Have You Heard Of The : "Free Rig" ?

[RAMBLER]

Didn't know I should have named it.

 

 

[Deleted account]

27 minutes ago, RAMBLER said:

Didn't know I should have named it.

This is bass fishing, everything needs a name.

[Fishinthefish]

This functions literally the exact same as a bullet weighted texas rig unpegged. I have no idea why this is everywhere recently.

[flyfisher]

So i actually watched the video, well part of it, to see what it is and it is just what I thought, nothing really.  It does remind me of what Jimmy Houston used to do when he was hawking those stone sinkers.  They had pretty much the same setup as the "free rig" and i remember seeing it many years ago

 

[WRB]

I remember my introduction to Creame plastic worms like it was yesterday, July 1958 at lake Shasta California on a family vacation, I was a young teen. 

We had launched our racing/ski boat when 2 old men tied up to the dock with a stringer of big bass. Having worked on boat docks I went over and ask them what did you catch them and where? They showed me a pre rigged Creame worm in nightcrawler color, 2 hooks, a red bead and small propeller on a short leader. They also showed me how they rigged it by using 1/4 oz Dipsey bass sinker sliding on the line above a snap swivel the worm harness was clipped to. The old men then pointed across the bay to a rip rap wall and said fish over there and gave me a worm rig on a card and said Bridge Bay Marina sells them.

That was the free rig.

Tom

[Todd2]

So last night, I took this rig out to my main lake but decided to fish an area I'd never fished before. Nice long bank where the channel swings by....dozen or so of laydowns scattered down the bank. I worked the bank throughly from beginning to end and back. I ended up with about 15 Bass..one really nice one. For comparison, I'd say It was a better than average night for me.

 

It comes through wood cover as good as a bullet weight, and it seems to come over rock a little better but I only fished it for a couple of hours. Now I didn't rhrow a tradtional Texas rig because they were hitting the Free Rig, so I have no way of comparing the two in terms of bites. Not saying I'm putting the bullet weights up, but you can move me from skeptical to interested for what it's worth. 

 

 

[snake95]

On 7/8/2019 at 6:09 AM, ChrisD46 said:

*So , what do you guys  think ?

Yeah, let everyone yuk it up.  Looks like a good, simple idea.  Seems like it would be less prone to swinging vs a non-pegged T-rig.  Probably good for tossing at targets and having the bait follow that bombing dipsey down.

 

Sure, it isn't new.  We used this "rig" with a nightcrawler fishing for walleye up in northern Ontario in the '80's.

 

I'm sure it's been done for bass once or twice.

 

I get the rig overload feeling.  However, why not give it a name?  Simpler than "Unpegged T-rig with a dipsey sinker" or "Jika rig without a connection between the hook and sinker."

[Todd2]

2 minutes ago, snake95 said:

 

Why not give it a name?  Simpler than "Unpegged T-rig with a dipsey sinker" or "Jika rig without a connection between the hook and sinker."

Lol, yeah "Free Rig" rolls off the tongue a little easier....lol

[Deleted account]

4 hours ago, flyfisher said:

remind me of what Jimmy Houston used to do when he was hawking those stone sinkers. 

LOL. Mom took a job assembling puka bead necklaces at home back in  the early 70s. I offered to help if I could have some of the larger beads, and some copper wire. (not to mention that crazy strong braided nylon white thread thing that worked out great for fishing line). I made rock dipsey sinkers, and would catch catfish and bass on it rigging it like a mini carolina. If only I'd left out the swivel.... Thanks for the memory.

[ChrisD46]

15 hours ago, WRB said:

I remember my introduction to Creame plastic worms like it was yesterday, July 1958 at lake Shasta California on a family vacation, I was a young teen. 

We had launched our racing/ski boat when 2 old men tied up to the dock with a stringer of big bass. Having worked on boat docks I went over and ask them what did you catch them and where? They showed me a pre rigged Creame worm in nightcrawler color, 2 hooks, a red bead and small propeller on a short leader. They also showed me how they rigged it by using 1/4 oz Dipsey bass sinker sliding on the line above a snap swivel the worm harness was clipped to. The old men then pointed across the bay to a rip rap wall and said fish over there and gave me a worm rig on a card and said Bridge Bay Marina sells them.

That was the free rig.

Tom

*I just knew some how Tom would ultimately be connected to the Free Rig from back in the day (as he was with many other bass fishing rigs)  - the man is a walking :  "Bass Fishing Historian" ! ... *Other kids gather around their grand father to hear war stories - Tom's grand kids gather around to hear bass lure rigging and ask : "Tell us about the time you discovered the split shot rig Grand Pa Tom " - while another grand child interrupts and says:  " No , we already heard that story last week - tell us about the Darter Head jig Grand Pa Tom " ! ... LOL ! - much admiration for you Tom and keep the history lessons coming !

[ChrisD46]

Recent Free Rig "How To" from a tournament basser : https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/free-rig.html

The finesse wide gap (i.e. wacky hook) could be a nice touch along with the cylinder weight with a larger circle for the line to slide through (I still believe for most purposes the general purpose lead casting weights have a large enough eyelet to allow the line to move freely through) . Lastly - experimenting with a few different creature style baits , finesse worms , etc. could provide a different fall rate / action profile .

[Mr. Bassin II]

On 7/8/2019 at 1:25 PM, RichF said:

The bass will totally see that sinker....better use 4lb fluoro and a BFS casting setup.

Better yet, sinkers in various colors to blend in to the bottom you are fishing.  Now you have to carry a dozen colors of six sizes of sinkers.