[Fishing Tips] Weightless Rig - FISHING JAPANESE STYLE

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 Weightless rig. A simple but deadly rig for shallow water.

 Hook and soft lure. That's it. No weight. In Japan, we call this rig "No Sinker rig ノーシンカーリグ". 

 Yamamoto Senko must be the most popular soft bait for this technique. This is a super productive rig when we fish shallow water and shallow covers. When there are fish, well be able to get bites right away.



Rigging  
 There are 2 types of major riggings.
  • Weightless Texas
    • Weightless setup using an Offset hook. This looks just like a Texas rig without a bullet weight. Good to fish cover because of the snag-free capability.
  • Weightless Wacky
    • Wacky style rigging suing standard single hook. I prefer using a hook with weedguards. We can have great natural action with this setup. 

How to fish? 
 I generally use a spinning tackle or BFS for this since in general, weightless means the rig is lightweight could be too light for Baitcaster with mid to heavy setup.
  • Fall and Stay
    • This is the most common. Using soft baits like Yamamoto Senko, make it slowly fall to the bottom. Make sure you give enough line slack. A bite will appear on the line. Keep concentrate. If can't get a bite during the falling, let's stay the lure on the bottom for a while. Then lift it and fall it again.   
    • What lure to use? For this technique, The lure made of salty heavy material would be the one to go. My favorites are Yamamoto Senko, Kut tail, Fat Ika, and Keitech Salty Core Tube. 
  • Bottom Dragging
    • This is also a popular technique. Once the lure lands on the bottom. Let's slowly drag the lure. Because of the weightless setting, when we drag the lure, it would take off the bottom and softly drift up from the bottom. Then let's stop your hand and fall it again.
    • What lure to use? The same lures I'm using for "Fall and Stay" would be fine.
  • Swimming
    • When using a curly tail or shad tail, we'll swim it on the surface or right below the surface like topwater plugs do. In the early summer morning, I catch many bass by using this technique.
    • What lure to use? Yamamoto Single Tail Grub, Keitech Swing Impact Fat, Jackall  are my go-to baits for this technique.
  • Jerking
    • The specific technique for soft jerkbaits like Lunker City Slug-Go. You can check out how to in this video.
    • What lure to use? Lunker City Slug-Go is my all-time favorite but I know people love Zoom Fluke.


Enjoy fishing!

 Thank you!
 Angler Waki.

Location: California, USA

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