Basic rigs & tackle for fishing
with worms, minnows, insects and other live bait.
There are many rigs & tackle. (the way you tie on the hooks, weights and bobbers/floats) And as you fish you will learn more, modify the ones listed here, and probably invent some of your own. Below are some basic rigs/tackle for different types of fishing. But just because it says it's for catching a certain fish such as crappie, bream, trout, or bass, does not mean you won't catch something other than that certain fish. Before fishing, check with your states Fish and Wildlife department for regulations, licenses, and permits.
Basic Panfish Rig & Tackle (1)
Thread a small garden worm, night crawler, blood worm, or other type of bait onto a size 8 or 10 light-weight hook, letting just the very ends of the bait dangle. Attach a small fixed bobber/float to keep the bait 1 to 2 feet beneath the surface. Add a split shot weight to the line 6 to 10 inches above the hook and below the bobber/float. Cast the rig to the edges and pockets of weed beds, and around timber. Early in the season, drag it into visible spawning beds. Watch the bobber/float you possibly have a bite when it boobles and wiggles on the surface, or some times is pulled under the water. This is a great rig for bream, crappie and other smaller sized pan fish.
Basic Panfish Rig & Tackle (2)
Hook a waxworm, mealworm, spike, or mousie to a small leadhead or teardrop jig. Work it around weeds, Lilly pads, and bottom structure, and vertically to suspended fish.
Basic Panfish Rig & Tackle (3)
A popular bait for perch and crappies topping 9 inches, and as big as 2 pounds or more, is the fathead minnow. Impale a 1½- to 3-inch fathead through the lips on each hook of a tandem rig (available at most tackle and bait shops in the fishing hook section), weighted with a ½-ounce bell sinker. Jig, drag, drift, or slowly troll over submerged weeds, stumps, logs, or other underwater structures.
Basic Bass Rig & Tackle (1)
When fishing for Black Bass, Stripers, and Hybrids,
Gizzard shad are great for stripers up to 60 pounds. Use threadfin for hybrids and black bass feeding on schools of shad on the surface. For stripers, drift or troll a 6- to 12-inch gizzard shad below a balloon float or on a slip-sinker rig. Rig a 6- to 7-inch bait on the slip-sinker rig for big largemouth bass. Cast a threadfin that has been hooked in the tail, or a jig-and-shad (a jig with a shad attached to the hook as a trailer) combo at surface-blitzing black bass.
Basic Bass Rig & Tackle (2)
Place a live nightcrawler, hooking it through the head with a size 1 or 2 Octopus-style hook. Don't use a weight if possible; otherwise add a small split shot or a drop-shot weight. Crawl the bait very slowly past bass or over a promising bottom.
Basic Bass Rig & Tackle (3)
A super lunker largemouth bait is the golden shiner. Hook a 4- to 10-inch shiner through the lips on a 3/0 to 6/0 hook, depending on the size of the bait, about 3, maybe 4 feet beneath a small bobber/float. Troll slowly or drift it around weedbeds. Or you can remove the bobber, add a split shot or two above the hook, and work it around deeper structure.
Basic Trout Rig & Tackle (1)
Trout commonly snatch live grasshoppers or crickets drifting realistically overhead. It’s a good tactic in summer heat around overhanging trees and other vegetation. Hook a grasshopper through the collar with a size 10 or 12 light-weight hook. Add a casting bubble for weight to aid in casting, cast upstream of a trout and let the bait drift downstream.
Basic Trout Rig & Tackle (2)
Catch stream trout with salted minnows, crayfish, and leeches, but often, nothing works better than a worm. And in high, cloudy water, no bait will out perform a worm. Thread a half a night crawler onto a size 8 or 10 hook; cover the shank and let the rest of the worm dangle. Add a split shot above the hook and let it drift in the current.
Basic Walleye Rig & Tackle (1)
If the water under your boat is moving, try a jig-and-minnow combo, especialy if you’re after spring walleyes. On a 1/8- to ½-ounce jig hook a 2- to 3-inch fathead minnow through the lips and use as a trailer. Jig vertically over deep structure; cast and let the bait drift beneath current breaks in shallower water.
Basic Walleye Rig & Tackle (2)
Use a 6-inch redtail chub. You won’t catch as many fish on this behemoth walleye bait. But you may well catch a monster walleye. On a slip-sinker rig, impale the redtail chub through the lips with a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. Drift it along breaklines, fishing the bait vertically below the boat.
