(Editor's note: "Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks" airs five times per week on the Outdoor Channel – 2 p.m. ET Sunday, 4:30 a.m. Monday, 6 a.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. Wednesday and 5:30 a.m. Saturday. The six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier provides BassFans with additional insight about each episode in these submissions.)
Last Week’s show was all about wacky-rigging during post-spawn, but not just any wacky rig.
I’ve always struggled a bit with finesse fishing, mostly because of the slowness. I prefer baits I can fish fast and aggressively, but there are definitely times when finesse prevails ... and that is hard for me to admit. It is at least two or three days a year, anyway!
So I’ve reached a peace deal with finesse fishing, mostly because of a cool little component of terminal tackle called the Eco-Pro Tungsten Pro-Wacky weight. I add this to my soft plastic wacky rig and instantly I become happier at the pace I can fish and the depth ranges I can reach – faster.
If you watched the show, I was fishing and explaining this rig throughout the show and even caught a few big ones with it. Behind the scenes, I played with all sorts of rigging options and settled on the Pro-Wacky weight as the most efficient.
The fish were mostly immediate post-spawn with just a few left on beds. This typically is a tough time to fish. You need some finesse at that stage, for sure.
I rigged up a Culprit T-Rex in watermelon color and the Eco-Pro Pro Wacky weight and went to work. I caught a lot of fish throughout the day, nothing really fast and furious, but enjoyable nonetheless
There is one big trick to rigging it – the use of surgical tubing to hold the hook on the weight. You are basically pushing a piece of wire through your bait and then hooking the loop in the wire. Without the surgical tubing (spinnerbait trailer hook tube) you will lose too many rigs. With it in place, you’ll only lose the ones you snag deep under a dock or any spot you can’t reach. I literally used just two or three baits to catch about 25 fish that day.
Hopefully this show and this cool component will help you catch more fish this year as well.
