Best Texas Rig Guide – Setup, Technique, and Best Soft Plastics

Detailed Reviews

The Texas rig is the most iconic bass fishing setup in North American fishing history — a bullet sinker above a worm hook with a soft plastic bait rigged weedlessly. Simple in concept, endlessly versatile in application. The Texas rig has won more bass tournaments and caught more bass than any other single setup in the history of the sport. If you learn one bass fishing setup, make it this one.

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How to Rig a Texas Rig

Thread a bullet weight sinker — typically 3/16 to 1/2 oz depending on depth and cover — onto your main line. Tie a EWG (Extra Wide Gap) hook directly to the line using a Palomar knot. Pierce the nose of your soft plastic worm or creature bait with the hook point and drive it about 1/2 inch into the bait. Rotate the hook 180 degrees, then press the point of the hook back into the body of the plastic — this creates the weedless profile that allows fishing through any cover without snagging. The hook should lay flat against the bait with slight tension — not buried so deep the point can’t penetrate on a hookset.

Texas Rig Variations

Pegged vs. Unpegged

Pegging the weight (using a sinker stop or toothpick to fix the sinker against the bait’s nose) makes the setup more compact for punching through heavy cover. Unpegged allows the weight to slide up the line on the hookset, giving the bait a more natural falling action that entices following fish to commit.

Weightless Texas Rig

A Texas-rigged soft plastic with no weight at all is one of the most deadly presentations for shallow-water bass. The bait sinks slowly and naturally on a weightless hook — exactly imitating the behavior of prey. Work it along the surface over shallow vegetation with a slow, side-to-side retrieve called “walking” the bait through the water.

Best Soft Plastics for Texas Rig

Worms: The Zoom Trick Worm and Yamamoto Senko 5-inch are the most popular Texas rig worms. Creature Baits: Strike King Rage Bug and Zoom Brush Hog for flipping into cover. Craws: The Zoom Super Speed Craw with its realistic pincher action triggers bass holding in rocky structure. Beavers: The Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver has won more tournaments than almost any other soft plastic — its compact profile and subtle action is consistently deadly.

Texas Rig Gear

Standard Texas rigging: a 7-foot medium-heavy casting rod with fast action, paired with a 7.5:1 or faster baitcasting reel for quick hookset line pickup, and 15-17 lb fluorocarbon line. For heavy cover: go up to 20-25 lb fluoro or 50 lb braid. Always set the hook with authority — the bait must push through the plastic and drive the hook into the fish’s hard jaw.

Bottom Line

The Texas rig with a Yamamoto Senko or Zoom Trick Worm catches bass everywhere in North America year-round. Master the basic weightless Texas rig in shallow water, the standard 3/16 oz rig for medium-depth flipping and pitching, and the heavy 1/2 oz rig for deep flipping, and you’ve covered the most productive bass fishing technique that has ever existed.