How Do You Secure Your Texas Rigged Baits ?

[Catt]

Toothpick through the plastic and eye of the hook.

I don't do this as I want to know if I missed a fish or is it structure that caused the "bite."

So getting a balled upped finesse worm back tells me that I missed one.

Yelp! When I miss one it's operater error

[Brent Bartman]

I dont have problems with my bait balling up anymore because i learned to peg it. I just wanted to know all the different ways others peg their worms.

 

 I still dont believe that some of you have never missed a fish because your worm has balled up. I just dont believe it. I think its happened to KVD , Rick Clunn , Larry Nixon and everyone who has ever fished a texas rig .

 

 

 

I dont think the worm balling up is why you miss fish. if you set the hook in open water hard you will slide your worm down into a ball in the bend of the hook. I think the fish is missed because the barb wasn't through his mouth or he never had all the hook all the way in his mouth. Every fish i catch on a texas rigged worm the worm is either 2 feet above the hook with the line through the head and mid section or S-curved around the shank. 

 

I will fish fat bodied worms on a 3/0 or 4/0 hook with no issues, I think if your worm is balled up you set the hook prematurely or set him on a slack line. Remember just because your line seem tight above the water doesn't mean you dont have a big arc under the water, especially fishing mono or flouro far away from the boat. Thats why i like fishing a rod with alot of back bone but a really soft  tip.I can load up on him, feel him arc my rod so i know my line is tight before I move that fish 15 feet through the water by his jaws 

 

I personally think i miss more fish with a pegged worm becuase it has no where to go.

 

Fish are lost Texas rigged because you didnt keep pressure on him.  you keep solid pressure on that fish and you use a strong hook set to drive the hook and that fish is coming home to papa

[Matthew2000]

It sounds like the fish are pecking at your bait quite a bit. Or you wait to long to set the hook.

[Jrob78]

 I still dont believe that some of you have never missed a fish because your worm has balled up. I just dont believe it. I think its happened to KVD , Rick Clunn , Larry Nixon and everyone who has ever fished a texas rig .

Everyone has missed fish with t-rigs.  It has more to do with your hook set or your hook than anything the worm is doing though.

[scaleface]

I have fished Texas rigs for forty years now. I have caught thousands , tens of thousands ? Never have tried to figure it up. I have lost more than my share of bass by every way possible. Rod to wimpy , rod to short, late on the hookset , line stretching , baits balling up.... Its called learning LOL

[mjseverson24]

If my bait is bunched up at the bottom of the hook one of two things happened, I set the hook on a weed or stump, or a fish grabbed it in a way that when I set the hook he didn't get stuck... if the bait is still good I just put it back up on the hook and keep fishing, if not I get a new one... The less junk I add to my bait that is not used to lure in a fish the better...

 

Mitch