Somewhere, OH — If you like to fish soft plastics, I have a one-two punch system that has worked well for me this summer. The first is the classic wacky rig with a five-inch Senko worm. A Yum Dinger also works well in this setup. Be sure to use the O-ring on this rig, especially with the Yamamoto Senko. If you skip the O-ring, you will lose your Senko every time you catch a fish.
Wes Clutter, one of the top bass anglers in Southeast Ohio, throws his wacky rig with two O-rings that are crisscrossed on the bait. This puts the hook at a perpendicular angle instead of the parallel look with a single O-ring. If you use just one O-ring, rig the hook so that the hook is pointed toward the tail of the lure.
My fishing buddy, Danny Johnson, is a wacky worm expert and he rekindled my interest in throwing this bait again. Danny drove the wacky rig home multiple times on Lake St. Clair’s smallmouth bass this past spring. I will NEVER hit the water at St. Clair without a wacky worm rigged and ready to throw.
The other rig is a Z-Man Big TRD on a now extinct D-K jighead that was invented by Dustin Karns, the former owner of Venom Lures. (Dustin shut down Venom Lures late last year). Whatever jighead you can find to rig the Big TRD weedless, this set-up is very effective when throwing into cover. Most Ned rig applications have an exposed hook on a jighead which is great for open water applications. If you want the effectiveness of a Ned rig with a slightly bigger bait that’s weedless, consider throwing the Big TRD in a weedless format.
Spinning tackle works best for the wacky worm but I prefer baitcasting when throwing the weedless Big TRD into gnarly hideouts bass like to use. I used this combo at East and West Harbors at Lake Erie this year. If I could fit a bait in the holes of weedbeds, I threw the wacky rig. If the exposed hook on the wacky worm grabbed too much salad, I went with the weedless Big TRD.
One final tip for the Big TRD set-up: put a smidgen of super glue on the worm where it snugs up against the jig head. Experiment with various colors until you start experiencing consistent bites. Once you determine what color the bass want, glue that bad boy to the jighead.
My favorite colors?… green pumpkin and yoga pants for the Big TRD. For the wacky rigged Senko, I use green pumpkin w/black spots, baby bass, and black with blue flake. Experiment with various colors until you find the ones that create the confidence you need in a lure to make it more effective. And remember…
Set the hook like you mean it!
