Hey everyone. I have recently been trying to get more into finesse fishing and am going to re-teach myself the split shot rig, as well as teaching it to the girlfriend for her to gain some confidence.

My new setup will be a Chronarche 50E with 8lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid on a 6'9 ML/XF St. Croix Legend Tournament Bass.

Just hoping to get some lure recommendations (floating and non floating) to get rolling with.

For starters, I have a few packs of 4.5 inch curly tailed Roboworms as well as some 3.5 inch Roboworm Zipper grubs. Thinking about grabbing some zoom centipedes as well.

Will primarily be used for river and pond LMB with the ocassional lake trip thrown in. Rivers and ponds are typical stained Louisiana waters.

Just curious to see what everyone else tosses! Any technique tips will be welcome as well!

Thanks!

IMO I only use straight tail worms.  I seem to do better on those than anything.  It may just be a confidence thing.  A far as how I work it, I just slowly drag it or deadstick the bait.  I read Don Iovino's finesse book.  Talk about eye opening!

The Roboworm 4.5" ST FX worm in Summer Shad is awesome:

 

 

 

 

Small straight Robo

Zoom Trick

Zoom Finese

French Fries

I split shot constantly and IMO the best bait is a 3-4 inch reaper

Roboworm FX Sculpin or as mentioned, a reaper style bait. Poor Boy makes a pretty good one.

Spinning gear for split-shot works great.

Zoom Trick worms.

Any plastic you want to try.

Another vote for short, straight tailed or french fry worms.  I started with the original CremeWorms years ago and found that if I bit off the front third of the worm, I got more bites and better hook-ups. Think I'll check out Ivino's book.  Always looking for a good winter read.

Straight tailed Roboworms and/or Zoom Tricks do it just fine for me.

Some great advice from the guys. I, too, fish straight worms like the Zoom Finesse, but have also found GYCB shad shape worms to be deadly.

And I normally fish split on spinning gear, too, but I think your setup with the ML rod will work fine.

split shot a lizard on beds... its killer.  Just slowly drag it over the bed.  I also love zoom trick worms.  I have about every color they make.

Fluke

A split shot rig is an ultra finesse carolina rig, with a fixed weight as opposed to a sliding weight like you'd use on a carolina rig.  I don't fish this rig very often, but the few times I've fished it with success, a shorter ring worm was the ticket.  I also found that mojo weights were more effective for me than regular split shot.  They seemed to come through grass better.

Ill normaly split shot on spinning gear.

1. Centipede

2. Flukes

3.tiny brush hog.

If im fishing heavy grass or fishing much faster, ill go on M/MH casting gear with 3/16 and same baits or bulked up versions. The Lake fork ring fry is good if you want to go a bit bigger!

BTW. Light braid with a swivel and then flouro leader works well for me. I get better feel with this rather then straight flouro

7" Rage Tail Thumper & Anaconda

Years ago my go to was a zoom lizard split shot rig, let it sit and twitch it slowly back to the boat. 

I prefer slip shot over split shot because you have better strike detection and less line failure issues.

Top brass Pro-Jo black 1/8 oz weight, 7mm tempered faceted glass bead pegged to the line with a Peg-It II and Owner down shot hook 5133 size 1 for smaller dia worms and 1/0 for fatter finesse worms.

You can up size this rig with a 1/4 weight and 3/0 hook for lager 7 to 8" worms or GY Hula grubs ( jig fishing without a jig).

Start with the weight about 14" above the hook and adjust longer out to 24" or longer depending on what the bass prefer.

Strikes on a split or slip shot rig are often pressure bites; meaning slight added weight feel or rubber band like resistance. Set the hook by reeling fast and sweeping the rod back.

Straight tail worms work, I usually split the tail about 1". Curl tail worms often work well depending on bass activity. Roboworms makes Reapers! Just be aware that reapers tend to spin if not rigged straight or retrieved to fast. The split shot rig often twist line, slip shot not as much, however line twist is an issue with spinning reels. To untwist line run about 100' behind the boat slowly for a few minutes without anything tied on. Also use a good line conditioner like KVD or TangleFree.

Tom

I have pretty much every lure mentioned so far. Good to know that they all produce!

 

I saw a worm that I have never noticed before today, and I am going to pick some up soon. The Zoom Dead Ringer 4.5 inch. Seems like a solid choice as well.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! I have every type of plastic mentioned short of reapers, so I will give them heck this season.

Case hellgrammite....bout the best river smallie plastic out there, and the split shot rig really mimics one displaced by the current.

No one mentioned the Yamamoto stretch 40. This lure on a light mojo or splitshit rig must be the worst kept secret in my area.

Because of the cost I only take them out when I realy need to catch 1 but they always produce.

Number 1 in my "panic box" I carry them in watermelon/red, green pumkin and black.

Case hellgrammite....bout the best river smallie plastic out there, and the split shot rig really mimics one displaced by the current.

Its good to see some one else that likes Case lures. The hellgrammites work good for picky largemouth too. Their curly craw is awesome too (not a finesse bait but a good case product)

I like to use a tube.  You can put a piece of foam inside them that will help keep them off of the bottom.

Gary Yamamoto use to make a baby craw. It was deadly on a split shot rig fishing rocky shorelines!