Carolina Rig
The Carolina Rig is an effective rig for smallmouth bass. The rig is used mostly to fish deeper water around points, near weed edges, on offshore structure, along rocky shorelines and on reefs near deep water. You can use lighter weights for shallow water fishing, although, the Carolina rig isn’t as popular for shallow water. You can fish many different types of live bait and artificial lures with the Carolina rig.
Drop Shot Rig
When fishing with the drop shot rig with lures, anglers are usually using a variety of finesse baits. From minnow baits to worms to creatures and even crayfish baits, it is tough to beat a drop shot rig when fishing deeper water for smallmouth bass. Whether you fish shallow or deep, the drop shot rig works well with a variety of live baits and many types soft plastics.
Ned Rig
The Ned rig is one of the best rigs for catching good numbers of smallmouth bass. It’s a finesse-style rig, so plan on catching a lot of smaller bass with some big fish mixed in. On trophy lakes though, this rig will put plenty of big smallmouth bass in the boat. On lakes with lots of smaller bass, you’re going to catch a bunch of them. The newer Ned rig hooks on the market work great for so many different baits than just a chunk worm, so make sure you know some of the other awesome baits that work great on these jigheads.
Wacky Rig
The Wacky Rig is a great rig for catching smallmouth bass with soft plastic worms and live nightcrawlers. Hooking the worm in the middle gives the worm a different type of action that helps to entice more strikes. Most people think of the weightless rig when they think of a wacky rig and they are accurate, however, you can use the wacky rig with some other popular rigs as well when you need to get down deeper a little quicker.
Standup Jigheads
Standup Jigheads, also called Shaky head jigs, do a great job of keeping the bait up off the bottom. It’s definitely one of the best rigs to use for catching smallmouth bass.
Jigheads
Jigheads are great for soft plastic baits. The regular jigheads that come with a smaller hook are great for many of the finesse baits that anglers use for smallmouth bass. However, the longer shank jigheads will usually be better for many of the bigger baits especially if there is some type of swimming tail on the back of the bait. Smallmouth bass are notorious for hitting the back of the bait when the bait is being retrieved with a steady swimming retrieve. When you use a longer shank jighead, the hook is closer to the back of the bait, which allows anglers to hook a lot more bass that bite their bait. For the live bait anglers, a jig & minnow, jig & nightcrawler and jig & leech will all do well when fishing for smallmouth bass.
Scrounger Jighead
The Scrounger Jighead works well for smallmouth bass. The key is finding out which soft plastics will work best with these jigheads. Some baits work great while others don’t look good at all. A slow and steady retrieve is the key to giving these baits their action. Use these lures around shallow water cover such as weeds, docks, wood and rocks and you will catch plenty of smallmouth bass.
Split Shot Rig
The Split Shot Rig is a very popular rig that works well with live bait and soft plastics in shallow and deeper water. Smallmouth bass anglers have so many options when they dig into their tackle box because the split shot rig works so well with so many different baits.
Swimbait Hooks
Swimbait hooks are great for rigging a variety of soft plastic baits for targeting smallmouth bass. Most anglers will use them to rig a swimbait, but you can fish just about any soft plastic bait that you would use on a Texas rig with a swimbait hook too.
Texas Rig / Florida Rig
The Texas Rig is more common for largemouth bass, but it can be very effective for catching smallmouth bass as well. The Texas Rig is great for fishing a soft plastic worm in and around many different types of cover, over deep water and in the shallows if you go with a lighter weight. Most anglers won’t go with the Texas rig because you usually don’t have to use a weedless rigged bait when fishing for smallmouth bass. Also, for many of the finesse-sized soft plastic baits that anglers use for smallmouth bass, the baits tend to look better on a regular jighead, shaky head jig or a drop shot rig.
Weedless Jigs
At times, smallmouth bass will be around cover that requires these weedless style jigs. Anglers usually use these jigs when fishing soft plastic baits around weed lines, in scattered vegetation, next to docks and wood.
Weightless Rig
Smallmouth bass anglers typically use the weightless rig in the spring and fall when bass can be found in the shallows. It can be super effective for many different soft plastic baits, but the wacky worm is definitely the best bait on a weightless rig.
Bobbers / Floats / Slip Bobbers
The basic bobber or float is used with a split shot for the weight and a hook with your bait. This is a common technique for catching smallmouth bass when the fish are located in shallow water during the spring and fall.
Once these fish go deep, anglers tend to go to the slip bobber rig so they can get their baits down deep where the fish are. Live baits such as minnows, leeches and nightcrawlers work well when fished under a float.
Neko Rig
The Neko rig is a unique rig and it’s becoming very popular among many anglers. As you can see in the tank to the left, the hook is in the center and the weight is at the head of the bait. In this case, it’s a screw that is screwed into the head of the worm. Because most anglers use smaller baits to target smallies, you may not see many anglers using the Neko rig when targeting these fish.
