only have one lure setup for the rest of my days—I wouldn’t hesitate. I’d choose the Texas Rig. Why? Because there is nowhere it can’t go. It can be fished in two feet of water or fifty. It can slip through the thickest grass, crawl over gnarly wood, and skip under the darkest docks. It is the single most versatile and effective way to present a soft plastic bait to a bass.
Mastering this simple, weedless rig is not optional. It’s the foundation. Let’s build it right.
Gear for a Perfect Texas Rig Setup
The beauty of the T-rig is its simplicity. It’s just three components: a weight, a hook, and a plastic bait. But choosing the right components makes all the difference.
Choosing Your Hook: EWG is King
You need an offset-shank hook. My go-to, and the best for beginners, is an EWG (Extra Wide Gap) hook. This hook shape provides a bigger “bite” or gap, which dramatically improves your hook-up ratio.
The Weight: Why Tungsten is Worth It
A bullet-shaped weight allows the rig to slide through cover. I made the switch to tungsten years ago and never looked back. Tungsten is much denser than lead, meaning it’s smaller for its weight. This smaller profile gets fewer snags. More importantly, tungsten is incredibly hard, transmitting vibrations up your line so you can feel every subtle bite.
How to Rig a Texas Rig: Step-by-Step Instructions
- Slide your tungsten bullet weight onto your line.
- Tie on your EWG hook using a strong knot like the Palomar.
- Take the point of the hook and insert it about 1/4 inch into the nose of your soft plastic bait.
- Push the hook point out the side of the bait. Slide the plastic all the way up the hook shank until it rests snugly against the hook eye.
- Rotate the hook 180 degrees and lay it alongside the bait’s body to measure where the point should re-enter.
- Compress the plastic slightly and insert the hook point all the way through the body of the bait.
- To make it perfectly weedless, pull the plastic forward slightly and bury the very tip of the hook point back into the plastic. This is called “skin-hooking.”
The Best Baits for a Texas Rig
While almost any soft plastic can be Texas-rigged, a few styles truly shine: Stick Baits (Senkos), Creature Baits, and Ribbon Tail Worms.
How to Fish a Texas Rig: Retrieves that Trigger Bites
The key to fishing a Texas Rig is maintaining contact with the bottom. Use a Slow Drag or a Lift and Drop retrieve.
Feeling the Bite and Setting the Hook
A Texas Rig bite is rarely a jarring “thump.” More often, it will feel “mushy,” or “heavy.” When you feel anything out of the ordinary, reel down your slack until you feel pressure, then set the hook with a powerful upward sweep.
This rig is the workhorse in my boat and it should be in yours, too. It’s the foundational technique we mention in our Ultimate Guide to Bass Fishing.
-Captain Sal
