| Brandon's Tackle Bag: The Versatile Soft Plastic Rig |
| Share When I am fishing tournaments, I typically have 12-15 rods ready to go. However, when people fish with me, they only will bring a handful of rods with them to use. Most of the time, half the rods I have are rigged up with one or more variations of some soft plastics with my new tungsten weights from Reins. Strangely enough through, I have been asked on more than one occasion what is my most versatile soft plastic rig, so it got me thinking. Was it my carolina rig, the texas rig, or one of the other rigs I use on a regular basis and what could I recommend to people who could only carry a small handful of rods with them at any point in time. Well it hit me. Most of the time, I was using my main soft plastic rod, I had the same rig in my hand. It was a combination texas rig, caronlina rig, and a flipping / pitching rig. The rig uses a few simple components and I will explain it here. Here is what makes up my versatile plastic rig:
First thread a sinker stop (2) on your fishing line above the slip sinker (4). It should look like this:  This serves a few purposes. First when texas rigging, it will allow you to control how far the weight gets from the soft plastic when fishing structure. For example, if I am fishing vegetation, sometimes the weight would fall down between the pads and the plastic would stay on top. With this rig, that no longer happens. Adjust the sinker stop up and down as needed. Next place another sinker stop immediately below the slip sinker and tie on the hook. This achieves a few things. This allows you to effectively "peg" the weight to the hook by moving the weight up or down, it also protect the knot from any damage since the sinker stops are made from rubber. Here is a picture.  At this point you have completed the rig. You can now completely control the weight position without retieing. You can make a makeshift carolina rig, texas rig, and a punching rig without any effort. Because of the small diameters of the Reins weights and multiple sizes, the uses of this rig are limitless. Here are the finished rigs.   |
| Brandon's Tackle Bag: The Versatile Soft Plastic Rig |
| Share When I am fishing tournaments, I typically have 12-15 rods ready to go. However, when people fish with me, they only will bring a handful of rods with them to use. Most of the time, half the rods I have are rigged up with one or more variations of some soft plastics with my new tungsten weights from Reins. Strangely enough through, I have been asked on more than one occasion what is my most versatile soft plastic rig, so it got me thinking. Was it my carolina rig, the texas rig, or one of the other rigs I use on a regular basis and what could I recommend to people who could only carry a small handful of rods with them at any point in time. Well it hit me. Most of the time, I was using my main soft plastic rod, I had the same rig in my hand. It was a combination texas rig, caronlina rig, and a flipping / pitching rig. The rig uses a few simple components and I will explain it here. Here is what makes up my versatile plastic rig:
First thread a sinker stop (2) on your fishing line above the slip sinker (4). It should look like this: This serves a few purposes. First when texas rigging, it will allow you to control how far the weight gets from the soft plastic when fishing structure. For example, if I am fishing vegetation, sometimes the weight would fall down between the pads and the plastic would stay on top. With this rig, that no longer happens. Adjust the sinker stop up and down as needed. Next place another sinker stop immediately below the slip sinker and tie on the hook. This achieves a few things. This allows you to effectively "peg" the weight to the hook by moving the weight up or down, it also protect the knot from any damage since the sinker stops are made from rubber. Here is a picture. At this point you have completed the rig. You can now completely control the weight position without retieing. You can make a makeshift carolina rig, texas rig, and a punching rig without any effort. Because of the small diameters of the Reins weights and multiple sizes, the uses of this rig are limitless. Here are the finished rigs. |
