Perhaps no technique in the history of bass fishing has caught more fish than the combination of a bullet weight, weedless hook and soft plastic – the good ol’ Texas rig. Since its proliferation in the mid-20th century, the rig has remained a mainstay for anglers across the country.
But at a time when fishing pressure continues to mount, showing bass something different can pay big dividends. And a host of pros have quietly been utilizing a simple twist on the Texas rig to put more bass in the boat – the free rig.
Originally hailing from Japan, the free rig swaps out the Texas rig’s bullet weight for a cylinder-style weight (think a drop-shot weight with a circular line tie). While that might not seem like a significant change, veteran pro John Murray said he’s seen it out-produce a Texas rig, to the point that he reaches for the free rig first in certain situations.
“A lot of times it takes the place of my usual Texas rig,” the Mercury pro said. “I just like the way it reacts and the way it hooks them and everything else.”
Murray and Bass Pro Tour pro Jacob Wall explained why it’s worth trying the free rig and when and how to utilize it.
When to turn to the free rig
Upon seeing the free rig, many anglers have the same initial reaction: How is it different than a Texas rig with an unpegged weight? While Wall admitted that some of the fish he catches on a free rig would probably eat a Texas rig as well, he’s observed enough of a difference between the two techniques to know that there’s something to the free rig.
The teardrop weight of a free rig puts less friction on an angler’s line than a bullet weight, thus allowing it to fall faster. That creates more separation between weight and bait. As a result, once the weight hits the bottom, the plastic has more time to free fall – hence the name free rig. Wall said the rig allows him to achieve the natural action of a weightless plastic at whatever depth he chooses.
“It just has a little more hangtime, has a little bit more of like a weightless presentation,” Wall said. “I feel like on an unpegged Texas rig, on your initial cast, your weight is going to come farther away from the bait than it is at any other point during the cast. It seems like once you start hopping it, that weight kind of gets tighter to the nose, and it doesn’t really free up as much. It may only move a foot or so. On a free rig, if you’re fishing in 10 or 12 feet of water and you cast out there, your bait is going to have a lot of hangtime on that initial drop. You hop it, and you’re going to have a bunch of hangtime in between each hop. Like, your bait isn’t just going to congeal to the side of the weight.”
So, when can it be beneficial to switch to a free rig? The short answer is just about any time you’d normally wield a Texas rig aside from perhaps flipping and punching heavy cover.
In particular, Murray said he’s found success using a free rig around bottom-oriented cover like submerged vegetation. During the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event on the St. Lawrence River this summer, he used a Yamamoto Senko on a free rig to catch several quality largemouth each day, including a 6-pound, 7-ounce brute – the biggest bass of the event. The technique helped him buck the typical smallmouth approach on the river and finish in the Top 10.
“On the St. Lawrence, what I was doing is pitching it in holes in sparse grass where I normally pitch a jig, but the free rig got through there better and hooked them better,” he said. “I could present a Senko, which just catches them better than a jig. There’s just a lot of advantages to pitching that over a jig.”
The same logic applies to brushpiles, a situation when both Murray and Wall said they’ve found success with a free rig. The technique allows the bait to hover around the pile rather than sinking straight into the cover like it might on a Texas rig.
In both of those scenarios, Murray and Wall typically work their free rigs with big hops and pauses, causing the bait to separate from the weight and allowing it to sink before moving it again. But the technique works when dragging, too. Nick Hatfield proved that during his win at B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters on Smith Mountain Lake when he caught several key bass crawling a free rig along shallow points.
Wall has turned to the free rig as a shaky head alternative when fishing offshore ledges on Lake Guntersville, his home lake. He said the weight allows his worm to swim more freely than it would on a shaky head, and he’s experienced a better hookup-to-land ratio, too.
“Even when you’re dragging, it gives that worm more fluidity behind that weight rather than being so locked down to a jighead like a shaky head is,” Wall said. “And also another thing is when a fish eats the bait, if you lean a little bit toward the bait, the fish can eat that bait and not feel any kind of resistance from any kind of weight.”
A fresh twist on the same-old worms
One of the appeals of a free rig is you probably won’t have to buy much new tackle to give it a shot. Both Wall and Murray utilize the same rod, reel and line setups they would for a Texas rig – a medium-heavy rod in the 7-foot-3 to 7-7 range, a high-speed reel and 15- to 20-pound fluorocarbon.
The only new components you need are cylindrical weights with circular line ties (not a crimped tie that grips the line like many drop-shot weights) and a bead to protect the knot. Wall uses the same size weight he’d throw on a Texas rig – anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 ounce depending on the situation.
As for baits, just about any soft-plastic shape can work. However, the two most popular free rig offerings seem to be worms or wide-bodied creature baits with subtle action. Examples include the Geecrack Bellows Gill (which Hatfield used at Smith Mountain) and the Deps Bull Flat.
Wall and Murray have both found their best success using worms. Wall uses 7- to 10-inch straight-tail worms when throwing the free rig offshore. In addition to the Senko, Murray likes the Yamamoto Oki worm (a 10-inch, straight-tail bait that floats) and swimming worms like the Yamamoto Speed Senko depending on how much action he wants from the bait.
Neither Murray nor Wall expects the free rig to replace the Texas rig entirely. But whether you’re dragging offshore, targeting grass or brushpiles or simply wanting to differentiate yourself from the crowds of other anglers throwing worms, try tying on a free rig.
“Texas rig worms have caught more bass than anything we’ve ever made, so it would be hard to replace that,” Murray said. “I will always have a Texas rig on. But especially where I live at Chickamauga and some of these lakes that get high pressure, it’s just a different look. And sometimes it’s just for the fisherman. Sometimes I want to throw something different in there that I know that six other guys haven’t thrown the exact same thing.”