Have You Heard Of The : "Free Rig" ? 2024
ChrisD46 reply :
A newer set up for pitching to docks , structure , weed lines, etc. as well as an alternative for stroking a jig is the : "Free Rig" ... All that is needed is a 1/8th ~ 3/8th oz. dipsy sinker , 8mm bead , hook and soft plastic of your choice : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ab1qWTV7Bk .
*So , what do you guys think ?
**Hey Glenn - How about a video with your west coast perspective on the Free Rig ?
BassWhole! reply :
How is that different than a non pegged t-rig or a knocker rig? Oh yeah, it uses a different sinker and a bead, gotta have a new "technique" name. Something else "new" that isn't.
ChrisD46 reply :
On 7/8/2019 at 7:43 PM, BassWhole! said:How is that different than a non pegged t-rig or a knocker rig? Oh yeah, it uses a different sinker and a bead, gotta have a new "technique" name. Something else "new" that isn't.
From what I see - you get more distance from the soft plastic / faster weight slide with the dipsy weight used this way then a bullet weight ... Besides , it came from Japan / Korea where fishing pressure is high and you need an edge (Shin Fukae - Bassmaster Elite / MLF Pro has talked about it on video) ... Shin is cool and is obviously a good , innovative stick - if it works for him then it's worth a try .
Todd2 reply :
On 7/8/2019 at 7:43 PM, BassWhole! said:How is that different than a non pegged t-rig
That's kind of what I was thinking...I guess to be fair, maybe it gets a little more separation since the line should move with less friction through the dipsey sinker...but that's being generous...and does it come through cover as good as a bullet? Interesting, thanks for posting.
J Francho reply :
Let's string some junk up before the hook, and call it something. What issue does this solve? What new problems does it create? It's basically a catfish rig without the swivel stop.
boostr reply :
@J Francho, lol those Googans really riled you up didn't they...
Heron reply :
How much does it cost?
????
J Francho reply :
You could bundle it up, start a YouTube channel and charge $9.99 + shipping and handling. 
BassWhole! reply :
On 7/9/2019 at 1:14 AM, J Francho said:You could bundle it up, start a YouTube channel and charge $9.99 + shipping and handling.
Comes with a free roll of Flex Seal Tape® just pay separate S&H...
Hunter Ellis will deliver it personally...
RichF reply :
The bass will totally see that sinker....better use 4lb fluoro and a BFS casting setup.
BigAngus752 reply :
Oh my salty people!!! LOL! Hey @ChrisD46, go catch a state record with this rig and show these Grumpier Old Men what's what.
What a crowd today! The Flex Seal Tape was good but I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Shake Weight. Now I'm headed out with an 8/0 hook and a bag of chili cheese dogs to catch my PB. I don't care what you think.
J Francho reply :
On 7/9/2019 at 3:22 AM, BigAngus752 said:The Flex Seal Tape was good but I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Shake Weight.
It's a family friendly site. ????
ChrisD46 reply :
*I'm just throwing it out there (no pun intended) ... You got the Neko Rig , then the Tokyo rig , now the Free Rig ... I don't know - maybe more separation between weight and soft plastic , maybe you capitalize on that slow , trailing drop of the soft plastic the last 12" after the dipsy weight hits bottom . I have a variety of dipsy weights , soft plastics and extra rod and reels with FC loaded to experiment to my hearts content here in Georgia's 100 degree heat / 70% humidity days until I go delirious OR catch a personal best Large Mouth or Spotted bass ... You never know until you try it .
*J Francho - I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop with Tom chiming in : "Oh , we already tried that technique up at Clear Lake in the early 1970's ... It doesn't work - send all of your 8mm glass faceted round beads and dipsy weights to me so I can dispose of them properly (lol !!) ... J Francho , A-Jay , Tom , etc. you guys have forgotten more than I'll ever know about bass fishing - rock on !
CarpCasey reply :
Ike did a video on this last week or so
Hower08 reply :
Carolina rig with a bell sinker.... original. Did I see a googan squad ad flash on my screen during that video ? Made me turn it off
J Francho reply :
On 7/9/2019 at 6:52 AM, ChrisD46 said:*J Francho - I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop with Tom chiming in : "Oh , we already tried that technique up at Clear Lake in the early 1970's ...
I literally LOL'd.
bhoff reply :
Looks like a tokyo/texas rig hybrid. Would probably catch fish but I don't see an advantage over the aforementioned rigs.
HenryPF reply :
Interesting rig - I don't see the purpose of this over a worm weight but I now have a use for all those bell sinkers I have laying around
ChrisD46 reply :
Shin Fukae has a university show about the free rig where he explains it in more detail ... *I don't know - maybe you have to be Shin Fukae to fish it well ?
BassWhole! reply :
On 7/10/2019 at 5:44 PM, ChrisD46 said:Shin Fukae has a university show about the free rig where he explains it in more detail ... *I don't know - maybe you have to be Shin Fukae to fish it well ?
OK, yes, yes. That is the greatest rig ever invented, and it will help us all catch more fish. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. 
(everybody else just smile and nod)
Todd2 reply :
On 7/10/2019 at 5:44 PM, ChrisD46 said:Shin Fukae has a university show about the free rig where he explains it in more detail ... *I don't know - maybe you have to be Shin Fukae to fish it well ?
I found the video..its around 5 mins. The premise behind it is to let it fall on slack line next to cover so that it will fall vertically. He said a Texas rig will pendulum away from cover more. Not sure I'm buying it, a TRig falling on slack line falls pretty straight down, especially if you strip off some line on deeper cover. But that was his take. But I do have some Dipsey weights that I drop shot with, I might give it a try. I remember the day I reluctantly tried the Ned rig, it worked out pretty good..
ChrisD46 reply :
On 7/10/2019 at 6:56 PM, BassWhole! said:OK, yes, yes. That is the greatest rig ever invented, and it will help us all catch more fish. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Slow your roll there Bass Whole ! You would probably laugh at stories of the Cali guys hand stitching split shot rigs when people thought they were nuts - yet they produced ! ... Fishing pressure in Japan is off the charts , so these guys coming here operate in a different orbit than we do when it comes to new techniques that look odd to us ... Hey - the drop shot looked pretty darn odd to most of us when it started getting exposure (except the Cali guys like Tom back when it was called the "down shot" rig ) ... I'll always listen and am willing to try something new which might catch bass !
BassWhole! reply :
On 7/11/2019 at 6:11 AM, ChrisD46 said:Slow your roll there Bass Whole ! You would probably laugh at stories of the Cali guys hand stitching split shot rigs when people thought they were nuts - yet they produced ! ... Fishing pressure in Japan is off the charts , so these guys coming here operate in a different orbit than we do when it comes to new techniques that look odd to us ... Hey - the drop shot looked pretty darn odd to most of us when it started getting exposure (except the Cali guys like Tom back when it was called the "down shot" rig ) ... I'll always listen and am willing to try something new which might catch bass !
LOL. Folks have been "drop shotting" in the salt since like when boats were powered by sails. Something else that wasn't new when it was.
J Francho reply :
On 7/11/2019 at 6:11 AM, ChrisD46 said:Hey - the drop shot looked pretty darn odd to most of us when it started getting exposure
Split shot rigs were called "fishing on the bottom." A drop shot rig was called "fishing off the bottom." A "Carolina rig" was just a catfish rig with a brass weight and a bead. Call me cynical, but we didn't need the Japanese to invent rigs, though they are far better at coming up with clever names and marketing them.
cgolf reply :
This looks really similar to a lindy or roach rig, except they have a swivel that keep the free slidin sinker a little bit distant from the bait.
RAMBLER reply :
Didn't know I should have named it.
BassWhole! reply :
On 7/13/2019 at 4:25 AM, RAMBLER said:Didn't know I should have named it.
This is bass fishing, everything needs a name.
Fishinthefish reply :
This functions literally the exact same as a bullet weighted texas rig unpegged. I have no idea why this is everywhere recently.
flyfisher reply :
So i actually watched the video, well part of it, to see what it is and it is just what I thought, nothing really. It does remind me of what Jimmy Houston used to do when he was hawking those stone sinkers. They had pretty much the same setup as the "free rig" and i remember seeing it many years ago
WRB reply :
I remember my introduction to Creame plastic worms like it was yesterday, July 1958 at lake Shasta California on a family vacation, I was a young teen.
We had launched our racing/ski boat when 2 old men tied up to the dock with a stringer of big bass. Having worked on boat docks I went over and ask them what did you catch them and where? They showed me a pre rigged Creame worm in nightcrawler color, 2 hooks, a red bead and small propeller on a short leader. They also showed me how they rigged it by using 1/4 oz Dipsey bass sinker sliding on the line above a snap swivel the worm harness was clipped to. The old men then pointed across the bay to a rip rap wall and said fish over there and gave me a worm rig on a card and said Bridge Bay Marina sells them.
That was the free rig.
Tom
Todd2 reply :
So last night, I took this rig out to my main lake but decided to fish an area I'd never fished before. Nice long bank where the channel swings by....dozen or so of laydowns scattered down the bank. I worked the bank throughly from beginning to end and back. I ended up with about 15 Bass..one really nice one. For comparison, I'd say It was a better than average night for me.
It comes through wood cover as good as a bullet weight, and it seems to come over rock a little better but I only fished it for a couple of hours. Now I didn't rhrow a tradtional Texas rig because they were hitting the Free Rig, so I have no way of comparing the two in terms of bites. Not saying I'm putting the bullet weights up, but you can move me from skeptical to interested for what it's worth.
snake95 reply :
On 7/8/2019 at 7:09 PM, ChrisD46 said:*So , what do you guys think ?
Yeah, let everyone yuk it up. Looks like a good, simple idea. Seems like it would be less prone to swinging vs a non-pegged T-rig. Probably good for tossing at targets and having the bait follow that bombing dipsey down.
Sure, it isn't new. We used this "rig" with a nightcrawler fishing for walleye up in northern Ontario in the '80's.
I'm sure it's been done for bass once or twice.
I get the rig overload feeling. However, why not give it a name? Simpler than "Unpegged T-rig with a dipsey sinker" or "Jika rig without a connection between the hook and sinker."
Todd2 reply :
On 7/15/2019 at 6:48 AM, snake95 said:
Why not give it a name? Simpler than "Unpegged T-rig with a dipsey sinker" or "Jika rig without a connection between the hook and sinker."
Lol, yeah "Free Rig" rolls off the tongue a little easier....lol
BassWhole! reply :
On 7/15/2019 at 3:37 AM, flyfisher said:remind me of what Jimmy Houston used to do when he was hawking those stone sinkers.
LOL. Mom took a job assembling puka bead necklaces at home back in the early 70s. I offered to help if I could have some of the larger beads, and some copper wire. (not to mention that crazy strong braided nylon white thread thing that worked out great for fishing line). I made rock dipsey sinkers, and would catch catfish and bass on it rigging it like a mini carolina. If only I'd left out the swivel.... Thanks for the memory.
ChrisD46 reply :
On 7/15/2019 at 4:24 AM, WRB said:I remember my introduction to Creame plastic worms like it was yesterday, July 1958 at lake Shasta California on a family vacation, I was a young teen.
We had launched our racing/ski boat when 2 old men tied up to the dock with a stringer of big bass. Having worked on boat docks I went over and ask them what did you catch them and where? They showed me a pre rigged Creame worm in nightcrawler color, 2 hooks, a red bead and small propeller on a short leader. They also showed me how they rigged it by using 1/4 oz Dipsey bass sinker sliding on the line above a snap swivel the worm harness was clipped to. The old men then pointed across the bay to a rip rap wall and said fish over there and gave me a worm rig on a card and said Bridge Bay Marina sells them.
That was the free rig.
Tom
*I just knew some how Tom would ultimately be connected to the Free Rig from back in the day (as he was with many other bass fishing rigs) - the man is a walking : "Bass Fishing Historian" ! ... *Other kids gather around their grand father to hear war stories - Tom's grand kids gather around to hear bass lure rigging and ask : "Tell us about the time you discovered the split shot rig Grand Pa Tom " - while another grand child interrupts and says: " No , we already heard that story last week - tell us about the Darter Head jig Grand Pa Tom " ! ... LOL ! - much admiration for you Tom and keep the history lessons coming !
ChrisD46 reply :
Recent Free Rig "How To" from a tournament basser : https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/free-rig.html
The finesse wide gap (i.e. wacky hook) could be a nice touch along with the cylinder weight with a larger circle for the line to slide through (I still believe for most purposes the general purpose lead casting weights have a large enough eyelet to allow the line to move freely through) . Lastly - experimenting with a few different creature style baits , finesse worms , etc. could provide a different fall rate / action profile .
Mr. Bassin II reply :
On 7/9/2019 at 2:25 AM, RichF said:The bass will totally see that sinker....better use 4lb fluoro and a BFS casting setup.
Better yet, sinkers in various colors to blend in to the bottom you are fishing. Now you have to carry a dozen colors of six sizes of sinkers.
related Fishing Tackle topic
previous topic
next topic
© 2024 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.