Texas rigging technique questions

[FishDewd]

Did some pond hopping this morning, visited three different ponds. In two of them I got some really good bites, but as is typical when I texas rig, I reel down, set it hard, and there's nothing there. Only this time my bait was actually sliding down the hook which I'm not sure what to make of. Normally they slide up the hook when set? Perhaps they were just short striking it? I've tried striking quickly, as well as waiting for a second or two before setting, but I get the same result. I took a picture of what my bait looked like after one of these failed strikes in case it can offer some clues as to what I am doing wrong. Z-man Hula stick btw:

 

I did have my weight pegged, which I am wondering if whether that could cause an issue or not. I did this because the area being fished has severe debris in the water, as well as a sharp overhang near the bank. I opted to use this ned rig bait with a lighter weight in t-rig fashion for the different fluttering action while slowly descended. And it got bit. A lot. Yet I could not hook up with a fish... so... ideas? Any downside to using a pegged weight vs. unpegged for example? Was it the bait itself?

 

 

[BrianinMD]

Bluegills....

[FishDewd]

Possible, but they usually do multiple taps whereas these were just one good thunk. Big bluegill maybe? That is a 4/0 hook

[Lead Head]

Goggle eye (rock bass, warmouth) will hit like a truck at times, but you can usually get a hook in them if they are persistent. It really sounds like bluegill or really small bass. I fished near a hatchery one time and 6" bass were so abundant that a T-rig was almost impossible. It went from fun, to funny, to frustrating really quick.

[lo n slo]

little skippy’s

[NYWayfarer]

I had the same issue, one thunk and a short strike. My culprit turned out to be Perch.

 

It is definitely some kind of panfish.

[CroakHunter]

Not a fan of z-man plastics on a Texas rig. Very hard to get a hook through that tough plastic and into the fishes lip. And in your picture it looks like you got very little penetration out of the worm. 

[FishDewd]

34 minutes ago, CroakHunter said:

Not a fan of z-man plastics on a Texas rig. Very hard to get a hook through that tough plastic and into the fishes lip. And in your picture it looks like you got very little penetration out of the worm. 

This is true, that one I showed was the least penetrating of the three swings I took thinking they were bass. I was using a baby brush hog after that and had similar results but the hook never actually penetrated. So idk. I know I set hard enough, made my drag scream and it was set just below breaking strength of my leader.

 

Quote

Goggle eye (rock bass, warmouth) will hit like a truck at times, but you can usually get a hook in them if they are persistent. It really sounds like bluegill or really small bass. I fished near a hatchery one time and 6" bass were so abundant that a T-rig was almost impossible. It went from fun, to funny, to frustrating really quick.

 

Could be some sort of aggressive perch. Not sure if there is supposed to be goggle eye/rock bass in these ponds but maybe that's what it is. Or could well have been really small bass. Well, one things for sure, at least I know the technique works and I"m on the right track. Lol. Now to attract the bass instead of the perch and I'm set!

[CroakHunter]

@FishDewd are you Tex-posing your hook or leaving in buried in the plastic? Also what style/size hook?

[FishDewd]

1 hour ago, CroakHunter said:

@FishDewd are you Tex-posing your hook or leaving in buried in the plastic? Also what style/size hook?

I've done it both ways with worm hooks- today I was running purely a 4/0 round bend buried into the plastic. I had tried the EWGs from 2/0-4/0 prior and decided to give round bend a try. I also have 1/0-5/0 round bends and EWG hooks. 2/0 usually feels too small and 5/0 are too big for anything but lizards. Usually I feel comfortable with a 3/0 or 4/0 for most of my baits but I could probably scale down if I was running a finesse worm or something.

[Catt]

Quick question?

 

Any teeth marks on your weight?

[CroakHunter]

My next suggestion would be to texpose a non z-man plastic with a 2-4/0 ewg hook, if you are sure it is bass hitting your bait.

[FishDewd]

@Catt No there doesn't appear to be. Just a dent from bumping it along rocks, maybe a scratch or two, but nothing that looks like it was bit.

 

@CroakHunter Pretty sure at least some were bass, but there are a lot of bait fish in this one lake as well. Sure felt bigger than the bait I see swimming around, but maybe they were just hungry and took a chomp. But I know it holds a fair number of decent bass.

 

This is actually the first time I decided to try the Texas rig with the Z man. Normally I will use something like a senko or some zoom creature like a baby brush hog, Z craw, Fat Albert grub, etc. I actually did switch to brush hogs after a while and closed the day with Z craws. I didn't get hook penetration with the other baits after I left the Z mans which is a little confusing to me. All I can figure is the stretchiness of the elastech  let them hang on long enough to poke the hook through before it got pulled away as opposed to them tailing a zoom and not having that stretch. Idk really, that's a weird one to me.

 

Anyway, I'll keep plugging and trying... least I am starting to be able to bit on it consistently.

[Sam]

Your photo shows how a stick bait, finesse worm or trick worm looks when the bass hits it and you miss him.

 

Happens to us all.

 

As stated above, you are getting your plastics ticked by bluegills or crappie which can drive you nuts along with the small dinks.

 

But these species, and the smaller bass, are in the water with the larger bass so just keep plugging away and sooner or later you will nail a nice one.

 

Good luck.

[WRB]

The plastic where the hook exits looks chewed on.

Don't peg the weight, peg the worm to the hook eye and skin hook the tube worm 4/0 hook may be big (wire dia) for the tube worm and your rods hook setting power, try 3/0.

Tom 

 

[Catt]

57 minutes ago, FishDewd said:

No there doesn't appear to be. Just a dent from bumping it along rocks, maybe a scratch or two, but nothing that looks like it was bit

 

Guarantee it aint bass!

 

 

[EGbassing]

1 hour ago, Sam said:

Your photo shows how a stick bait, finesse worm or trick worm looks when the bass hits it and you miss him.

Always wondered what made them look like that. Is that always true, or just usually true?

[Rahlow]

 

[FishDewd]

@WRB The worm was getting torn up from the hook itself I think, I had already removed it and spun the worm around to go through a new area. Apparently elastech is not indestructible lol. Not sure what you mean by pegging the worm if you can elaborate on that.

 

So let's say these are all perch. Why is it I can fish the same baits someone else is using near me, doing basically the same technique, and I get all the perch hits? Lol maybe I have perch magnetism.

 

 

 

 

[Rahlow]

Peg the hook, bury the eye in the bait and push a short piece of mono line thru the bait, thru the eye,  I keep some 25 or 30 pound el cheapo line just for this, in a pinch I have used a tip of a tooth pic,,, 

I had similar issues to what looked like your pick, I went to a 5/0 hook, looks to me like you don’t have enough hook to penetrate the doubled over bait,,, start by pegging the bait,,,

[WRB]

1 minute ago, FishDewd said:

@WRB The worm was getting torn up from the hook itself I think, I had already removed it and spun the worm around to go through a new area. Apparently elastech is not indestructible lol. Not sure what you mean by pegging the worm if you can elaborate on that.

 

So let's say these are all perch. Why is it I can fish the same baits someone else is using near me, doing basically the same technique, and I get all the perch hits? Lol maybe I have perch magnetism.

 

 

 

 

You run a round wooden tooth pick or heavy 50# mono through the soft plastic and the hook eye then clip off the ends flush with the soft plastic. This pegs the head of the soft plastic to the hook so it can't slide down into the hook gap shown in your photo.

Bluegill tend to bite the tail end od soft platics, not the head end. If you simply slowly retrieve you soft plastic bluegill or perch will follow it and continue to bite it.

If the bullet weight is soft lead bass teeth can scrape it if you pull it out of the basses mouth when closed. If the bass spits your soft plastic out you don't see any marks on the lead, you do on the soft plastic. Tungsten bullet weights are too hard to show teeth marks unless painted.

Sliding bullet weight should improve your strike to hook set ratio.

Tom

[FishDewd]

Okay thats worth a try. First few times I tried fishing this lake I wqs going upegged so guess ill go back to doing that. I do use a slow retrieve on the t rig, so guess ill have to expect bites from non target fish. Good to know about the bite marks stuff.

[Catt]

58 minutes ago, WRB said:

If the bullet weight is soft lead bass teeth can scrape it if you pull it out of the basses mouth when closed. If the bass spits your soft plastic out you don't see any marks on the lead, you do on the soft plastic

 

The OP is sitting hook & coming up empty!

 

With not even a single tooth mark tell me it was in a bass's mouth.

 

It aint bass! 

[FishDewd]

All right, so I downsized hook to a 3/0 EWG. I just don't like the round bends very much though I know a lot of others do. I removed the peg. And made sure the eyelet was buried into the bait, which I do generally do anyway, just thought I'd mention. So long as weather permits I'll be meeting someone at a lake tomorrow for round 2. Any advice technique wise? I usually fish the T rig pretty slowly.... let it sink/sit for about 30 seconds. Give it a slow drag a few feet with a few twitches, reel in slack. Wait about 15-20 seconds. Sometimes I'll do two quick but short pops off the bottom, let it sink as a I reel in. Seems to match what I've seen others do successfully but maybe it's too slow?

[ClackerBuzz]

Next time don't set the hook instead trying 2 things:

 

1 wait to see if you feel a million taps.  if so it's a baitfish shaking the bleep out of the lure.  in this case don't bother setting the hook.  I immediately cast or relocate to deeper water.

 

2 get ur rod tip high and slowly reel upward.  most of the time you can lead a dumb baitfish to the surface, yes even if they are only lipping the back of the plastic.

 

Texposing plastics, including Z man, has never been an issue for me.  How do I know?  I got serious grit and push my finger into the plastic right where the buried hook point is. The hook point stabs me every single time.  and just think that's using 100 times less force than a rod generates.