How much bullet weight is necessary

[Tyler.]

I fish a lot of deep lakes and have some bullet weights from 3/8 to 1/4oz. Is 3/8 too much weight to be pegged at the nose of a worm or brush hog ? It gets it down to the bottom and in deep lakes that helps but is it too much weight for a fish to hold on to it?

 

Should I use those weights in C-Rig applications instead of pegging at the nose?

[Bluebasser86]

I like to use the lightest weight I can get away with. A lot of times, that's a 1/4oz. If you get in a situation with deep water in a lot of wind, you might need 1/2oz or more. 3/8oz is not that large of a weight to be using for a T-rig, but it's very light for a C-rig.

[Tyler.]

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I like to use the lightest weight I can get away with. A lot of times, that's a 1/4oz. If you get in a situation with deep water in a lot of wind, you might need 1/2oz or more. 3/8oz is not that large of a weight to be using for a T-rig, but it's very light for a C-rig.

I guess if the weight is not pegged then the fish can take a little bit of the lure without the feel of the bullet weight. 

[Bluebasser86]

6 minutes ago, Tyler. said:

I guess if the weight is not pegged then the fish can take a little bit of the lure without the feel of the bullet weight. 

Just peg it if it needs to be pegged. Bass aren't smart enough to be aware of the fact that the worm they just picked up is a little heavier than it's supposed to be.

 

I worry more about an unpegged weight dragging behind the fish and getting stuck in something, causing the fish to let go of the bait.

[Catt]

24 minutes ago, Tyler. said:

is it too much weight for a fish to hold on to it?

 

How much do you think a 4-6" shad weighs?

 

Or how much do you think a Bull Bream weighs.

 

How much do you think big crawfish weighs?

 

Most of a bass's food source is well over 3/8s of an oz.

 

3/8s to 1/2 oz Carolina Rigs are quite common down here.

[Lead Head]

People catch bass on jigs well over 3/8oz all the time. The fish has to feel the weight of a jig nearly every time. I've caught a great many bass on a t-rig with a 3/8oz bullet sinker both pegged and unpegged.

[Captain Phil]

Here in Florida, heavy weights are not normally required.  Most of our lakes are shallow with a soft bottom.  Under those conditions, we use the smallest weight possible.  There are a few exceptions.  One is when punching through heavy cover like hydrilla mats.  The other is when Carolina rigging hard bottom. A heavy weight lets you feel the bottom.  I use a 1 oz. weight when Carolina rigging.  I can cast it  a mile and I feel every rock, bump and shell bed. If I feel any resistance, I set the hook.   If you use a bullet worm weight over 1/4 oz. in Florida, you will most likely find your worm covered with junk from the bottom. 

[fissure_man]

6 hours ago, Catt said:

 

How much do you think a 4-6" shad weighs?

 

Or how much do you think a Bull Bream weighs.

 

How much do you think big crawfish weighs?

 

Underwater, I would think all of those weigh less than a 3/8 oz lead sinker.

[Mike L]

The majority of my bottom fishing is with a 3/16, except of course when using a Carolina rig ( 1 oz) or punching (up to 2 oz). 
There are times I’ll use a 1/4 when they want it faster or when using a slow infrequent drag which is then always pegged. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[Stasher1]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

Here in Florida, heavy weights are not normally required.  Most of our lakes are shallow with a soft bottom.  Under those conditions, we use the smallest weight possible.  There are a few exceptions.  One is when punching through heavy cover like hydrilla mats.  The other is when Carolina rigging hard bottom. A heavy weight lets you feel the bottom.  I use a 1 oz. weight when Carolina rigging.  I can cast it  a mile and I feel every rock, bump and shell bed. If I feel any resistance, I set the hook.   If you use a bullet worm weight over 1/4 oz. in Florida, you will most likely find your worm covered with junk from the bottom. 

 

 

This.

 

I don't think I even own any bullet weights over 1/4 oz, with the vast majority of them being 1/8 and 3/16.

[J Francho]

I usually start at 3/8 oz. and go up.  1/2 and 3/4 oz. is my most used weights, but I have them up to 1.5 oz. for punching thick stuff.  

[A-Jay]

I'm an old weight-pegger from way back;  at least 50% of the time.

Weight size varies in accordance with depth, cover density, bottom composition 

and on scene weather conditions at the time of said presentation.

All that said, my absolute favorite bullet weights, regardless of size,

all have plenty of teeth marks in them . . . .

A-Jay

 

[Jigfishn10]

For me it's a matter of "feeling" the bottom.

Most water I fish needs a 3/16 once un pegged. Current will change the weight if I'm looking to fish slower and the current is moving my light rig.

[Tyler.]

4 hours ago, Lead Head said:

People catch bass on jigs well over 3/8oz all the time. The fish has to feel the weight of a jig nearly every time. I've caught a great many bass on a t-rig with a 3/8oz bullet sinker both pegged and unpegged.

Ya, I guess I didn't think about that. Good point. 

[BlakeMolone]

4 hours ago, Mike L said:

The majority of my bottom fishing is with a 3/16, except of course when using a Carolina rig ( 1 oz) or punching (up to 2 oz). 
There are times I’ll use a 1/4 when they want it faster or when using a slow infrequent drag which is then always pegged. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

Are you still only using a 3/16th when you are flipping say a beaver or brush hog into wood cover?

[Mike L]

I always have a 3/16 rigged on my bottom contact rod which I use every outing. 
Keep in mind that down here we fish In anywhere from 1 ft to 8 ft fow on average. 

For wood, scattered vegetation or hard bottom the 3/16 is my sweet spot and adjust up based on trying to elicit a reaction strike or increase in the thickness of cover. 
 

As a site note, a 3/16 is my weight of choice when swimming a plastic throughout that same water column. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[WRB]

Rarely peg a bullet weight using worms. Weight size depends on the size of the soft plastic being used, depth and wind.

I use a 3/16 oz bullet weight free to slide on the line with a glass faceted bead between the eight and hook 90% of the time with 6”-71/2” worms, 1/4 oz worms 8” and 3/8 oz worms 9”-13”.  

Where I fish bass are located anywhere from 12” to 70’ of water. As long as you can detect strikes you have enough weight.

Tom

 

[Catt]

6 hours ago, fissure_man said:

 

Underwater, I would think all of those weigh less than a 3/8 oz lead sinker.

 

The point is your 3/8 oz Texas Rig compared to their food source is small.

 

A 2 lb bass in 10' of water can stop a 1 oz jig from ever hitting bottom.

[J Francho]

7 hours ago, fissure_man said:

 

Underwater, I would think all of those weigh less than a 3/8 oz lead sinker.

Mass is mass, regardless.  If you have a bucket of water on a scale that weighs 40 lbs. and add a 1 lb. bass to it, the scale will read 41 lbs.  

[WRB]

Food for thought; a 10 lb brick weight 6.6 lbs underwater.

Tom

PS, Archimedes principle 

 

[RoLo]

 

Whether a 1-pound weight is in the air or underwater, it will weigh 1 pound.

On the other hand, objects of the same weight may behave very differently underwater

due to differences in "buoyancy".  Buoyancy is the difference between an object’s weight

and the weight of the water the object displaces. Although buoyancy doesn’t alter the weight

of an object, it alters the force necessary to raise an underwater object.

In spite of having the same weight, a 1-pound rock will beeline to the bottom,

while a 1-pound block of Styrofoam will languish indefinitely on the surface.

 

Roger

[12poundbass]

2 hours ago, WRB said:

Food for thought; a 10 lb brick weight 6.6 lbs underwater.

Tom

 

And once again I learned something new. Yesterday it was the porcelain bird in the pie, today it’s a 10 lb brick in water weighs 6.6 lbs. 

[MGF]

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

Mass is mass, regardless.  If you have a bucket of water on a scale that weighs 40 lbs. and add a 1 lb. bass to it, the scale will read 41 lbs.  

That's true but buoyancy might be the issue here. When in the water a neutrally buoyant object is perceived as weightless...even though it may have plenty of weight.  

 

An object's buoyancy is the weight of the object minus the weight of the water that it displaces...that's why a large steel ship can float just like if it were weightless.

[fissure_man]

The mass of the Hindenburg zeppelin was somewhere approaching 200,000 kg, and yet it would register less than 0 on a scale. In fact, any ‘weight’ that we measure conventionally is buoyed by our own atmosphere, but most things we care to weigh are so much denser than the air they displace that we ignore the difference.

 

Semantics aside, I propose that because bass live underwater, the only ‘weight’ relevant to the discussion at hand is the ‘buoyed weight’ as might be measured underwater. Yeeessss mass is unchanged and gravity still exerts the same force which is counteracted by a buoyant force and blah blah blah. From the bass' perspective (if I may), and in terms of what they might conceivably 'feel' and reject, everything in their world is buoyed by water - just like everything in ours is buoyed by air.

 

An interesting side point (if one accepts the above), is that given two sinkers of equal mass, one made of lead and the other of tungsten, the latter actually ‘weighs’ more (buoyed weight) from the bass’ perspective because it displaces less water.

[Jigfishn10]

2 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

And once again I learned something new. Yesterday it was the porcelain bird in the pie, today it’s a 10 lb brick in water weighs 6.6 lbs. 

If a 10 lb brick only weighs 6.6 lbs, then that means your only a 7.9poundbass. ?