LAKES, RIVERS AND PONDS
Bass, float, river, carp and set-line rigs for fresh water. Open a rig for the diagram, the parts and the step-by-step build.
🎣 BigJoe shops at Amazon. Every pick has a button for each store, so buy wherever you like.
A bullet weight slides down flush against an offset wide-gap hook, and the hook point is buried back in the soft plastic. Weedless, so you can fish it right into heavy cover.
Best for: Largemouth & peacock bass
A heavy sliding egg weight, a bead and a swivel on the main line, then a leader to a soft plastic. The weight finds the bottom while the bait floats and swims behind it.
Best for: Largemouth & peacock bass
A Palomar knot holds the hook out from the line, point up, and the weight is tied to the tag end below it. The bait hangs off the bottom right in front of the fish.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass, panfish
A small, flat-sided mushroom jig head with a short, buoyant stick bait. On the bottom the head rests flat and the floating plastic tips up, gently moving.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass, sunfish
A hook pierced right through the middle of a soft plastic stick worm. Unweighted or lightly weighted, both ends flutter as it falls slowly.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass
A wacky-rigged stick worm with a small nail weight pushed into one end. The weighted end digs into the bottom and the worm stands up, quivering with every shake.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass
A round or flat (football) jig head with a screw keeper. A straight-tail worm screws on and the head keeps it standing tail-up off the bottom as you shake it.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass
A wide-gap hook joined by a split ring to a rigid wire arm that holds the weight below. The weight hits bottom and the bait floats just above it.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass
A wire harness that swims up to five small swimbaits at once, like a little school of shad. Check your rules: many places limit how many hooks it may carry.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass
A classic clip-on float fixed on the line, a few split shot below it, and a baited hook. The float sets the depth and tells you when a fish bites.
Best for: Sunfish, tilapia, catfish
A float that slides on the line until it hits a small stop knot. You can cast easily and still fish live bait very deep, because the depth is set by the knot, not the float.
Best for: Bass, peacock bass, catfish, panfish
The simplest weighted rig: a bare hook with a few small split shot pinched on the line above it. Light, natural and easy to cast.
Best for: Sunfish, bass, catfish, river fish
A river rig: a three-way swivel separates the bait leader from a short, weaker drop line to the weight. In current the bait drifts naturally and only the weight breaks off on snags.
Best for: Catfish, river fish
A boot-shaped walking slip sinker on the main line, a stop, then a long leader to a hook with a float or floating jig head. The bait drifts above the bottom while the sinker walks over rocks.
Best for: Walleye, bass, catfish
A river drift rig with a buoyant, winged Spin-N-Glo body ahead of a baited hook. The wings spin in the current, the body floats the bait up, and a light weight bounces the bottom.
Best for: Trout, steelhead, catfish
The classic carp rig: the bait sits on a short “hair” behind a bare, exposed hook. The fish sucks in the bait, the hook follows, and it pricks itself against the heavy lead.
Best for: Carp, tilapia, catfish
Advanced carp rigs: a short, stiff hooklink with a pop-up bait spins freely on the leader between two beads, above a heavy lead. It lands on top of weed and silt and rotates without tangling.
Best for: Carp, tilapia
Set lines: free-floating jugs, each with a weighted baited hook below, or a long cord anchored across the water with many dropper lines and baited hooks.
Best for: Catfish
