A few A-Rig questions

[coreynov902]

Iowa is one of those wonderful states that won't allow you to fish a standard A-rig. We are limited to 2 hooked baits. I found a compact A-rig (shorter wire arms) that has 3 arms with center-pin springs for teaser baits and then the bottom two arms are for hooked baits. I went with the compact one because I don't have a rod that I feel is heavy powered enough to run a full size rig. I've never fished an A-rig before so I had a few questions.

1. Straight braid, straight flouro, or braid-to-leader? My initial thought is straight braid considering that since an A-rig already has a bunch of visible wire arms on it I doubt that the braid is going to scare fish away. Also, if you hook one fish and then another strikes the other bait, you may want the near zero stretch in order to get a decent hook set on the second fish.

2. I plan on using 2.75" teaser baits (Xzone Swammer paddle tails) and then 1/4 oz swimbait heads with 4" Swammers as my hooked baits. Does that sound right or do I need to go bigger/smaller, lighter/heavier?

3. Straight retrieve or do I work in some rod twitches or reel pauses? Just not sure how easy things get tangled up on one of these rigs and so I wasn't sure if twitching the rod or pausing my retrieve would cause more harm than good.

[krindgen]

Fluoro or even mono. Braid and all those arms, baits and hooks can make a mess. Baits are fine, no need to go bigger. Can go cheaper than XZone. Especially if in clear water. Really any retrieve can work. Straight reel with pauses is good. I even fish mine sort of like a jig at times, reel and drop. For me pike seem to love these rigs and they absolutely mangle them.

[duncankopprichardson]

1.) I fish straight 18 lb fluoro, but have caught them on braid as well. We fish around a lot of structure and if it gets really hung up might as well be able to break it off.
2.) How deep are you fishing? I use 1/8 oz heads and 3.3" swimbaits.
3.) Sometimes they eat it on the fall, but a good way to trigger strikes is to twitch it or do a couple quick reel pumps. Makes the bait compresses a bit.

[City17Banner]

First and foremost, I recommend you double check the Iowa fishing regulations for A-Rigs sir. In MN, for example we can only have one hook/lure with no teasers as they are considered a "lure", however, we can run spinner blades in lieu of teasers, so the only choice for me is the Hog Farmer MN Rig. In WI, the same regulations apply except that we can have three hooks/lures, but again no teasers as they are also considered "lures" so once again the Hog Farmer MOP Rig is the A-Rig of choice for me when I am fishing in NW Wisconsin.

As for what mainline to use, there is no true clear-cut answer as everyone fishes different bodies of water with different water clarity/conditions and everyone has their individual preferences, having said that in our gin clear NW Wisconsin waters, I throw my "cut down" A-Rigs exclusively on braid for the same reasons you just mentioned in your OP. One caveat of only being able to run spinner blades instead of teasers is that I appear to get far more nuisance pike bites than on other presentations (especially in the springtime), so the braid/shock leader I use is very helpful in dealing with these fish and in getting more distance and setting the hook at that extra distance in our clear water fishing situations.

As for lure selection, if you are fishing largemouth bass then I think you are fine, I tend to go down at least one more size for lure sizes (think Keitech 3.3" or even 2.8") since they do have smaller mouths.

Lastly, regarding rod selection, I've had success using either my Evergreen Super Stallion or Tulala Monstruo Concept Destruction 74MHC rods for presenting the smaller A-Rids we are "allowed" to use in MN and WIS and have been pleased by the performance of these rods. I think if we were allowed to have some more expansive A-Rig options, I might see how well my longer rods such as my Evergreen Grand Stallion GT-X might fare, but the regulations do not allow for this option, so we fish what we are "allowed" sir!

Good luck with your A-Rig fishing adventures and I hope you catch lots of fish!

[coreynov902]

Thanks for the responses. NV, it's good to see you back posting on the boards again. I always love hearing your takes on various JDM stuff, especially rods. I did contact Iowa DNR back a few months ago and asked them about fishing an A-rig and was told that I could use two hooked baits and could use teaser rigs. I can't find the email reply I got from them that stated those things, so I just sent another email verifying this. I want to have something available (email) to show a DNR officer in the event that they would say I'm not allowed to have 2 baits or not allowed to have teaser rigs.

I think I may go braid to leader for this and will probably use a short (3-4 foot) 20lb mono leader or 16lb flouro leader just to try and keep the rig from tangling like krindgen said. And as I suspected, I'll probably just have to play around with retrieves to see what works.

[B.Combs]

Get on YouTube and look at tactical bassin video on a rigs. They go pretty in depth from rod/reel combo to line sizes to swimbaits, etc. I think you would find it very informative! But since you asked, I’ll give my uneducated answer. 20lb sunline sniper for line. 1/8oz heads with either 3.3 or 3.8 swimbaits. I try to keep it simple. The rig itself is based off what you can and can’t throw. Retrieve, I almost always either twitch the rod tip a couple times or pause the retrieve. Can’t tell you how many times that’s triggered a bite. Good luck with whatever route you decide!

[coreynov902]

Thanks for the reply. Two people have now said 1/8oz jigheads...is 1/4 oz too heavy? I think I'll be using this in water ranging from 5-12 feet deep mostly.

[Boondock]

Thanks for the reply. Two people have now said 1/8oz jigheads...is 1/4 oz too heavy? I think I'll be using this in water ranging from 5-12 feet deep mostly.

1/8 is more than enough that shallow.

[duncankopprichardson]

Also around here you basically have to drag it to get bit on it, seems odd to be mimicking baitfish but the school has to be down on the bottom. I dont get it if its not near the bottom.

[City17Banner]

Thanks for the responses. NV, it's good to see you back posting on the boards again. I always love hearing your takes on various JDM stuff, especially rods. I did contact Iowa DNR back a few months ago and asked them about fishing an A-rig and was told that I could use two hooked baits and could use teaser rigs. I can't find the email reply I got from them that stated those things, so I just sent another email verifying this. I want to have something available (email) to show a DNR officer in the event that they would say I'm not allowed to have 2 baits or not allowed to have teaser rigs.

I think I may go braid to leader for this and will probably use a short (3-4 foot) 20lb mono leader or 16lb flouro leader just to try and keep the rig from tangling like krindgen said. And as I suspected, I'll probably just have to play around with retrieves to see what works.

Thank you for the kind words sir!

Yes, whenever you are dealing with governmental agencies, "trust but verify" is a great mantra to adopt.

My sincere apologies for the less than complete answer to you OP sir.

Jig heads for 1-10ft of water

• 1/8oz Keitech Super Round Tungsten (1/0) for Fat Swing Impact Fat 2.8 and Easy Shiner 3"
• 1/8oz Keitech Super Round Tungsten (2/0) for Fat Swing Impact Fat 3.3"

Jig heads for more than 10ft water

• 1/4oz Keitech Super Round Tungsten (1/0) for Fat Swing Impact Fat 2.8 and Easy Shiner 3"
• 1/4oz Keitech Super Round Tungsten (2/0) for Fat Swing Impact Fat 3.3"

Shock Leader for nuisance pike bites and to help avoid lure entanglement

• 18" 30# Sunline FC100

Retrieves

• Slow steady retrieve after achieving the desired depth, include occasional reel cadence changes and rod movement with the goal of emulating a school of baitfish. For me the retrieve is similar to working shallow diving glidebaits such as the DRT Tiny Klash and Gan Craft Jointed Claw 178/Shift 183/178 ZePro, subtle reel and rod movements to make the lure(s) appear vulnerable and (hopefully) an easy meal for the bass to bite.

Good luck with your new adventure into A-Rigs and have lots of fun out on the water with the new technique sir!

[wildkat7]

I always throw braid. If you're worried about visibility....the wires kind of nip that. Can always pull them free. I always seem to catch more and just as big fish on smaller swimbaits. Sixth Sense Divine are my go to. Rarely throw a bigger jig head than 1/8oz. If fishing real deep, I'll move up to 3/16 but can't say I've ever used anything bigger.

[coreynov902]

I should have asked questions BEFORE I bought things from Tackle Warehouse. I ordered yesterday and I ordered the 1/4 oz jigheads along with the paddle tail swimbaits I mentioned. Am I going to be ok using the 1/4oz heads or are they going to cause problems? I thought about the 1/8oz when I was looking at them but then figured that was just too light and the 1/4oz would help keel the rig better.

[City17Banner]

Please feel free to send me your address via PM and I'll see if I can't find and send you a couple of 1/8oz Keitech Super Round Tungsten jig head packs (both 1/0 & 2/0) along with some 3" Keitech Easy Shiner swimbaits for your early springtime fishing for you to try out sir!

I might have a few too many of just about every JDM fishing tackle item you can or cannot imagine so this saves you from having to second guess yourself and hopefully makes the learning curve for a new technique a bit easier too. I view it as simply one BBC member (with far too much JDM fishing tackle) helping out a fellow member!

Just let me know what color you prefer in the 3" Keitech Easy Shiner so I can look and see what I have in long term storage, at least you don't have to worry about color selection with the jig heads since the Keitech Super Round jig heads are all flat gray so there the color selection hardly matters sir!

[coreynov902]

Please feel free to send me your address via PM and I'll see if I can't find and send you a couple of 1/8oz Keitech Super Round Tungsten jig head packs (both 1/0 & 2/0) along with some 3" Keitech Easy Shiner swimbaits for your early springtime fishing for you to try out sir!

I might have a few too many of just about every JDM fishing tackle item you can or cannot imagine so this saves you from having to second guess yourself and hopefully makes the learning curve for a new technique a bit easier too. I view it as simply one BBC member (with far too much JDM fishing tackle) helping out a fellow member!

Just let me know what color you prefer in the 3" Keitech Easy Shiner so I can look and see what I have in long term storage, at least you don't have to worry about color selection with the jig heads since the Keitech Super Round jig heads are all flat gray so there the color selection hardly matters sir!

NV, I sent you a PM. Thanks so much for your generosity!

[City17Banner]

NV, I sent you a PM. Thanks so much for your generosity!

You are most welcome sir!

As long as you don't want/need access to my stash of 23 NIP Megabass Live-X Revenge and Leviathan deep diving jerkbaits from circa 2001 we'll be just fine sir!

[APS]

I always use 50lb braid. You can straighten a hook if you get snagged that way. A 5 wire with 1/8 oz heads runs right at 8-9 ft on a slow retrieve with 3.8 swimbaits for reference.

[krindgen]

I should have asked questions BEFORE I bought things from Tackle Warehouse. I ordered yesterday and I ordered the 1/4 oz jigheads along with the paddle tail swimbaits I mentioned. Am I going to be ok using the 1/4oz heads or are they going to cause problems? I thought about the 1/8oz when I was looking at them but then figured that was just too light and the 1/4oz would help keel the rig better.

I’ll use the 1/4 as my “keel” on the rig, the bottom bait. Then a 1/8 on either side, and then two dummy baits on top. You can take a file to the 1/4oz to shave off some weight.