Fishing Tips: The Best Weedless Worm Rig For Pickerel

It had been five years since the last time I was out fishing for Chain Pickerel in the weeds. I have fished them from the shore in open water earlier in the season and had a great time.

A couple of weeks ago I went pickerel fishing with my new best buddy Jamie. He brought his canoe and we headed for the weeds, deep in the weeds actually. We saw a lot of action but few hook sets.

The reason we didn’t land many, even though the action was pretty steady for a windy day in the weeds, was due to my poor choice in the hooks I purchased. I just grabbed what I thought was the correct hooks and it wasn’t until I used the first one that I realized I had messed up.

I quickly found that when I hooked the bait correctly on the hook it wouldn’t move through the water right and also caught on every weed, lily pad and blade of grass. When I rigged it so that the hook was in the plastic correctly to keep it straight the point of the hook would not embed in the plastic so it wasn’t weedless.

We still had a great day and Jamie landed a few but I wasn’t getting anything rigged like that. Even though we practice catch and release and don’t mind a few getting away it’s still nice to actually catch and release them without a long distance release.

If the weather holds out for one more day we are hitting the water again tomorrow but this time I will be prepared.

Today I am heading to the shop to pick up the right hooks for Texas rigging and then Chain Pickerel look out.

How to Rig the Plastic Worm or Lizard Weedless

I said it earlier but it’s worth mentioning again. It’s important to have the right hooks but it’s also important to know how to rig it correctly or you will just be fishing instead of catching.

To get a bit more distance a to be able to drop it into the weeds and have it sink you can use a bullet sinker. Put it on you line before you tie on your hook of course.

Threat about 1/2 inch of your worm onto the hook and then pull the hook through the bait. Move the bait to the top of the hook shank and then give it a turn so the hook point lines up with the bait.

Next you can just put the hook into the bait, but not through the bait. Some baits will have a groove that will allow you to put the hook right through the bait and then it fits right into the groove making it weedless. Just be sure you have it aligned properly or your worm may twist and move through the water or weeds right.

Filed under: chain pickerel • fishing tips

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