What Am I Doing Wrong While T-Rigging?

[skeletor6]

It seems as though everything that I texas rig, whether that be a worm, or a hula grub, is having problems. The main problem is that the head of the worm or whatever bait I chooose seems to slide down the hook. I am using Gammy Offset EWG 3/0 hooks. Like the head of the bait slides down the hook and I have to fix it so I must be doing something wrong.

I have looked at all the rigging videos and I feel as though I am rigging it correctly, could anyone give me some advice as for what I need to do differently when texas rigging any type of bait so the head does not slide down the hook and stays up where it should?

Thank you!

[BASSHUNTER1961]

Are you pulling the eye of the hook all the way into the nose of the worm?

[cast_and_destroy]

Next time you push the hook through the nose of the worm ( first step in the texas rig ) , push it a little bit farther.

[skeletor6]

  On 8/22/2012 at 11:16 PM, mabasshunter said:

Are you pulling the eye of the hook all the way into the nose of the worm?

Yes, I am pulling it all the way down where I no longer can see the nose metal part of the hook if looking at it from the side, just the line that feeds in.

  On 8/22/2012 at 11:26 PM, cast_and_destroy said:

Next time you push the hook through the nose of the worm ( first step in the texas rig ) , push it a little bit farther.

So if I push the hook further down the bait vertically, before making bending it and making it exit during the first step to riggin, this should prevent that from happening?

[cast_and_destroy]

Yes it should help , but dont go to much farther down.

[skeletor6]

  On 8/22/2012 at 11:46 PM, cast_and_destroy said:

Yes it should help , but dont go to much farther down.

What's a good rule of thumb as of how far I should go down before exiting? Should I push it down until the hook begins its curve?

[Highhawk1948]

If nothing else push a toothpick thru the plastic and the eye of the hook than break it off even with plastic.

I have seen this done a long, long time ago.

[cody161]

I always slide the hook in to the plastic right before the bend and then I come out.

[skeletor6]

  On 8/23/2012 at 12:05 AM, Highhawk1948 said:

If nothing else push a toothpick thru the plastic and the eye of the hook than break it off even with plastic.

I have seen this done a long, long time ago.

That definitely would work, and seems like an old school trick forsure! But I would like to be able to rig it to where doing that is unnecessary. Is this a common problem with texas rigging? I feel it is something I am doing wrong on my end.

[skeletor6]

  On 8/23/2012 at 12:08 AM, cody161 said:

I always slide the hook in to the plastic right before the bend and then I come out.

So you slide the hook straight down the middle then as soon as it is deep enough to where you can see the bend approaching, you turn and punch it through in the first step? That's how deep I should penetrate in the first step?

[Highhawk1948]

You may also be inserting the point of the hook,(to make it weedless) to far down the worm pulling the head of the worm down. It really slows you down when you have to adjust the worm all of the time. Good luck. I have a problem sometime

when I start using a different creature type bait for flipping, gettine the hook just right.

[cast_and_destroy]

  On 8/22/2012 at 11:52 PM, skeletor6 said:

What's a good rule of thumb as of how far I should go down before exiting? Should I push it down until the hook begins its curve?

I push the hook all the way to the first bend and then push it though the bait .

[skeletor6]

  On 8/23/2012 at 12:26 AM, Highhawk1948 said:

You may also be inserting the point of the hook,(to make it weedless) to far down the worm pulling the head of the worm down. It really slows you down when you have to adjust the worm all of the time. Good luck. I have a problem sometime

when I start using a different creature type bait for flipping, gettine the hook just right.

Yeah, I may be doing that as well that makes sense. It really does slow me down and sometimes I do not notice so I'll be fishing really slow and by the time i get it back I realized my bait slid down and once it starts happening even if I reinsert the hook it just will keep happening it seems. Also, lately the lake I've been fishing is extremely weedy and grassy, which is why I've been t-rigging. So, maybe it dragging through is pulling it down. Possibly.

I'll keep everything you guys have mentioned and try to perfect my rigging of it. I'll rewatch some videos on it and see if I can get it rigged solid.

Is a fluke T-rigged on the fatside or the skinny?

[skeletor6]

  On 8/23/2012 at 12:37 AM, cast_and_destroy said:

I push the hook all the way to the first bend and then push it though the bait .

Okay thank you, I will do that. I probably was not going deep enough with the initial step.

[papajoe222]

I had this same problem with the same hook and to solve it I started using harder plastics. Some of the softer worms and such develop a hole wherever the hook goes through and seem to slide along it. A harder plastic wants to regain it's shape and although you're still putting a hole or shaft in the worm when rigging, will grip the shaft better.

The other thing you can try is a drop of gorilla glue where the keeper is.

[Goose21]

  On 8/23/2012 at 12:38 AM, skeletor6 said:

Yeah, I may be doing that as well that makes sense. It really does slow me down and sometimes I do not notice so I'll be fishing really slow and by the time i get it back I realized my bait slid down and once it starts happening even if I reinsert the hook it just will keep happening it seems. Also, lately the lake I've been fishing is extremely weedy and grassy, which is why I've been t-rigging. So, maybe it dragging through is pulling it down. Possibly.

I'll keep everything you guys have mentioned and try to perfect my rigging of it. I'll rewatch some videos on it and see if I can get it rigged solid.

Is a fluke T-rigged on the fatside or the skinny?

[Goose21]

I do well with gammy ewg's..After catching a few bass the plastic can get mangled a bit. I then punch a new hole slightly to the side if the original hole and it's like new again. Vary your insert at both points into untouched plastic, this extends the life of the plastic and prevents slide downs and hook point hang ups.

[Chattahoochee]

You can also bite off a 1/4" or so from the head removing all of that mangled plastic if its causing you issues after a fish or two. Makes the plastic go further.

[A-Jay]

To keep your plastic from sliding down the hook and/or bunching up on the point of the hook preventing a solid hook set, consider using these ~

Parasite weights or Parasite clips - they really work well.

Check out the link

A-Jay

http://parasiteweigh...bb2309d7ddab3cf

[mikey5string]

some soft plastics are so soft and covered in scent and oil that its very difficult to have them stay put for any extended period of time. I will sometimes wrap fine craft wire around the shank right before the eye to help with grip. Also sliding the nose of the bait up over the eye helps as well.

[skeletor6]

I like all of the tips and tricks you guys have mentioned. It sounds like what was happening to me isn't all that uncommon. I noticed the parasite clip in one of your videos A-Jay I should have added that to my cart my last order. Do those clips affect the presentation of a worm?

For the record I had this problem using 5" GY Senkos on a 3/0 Gammy EWG hook . I think a variation of slowing down and rigging it correctly and paying attention to how bad the plastic is wearing down should help this happen less often. If all else fails I will try the tricks mentioned throughout.

Thanks for the help everybody.

[A-Jay]

  On 8/25/2012 at 6:30 AM, skeletor6 said:

I like all of the tips and tricks you guys have mentioned. It sounds like what was happening to me isn't all that uncommon. I noticed the parasite clip in one of your videos A-Jay I should have added that to my cart my last order. Do those clips affect the presentation of a worm?

They do not affect the presentation at all - at least not that I've noticed.

The first time I used them was on a Senko and I thought that they looked a little gaudy.

I had been accustomed to just a plain ewg hook and the silver clip looked out of place.

After fishing it - makes no difference to the fish. Although very light, it does have some weight so I guess it speeds fall rate but it is hardly noticeable.

I use them on just about every soft plastic I fish.

It does take an extra second to rig it but after brief time it becomes habit and it's all good.

I have the weights also and they work as advertised but I have since switched to tungsten so they don't see much action any more.

Good Luck

A-Jay