I'm unable to bass fish for awhile so I am starting to get cabin fever. As many of my fellow bass anglers that live in the northern climates know, cabin fever can make a bass angler's mind wander off in many different directions. Today I was contemplating how much more I use the T Rig than I used to and if I rely on it to much.

Most of my 50 years of bass fishing I didn't use T Rigs or even soft plastics in general. Of course I new that every good bass angler would say the T Rig worm is the overall best bait ever, but I had little success with it, and prefered hard baits. Most of my negativity toward the T Rig was based my failure as a young angler to catch even a single bass on one. I would buy worms weights, and hooks. I would go to my local lake and fish nothing but T Rigs, and never catch a bass. The sinkers would always snag in the basalt chunk rock, and I would go home and read yet another article on how great the T Rig plastic worm was.

Every article would always talk about the almost mystical feel an angler had to have in order to detect the ever so subtle bites on a plastic worm. I was convinced I simply did not possess this magical ability and never would. I gave up and caught hundreds of bass on hard baits.

A few years ago I went on a guided trip on a lake called Aguamilpa. My wife who is a complete beginner decided to go on the morning session with me. The guide rigged her up with a spinning rod and a T Rigged worm. I opted for a baitcaster and a crankbait. My wife hooked bass on almost every cast. I couldn't believe it, she was a natural. The guide kept wanting to change me over to a T Rig but I kept changing crankbaits until I found one that worked, and I didn't catch as many bass as my wife, but I did catch bigger bass. I did try a T Rig that day and was surprised at how easy it was to detect the bites. No magical powers needed. Feel the bite, reel down and set the hook. Not so difficult, but of course the bass were small aggressive Mexican bass, so I simply thought that for some reason these bass were not typical of all most T Rigged caught bass.

A year later I discovered a lake where I could consistently catch giant bass. Most of my biggest bass came on spinnerbaits, but some were on topwater, and crankbaits. Some days it would take trying over a dozen different spinnerbaits while experimenting with retrieves, to find one that worked, or I may have to lose way to many crankbaits in the trees in order to land some big bass. I could get jigs to work through the cover better, but I rarely was able to get the bass to bite a jig and I lost more jigs to snags than I ever thought possible.( still amazed at how many people say jigs are so weedless, not on my lake) The right spinnerbait, or a crankbait worked through the cover at the right angle almost always rewarded me with a bass or two near or over the coveted 10 pound mark.

During the slow times I would experiment with T Rigged worms and other baits. I would catch bass on the worms, but they were usually smaller. I did notice I had zero difficulty determining bumping into cover from actual bites.( I will never tell a beginner bass fisherman worm bites are hard to detect. I have fished dozens of other techniques for many species of fish that are far harder to detect strikes) I started fishing the T Rig more and more, and found I could catch large bass similar to the other lures with them when the bite was on. I loved the fact that I didn't loose expensive lures, and waste valuable fishing time dealing with snags.

Now I'm finally going to get around to talking about the topic of my post. I currently have enough confidence with T Rigs that I get very lazy about fishing anything else, and I'm starting to wonder if this reliance on one technique could be costing me some trophy size bass.

Where as in the past, I would make a few casts at different angles at a tree or other piece of cover with one lure, then return later and try another lure from different angles until by the end of the day I had tried and hopefully found the very best lure for the day. This would take time, and many days was very expensive. I would start with spinnerbaits, and topwater hoping to not disturb a good spot, but before I would leave the crankbaits came out. Many times I would hook a good bass on a crankbait thrown into cover no sane person would throw one, but I wrestled many DD bass out of those giant tree limbs making it worthwhile. After all crankbaits in the box look great, but they are meant to fish and if some get lost more can be purchased.

Now I find myself simply throwing a T Rig into the same cover and if I don't get bit I simpl determine they are not there or are not biting and I will come back later.

I come back later and instead of trying something else, I just throw a different color of worm in to the cover with the plan of following up with something else, but usually, I just keep throwing the worm. It works so well and is so easy to fish, I find it hard to grab a crankbait and finesse the treble hooked bait through all of the limbs. I simply get lazy and hope the bass will start biting my worm. When I move and fish a rock bank, with less snags, many times the worm rod is still in my hand and I keep casting it even though a suspect a crankbait would be a better lure for the structure. The worm will still get bit along the rocky bank, and if I come across a lay down or weeds i won't have to change rods again. Once again the T Rig is helping me to become a lazy angler. The last couple years my biggest bass have been caught on T Rigged worms, but that is because I find myself only fishing worms.

I never dreamed I would be so reliant on a technique I had completely give up on. I have decided I'm going to be more versatile this year. Does anyone else have a technique that works so well for them, they feel it might actually keep them from maximizing their bass fishing potential?

Like I said at the beginning, nothing but cabin fever ramblings, but what else I can I do when I have cabin fever. I have already gone through and organized all of my tackle a dozen times.

I feel more often it’s the opposite. I get off the water and wonder how much better of a day or bigger fish I could have caught if I could have dialed in the soft plastic bite and not wasted so much time trying x, y, or z.

15 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Does anyone else have a technique that works so well for them, they feel it might actually keep them from maximizing their bass fishing potential?

Yes, an underspin with a swimbaits/paddletail trailer. It's hard for me to put it down because it does everything. I can slow roll it on the bottom. I can work the mid-column. I can cast it into the heaviest cover. I can troll it. Heck, I've even caught bass buzzing it across the surface like a buzzbait. It's heavy and compact and perfect for casting into wood. And even though I'm fishing in weedy water, I hardly ever have to pick weeds off of it. See the weeds in the photo below and beneath the weeds you can see, there are a guhzillion more. If you don't believe me, cast a crankbait into an open area and see what you catch. It'll be green, but it won't be a green bass:

Like you, King, I'm fishing out of a small boat, so I can only carry so many rods and perhaps unlike you, my eyes are old and I need readers to tie a knot, which I don't like to do when I could be fishing. So, I like to go with the lures on the four to six rods I take.

Say, King, I really enjoyed reading your post. You're a good storyteller.

Hi my name is Kevin and I am a wormaholic , But I can quit anytime I want.

For me, it's the swim jig or finesse jig bumped along the bottom. It is usually a great bait but sometimes my buddy shows me that they want flash and vibration. Or that they want a big spook on the surface. When I'm alone, I wait way to long to try other moving baits.

@king fisher - I too had a similar arc (minus the DDs). I grew up fishing moving baits and hard baits. They are/were by far my preference and starting point to every trip. I'm a topwater-a-holic so any trip that starts in darker than normal conditions is going to feature a topwater right off the bat. It's usually not the right answer, but I just have to check because when it's on, I'll take it as long as possible. I never liked plastics- they were for trailers not for the main event. I know larry nixon made a career on throwing a texas rigged ribbontail but throwing any plastics on any rig was always just too slow for me. A jig-n-pig was the slow bait for throwing into the heavy stuff and swimming it back out. And so it continued for me until I decided that I needed to expand my horizons. I did the all plastics outing almost 4 years ago now and that was the tip of the wedge that has inserted more than a 5 gallon bucket full of plastics into my boat (ignoring the ones used as trailers).

Like you, I've come to the point where a texas rig (or two) is always rigged and on deck. Specifically, a texas rigged rage bug. That has become my default bottom rig. I will pitch it into any cover. Punch it into thick cover. Cast it to search more open water. Docks, rocks, weeds, wood. Doesn't matter, I have one tied up all the time. Most likely with a 3/8 oz pegged weight too. When I know the fish are feeding down I might also have a ribbontail worm on the deck. Occasionally a craw or stick bait. If it is a finesee kinda day and I'm starting at 2PM I'll probably have a texas rigged stickbait or straight worm. Decent change I have all of the above on the deck some days. And like you, if they aren't hitting a texas rigged plastic on the bottom, I am assuming that they aren't hitting anything more aggressive either and it's just a bad day. I know that's not right, but that's what my brain says.

God I can't wait to get onto open water and not catch fish.

Hello everyone.

My name is A-Jay,

and I am a jerkaholic.

Even though I am not in denial

I'm pretty sure it's hopeless.

The Only known cure involves in ordained priest, two buckets of holy water, and a ball peen hammer.

#helpless.

A-Jay

(Aka ITO)

Right there with you, @king fisher . March through October, the vast majority of my casts are with a t-rigged Rage Bug. Every year I commit to throwing more cranks and other lures. But reality is that I rarely make more than a dozen casts without a bite before I pick the Bug back up. Lazy, I suppose. But the amount of confidence I have in the Rage Bug is definitely something of an obstacle.

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

I feel more often it’s the opposite. I get off the water and wonder how much better of a day or bigger fish I could have caught if I could have dialed in the soft plastic bite and not wasted so much time trying x, y, or z.

I used to be exactly like this. Now I stick to what I have the most confidence in which mostly t-rigged trick worms, curly tails and spinnerbaits. Trying to catch fish on new techniques is fun but I never seem to have as much luck (or any luck for that matter) on them.

Those Texans got it right, T rig is probably the fish catchingest fish catcher of all lures, it's relatively snag proof, can be fished at all depths, and a fish will hold a soft plastic longer generally, can be rigged with almost unlimited profiles, whats not to love. I still love slangin crankbaits tho, getting those reaction strikes

Dropshot/Bubbashot for me, I've admittedly become a bit reliant on it. In all of 2023, 2024, and 2025, I'd estimate very conservatively that half of my time on the water was with dropshot rod in hand. But conversely, rather than diminishing my fishing potential, I feel that it enhances it greatly, to the point I'm planning on putting together a second dedicated dropshot setup.

I’m mostly a hair jig guy on my local river. You can jig the them slow, swim them etc.

Which brings me to question did anyone ever fish the Slider worm? Back in the day I fished that a lot and caught a fair amount of fish. But it kind of now is a forgotten lure.

20 hours ago, king fisher said:

Does anyone else have a technique that works so well for them, they feel it might actually keep them from maximizing their bass fishing potential?

Yeah, Texas rigs.

Ok, I have to make an admission, I don't think I've ever thrown a T-Rig, or a Carolina rig either.

Please don't hold that against me, I might reconsider trying it this year.

Hair jigs are on the list already for this coming year.

I only have a limited time to fish during the week and Saturday morning.

I want to catch fish, so I throw senkos. Trig and wacky.

They are versatile and just flat out work so I don't waste my time with much else.

3 minutes ago, herder said:

I don't think I've ever thrown a T-Rig, or a Carolina rig either.

Please don't hold that against me

That's a little surprising, but kind of cool. You found your own way to catch bass.

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." ~ Henry David Thoreau

I went out with once , just once, with one rod and a couple Plano boxes of crank baits and jerk baits. After a few hrs I was already wanting to go back and get my t-rig gear. I saw a million situations where I would have laid down the crank bait and picked up the t-rig to make a few cast.

Don’t think I’ll ever leave the dock again without a soft plastic set up.

You can tell a lot about yourself as an angler when you've gone several hours without a bite. What are you throwing? That's your confidence bait.

What broke me of the Texas rig addiction was Chara Algae. I could not throw a weighted texas rig in that stuff. So I started throwing other baits like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, spooks,frogs... on the outdisde, pockets,any kind of cut or jut. I had to do so quietly and accurately. Best thing that has happenned for my fishing skills in the past twenty years. Almost everyone else avoided the stuff like the plague. I embraced it and it paid off big time.

Rage Rig and Wacky worm most of the time . Unless there hitting Topwater .Then it’s on

45 minutes ago, scaleface said:

What broke me of the Texas rig addiction was Chara Algae. I could not throw a weighted texas rig in that stuff. So I started throwing other baits like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, spooks,frogs... on the outdisde, pockets,any kind of cut or jut. I had to do so quietly and accurately. Best thing that has happenned for my fishing skills in the past twenty years. Almost everyone else avoided the stuff like the plague. I embraced it and it paid off big time.

Cool story.

Cabin fever often has me re-thinking my confidence bait choices. Too much time on the internet in the winter also adds to the re-think. I try to limit myself each year to a couple new baits and/or techniques to try, but I only buy them in single quantities. Sometimes I'm lucky and a new choice will become a confidence bait. But If I'm honest with myself, the number of new techniques that get added to the confidence list is very low.

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

What broke me of the Texas rig addiction was Chara Algae.

Can you send her my way? I hope she can help me break my addiction. I have Harvard Pilgrim, is she in network?

My way is definitely drift fishing a light bucktail on a rig similar to a drop shot. If that means switching to a Texas Rig when I get in the veg then the rig is flexible enough to do so.

I also like some type of horizontal presentation, a swimming bucktail with a jig strip or a spoon.

In FLA many years ago, a Texas rigged swim senko was bomb AF and will employ that at any given moment. In the veg I’d run with that as well

Well, can't say I've ever fished a T Rig other than a free rig.

I've been wanting to throw some 10" worms but haven't yet. That will get done this summer.

I should probs buy some creature baits or whatever you call them and give it a shot.

I'll fish a football jig with a soft plastic trailer behind it.

Not sure the advantage or disadvantage between the two.

2 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

In FLA many years ago, a Texas rigged swim senko was bomb AF and will employ that at any given moment. In the veg I’d run with that as well

The very similar t-rigged speed worm (aka swimworm) is a Florida staple, it's like the swimjig of worms; you can flip and pitch it traditionally or swim it back should the need or opportunity arise, it's a surprisingly consistent rig too. I love the versatility of being able to change presentations with the same rig. In my time there I learned a lot from my club partner about the swimworm/speedworm rig, he fished it so much I dubbed him the speedmaster.