How To Rig Lures When Fishing In Deep Water & Strong Current
- By: Tony Acevedo
- on July 20, 2020
- Found In: Fishing Tips, Lure Rigging, WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: 7-26-20
Inlets, passes, jetties, and bridges are some of the best places to catch BIG fish.
Monster snook, bull redfish, big black drum, huge jacks, and even tarpon and grouper can be caught here.
They love the structure and current in these areas, but the structure and current also poses a big problem…
Hooks get snagged left and right!
It seems like every other cast your jig head or bucktail are getting hung up, which can get pretty expensive very fast.
So what can you do?
In this video, I’m going to show you a simple way that I’ve been rigging my soft plastics to be weedless, while also getting down to the bottom where the fish are.
It’s helped me save a ton of money on lures, as well as a lot of time by not having to rig up a new lure every other cast.
Check it out below.
How To Rig Soft Plastics For Deep Water & Strong Current [VIDEO]
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Weighted swimbait hooks are usually too light to get your lure down to the bottom in deep water and strong current.
And if they are heavy enough, they’re usually way more expensive than the lighter ones.
To get your lures down deep in these situations (while still keeping them weedless), you can Texas rig them with a weighted swimbait hook and a heavy bullet weight.
You can either use a bobber stop to pin the weight to the nose of the lure, or you can let the weight slide free on the leader.
It will take some experimenting to see what the fish like that day.
And I recommend using tungsten weights instead of lead weights.
They’re more compact, so they’ll be less bulky while still packing enough weight to get your lure down to the bottom.
Here are the lures, hooks and weights I was using in this video:
Conclusion
If you’re fishing inlets, passes, bridges, or jetties, you can Texas rig soft plastics with a heavy lead to get them down to the bottom while still keeping them weedless.
Have any questions about rigging soft plastics this way?
Or have any other suggestions for getting lures down to the bottom in deep water and strong current?
Let me know down in the comments!
And if you know someone who fishes these types of areas, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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Great tip. Going to try this next time I’m fishing Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach around the bridge. Question – looks like you have a snug knot tied to the weighted hook. Is that what you would recommend or can a loop knot still work behind the bullet weight? Thanks!
When using a bullet weight that is sliding down to the hook, I wouldn’t use a loop knot because the weight will constantly bump into the knot.
Sebastian Inlet has some strong currents, should retrieving the lure be with or against the current?
I always retrieve with the flow of the current, casting at an angle into it.
I love the big ZMan paddletails. Can cast them a mile.
Definitely!
I like to peg the weight the to hook inside a loop knot, normally with a normal lead weight. might have to dig out my old tungsten weights and try it
Good stuff Matt! Can also use a toothpick. Push it down into the weight and break it off to leave the piece inside pushing on the line.
This is sweet! Perfect for what I’ve been doing recently 🙂
Thanks so much Tony!
No problem Alex!
Wow! I recently lost a 7″ minnow (I purchased them after you showcased them a while back) in Sebastian Inlet, I was thinking that since the inlet has a lot of large fish on the bottom (from Youtube videos of underwater at Sebastian) I wanted to bounce one of those large minnows off the bottom. But I could not get it to the bottom using the weedless setup with the 10 o hook, when I switched to a heavy jig head, first cast got me stuck. Now I have a solution, but I think I’ll use a heavy rod there.
I could probably open up a tackle shop with all of the lures I have lost at that inlet haha. But if you’re not getting snagged or stuck, you’re not fishing where the fish are. This setup can definitely help, but there is still the risk of the lure getting wedged between rocks.