When do you peg your T-rigged and why? 2025

spoon33 reply :

Do you mainly peg them when fishing structure and docks so they don't get hung up? I usually never peg them, however I fished a tx with a guy a few months ago who always pegged his fishing open water, near some big bluffs.

Anyone have any theories on this tactic? Thanks

Red reply :

I peg mine when I am fishing really heavy cover, which is almost always. If I am fishing open water or the outside edges of the cover, I will unpeg. I peg to keep from getting hung up, I unpeg to give the bait a slower fall behind the weight.

bigfruits reply :

i usually peg tight to move the bait over sunken branches etc...

get some of these and you can adjust the distance the weight can slide on the fly.

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gotarheelz14 reply :

Those Eagle Claaw Rubber Bobber Stoppers are awesome and incredibly easy to use.

Just make sure you put the bobstop and the very beginning of your line or leader. Otherwise, you might get a big kink in the line which could debilitate the line's strength.

I peg when I am flipping, piching or working really irregular, solid cover. Branches, Tons of Rocks, etc. It helps me get my bait over these things without getting hung up and it also helps keep me from detecting false positives and thereby possibly getting into false negatives. The problem here is where the weight actually slides down off a rock or branch before your bait does. I swear it feels just like the tug a fish gives you when it inhales your bait whole!

When I am working pretty open areas of water or keeping my T-rigs off the bottom and higher in the water column, such as when I fish current in rivers where I like to let the bait dangle and flutter in the column, I make it a point to NOT PEG my weights. I do this because I like to have the weight make tons of contact and noise against the beads. I really do think that this helps bring attention to my bait.

I will sit there sometimes and jerk my rod tip, not very far at all in overall distance, just far and fast enough to get that weight and beads going. I sometimes get fish's attention this way.

I have personally seen dumb little bass and bluegill attack the heck out of my C-rigs' beads-weight section. For this reason I have stopped using them there. But, when it comes to T-rigs, I really do feel that it brings a lot of good attention because of how close the beads are to the soft plastic.

So, I would recommend not pegging when working open sections of water, but pegging when working solid, irregular cover.

Carlos

MMan16 reply :

I like to peg in thick weeds and around submerged branches. I will unpeg in open waters also in open water if I want a little noise I put a glass bead between weight and hook. Then again I've seen people peg all the time. I guess you do what you feel comfortable doing.

Bass Dude reply :

I usually peg in heavy cover, but sometimes you can get bit, when that unpegged plastic gets hung up in the weeds.

I never peg in sparse cover or open water.

Raul reply :

I peg when fishing timber and in low visiblity water.

OcBassman63 reply :

I peg 90% of the time. It just helps me feel what the bait is doing better. Just my personal preferance.

BassThumb reply :

I peg if I want a faster presentation or if I'm fishing heavy cover. I let the sinker slide if I want a more subtle presentation. When I pitch/flip, the sinker is almost always pegged. When I cast to weed lines and structure, I let if slide more often than not.

I use the Eagle Claw bobber stops all the time, and if I want to let the sinker slide, I just move the bobber stop up the line a foot or so.

Be careful not to kink your line with these stops, as gotarheelz14 said.

flechero reply :

I peg all the time, regardless of cover. You will snag much less often, but I also believe you hook a greater percentage of fish that pick it up, when pegged.

zaraspook_dylan2 reply :

I always peg t-rigged baits, I don't like it when the weight falls 2 or 3 inches ahead of the bait I'm sure the fish see's that every day so throw something at him that doesn't have that sinker diving away from the rig and it looks that much better. Here's what I use

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_44440_100010004_100000000_100010000?cmCat=CROSSSELL_THUMBNAIL

Mr Mojo reply :

ill peg when fishin sticks and heavy rock cover but with pads and weeds i wont. i usually put on a heavy weight with pads this is to let the weight be on the bottom and keep the bait suspended. u can let it fall slowly or gently pull the bait making it act like your bait is moving towards the bottom. usually when fish in the pads see a texas rig its pegged i do this to give them a different presentation and usually does not disappoint but do what you are comfortable doing pegged or unpegged there are pros and conns of each.

Catt reply :

Un-pegged 99.95%

Many anglers think a silent approach is the proper approach for fishing T-rigs; by that I mean they want their lure to fall quietly through the cover and then come through cleanly. My approach is to be noisy, that is I want my lure to cause a disturbance by moving cover/water as it falls and then again when its coming though the cover.

I think of it like this, unless the bass is facing your lure as it enters the water with the silent approach your lure will likely go unnoticed but create a little commotion and that bass will not only notice your lure turn but turn and swim towards your lure. I'll spend 2-3 minutes shaking a t-rig over a limb or out of a clump of grass.

The effectiveness of T-rigs or C-rigs...The weight dragging on the bottom and causing some type of commotion, even more so since everyone is using the silent approach.

.ghoti. reply :

Pegged, almost all the time.

I've been experimenting with rate of fall, using four sizes of steel weights, with glass beads, steel beads and brass beads for fine tuning.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to determine differences if the weights are sliding along the line.

I have to agree with Catt about the silent approach thing. I use rubber bobber stoppers for pegs, and leave about 1/8" gap between the peg and the weight. This allows the weight and bead to move and make some noise when contact is made. It also allows a bit more of an erratic movement with some baits. Increasing the gap to 1/4" allows more noise and sometimes more variation in the drop.

If I think the silent approach is required, I'll jam the peg right down on the weight.

The rubber bobber stops will also slide up the line when a fish is hooked. In almost every case when I land the fish, the stopper and weights are at least 10" up the line. Sometimes further. This removes most of the leverage the fish needs to throw the hook.

flechero reply :

Catt- Can you explain your rationale for me? Just having your weight moving on mono isn't making any extra noise, is it? If you rattle it in the tree it might make a some but I think my pegged weight makes as much or more noise as I can clack it on rocks or timber as well. And if you pull your worm over the eye of the hook (as most do) you get no contact noise with the weight and hook. What am I not "seeing"?

Silent isn't a word I'd use to describe my worm fishing. (unless I'm really trying to be quite)

A c-rig is quite different, as we have beads and tickers along with weights...

Catt reply :

Ok let's see if I can explain this correctly

Many anglers work extremly hard trying to make "silent" entrys with their cast/flip/pitch/punch, I on the other hard find a certain amount of noise is acceptable within reason.

Many anglers work extremely hard trying work the T-rig cleanly through vegetation by pegging it. I fish un-pegged Texas Rigs in vegetation because it kinda tangles in the sparse outer weed line that I'm targeting. I simply shake the rod tip while applying a certain amount of pressure till my T-rig works free.

In wood, trees, brush and even matted grass I like that amount of separation between the weight and lure.

It's not so much about "noise" as it is about "commotion" and bass can feel that commotion.

curls00 reply :

Quote
Many anglers think a silent approach is the proper approach for fishing T-rigs; by that I mean they want their lure to fall quietly through the cover and then come through cleanly. My approach is to be noisy, that is I want my lure to cause a disturbance by moving cover/water as it falls and then again when its coming though the cover.
I think of it like this, unless the bass is facing your lure as it enters the water with the silent approach your lure will likely go unnoticed but create a little commotion and that bass will not only notice your lure turn but turn and swim towards your lure. I'll spend 2-3 minutes shaking a t-rig over a limb or out of a clump of grass.

Very interesting - I think the same thing. My two biggest largemouth bass this year have been off of docks that were heavily flipped-to just minutes before I got there (during tournaments). What I did is came in behind these other guys who just fished the outer edges of the dock, and I pitched way back against the back edges, just ticking the dock post as it hits the water. Both times, the fish inhaled the jig (in these cases) immediately after it hit the water. The second (and my PB LMB in my avatar), was a 3/4oz jig that just grazed this old fiberglass hunting boat that was docked. Within 1 second of the jig making the noise and hitting the water, the fish hit it.

In both cases I am certain that I would NOT have had a strike had I not made noise. The fish were very pressured and IMO getting to spots where they are likely to be sitting, AND making noise/attracting the fish's attention, was key to success.

flechero reply :

Ok, so other than your preference to not be pegged, and my preference of being pegged, we don't appear to actually fish it differently. I still pop it in the grass and make some racket as I fish it most of the time. I asked the follow up because I thought you were saying you could do things with it unpegged that we couldn't do pegged. Thanks for clarifying.

Catt reply :

Unpegged the a weight is seperate from the lure causing twice the commotion

Fishing Rhino reply :

Quote
i usually peg tight to move the bait over sunken branches etc...
get some of these and you can adjust the distance the weight can slide on the fly.

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Here's one item where BPS clobbers Tackle Warehouse hands down.

Tackle Warehouse a buck eighty nine for 10 pieces. BPS 1.79 for 45 pieces.

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skeetercraig reply :

un-pegged i like to use a bead also between the hook and sinker , plus if you dont slide the worm high on the hook you get a clicking from the weight to bead and bead to the loop end of hook , when you just shake the rod tip you its almost like ringing a dinner bell , the only time i will peg is if im usin my drag along the bottom approach

Mike L reply :

To the guys who peg...

How far up the line or at the hook?

Thanks

Mike

RoLo reply :

Never.

I don't understand why anglers feel so obligated to the marriage between a bullet sinker and loose hook.

Almost always, I rig plastic worms and plastic craws on a bullet-head jig sporting an Owner hook.

If there's any disadvantage to this practice, I've been living in the dark for many years.

After the soft-plastic lure has been rigged on the jig, you would be visually challenged

to know whether it's a T-rigged worm or a jig-worm.

Roger

Catt reply :

Well Roger it's like this

There is a theory that firmly believes Jigs are less effective in vegetation than a pegged T-rig.

.ghoti. reply :

Quote

Never.

I don't understand why anglers feel so obligated to the marriage between a bullet sinker and loose hook.

Almost always, I rig plastic worms and plastic craws on a bullet-head jig sporting an Owner hook.

If there's any disadvantage to this practice, I've been living in the dark for many years.

After the soft-plastic lure has been rigged on the jig, you would be visually challenged

to know whether it's a T-rigged worm or a jig-worm.

Roger

Exactly my thoughts. Over the last couple of years I've slowly moved away from the t-rig and onto the jighead. Enough so that my terminal tackle box is now a 3600, and my jigheads won't all fit in a 3700.

J Francho reply :

I get bit both ways. Its probably a 75/25 split for sliding/pegged. I usually peg when working thick coontail, and I don't feel the bait getting down through the crowns. Sliding weights give a whole different presentation, and they do shed weeds quite well with a little shake. Although they look similar, a pegged t-rig isn't really the same as a jig. I've had days where the fish have shown a preference.

J Francho reply :

[movedhere] General Bass Fishing Forum [move by] J Francho.

SoFlaBassAddict reply :

I used to peg...a lot. Now, the only time I find myself using a pegged weight is in very, very thick vegetation. Generally this is when I'm flipping directly into matted grass. On the lake that I usually fish, having a pegged weight will almost stop you from getting bit on a standard texas rig. There is a fairly thick layer of gunk on the bottom of the lake. With a sliding, unpegged sinker, the weight will fall through the gunk leaving the bait sitting on top of it.

RoLo reply :

It might be good to start by answering the question: What Is A Jighead?

To my mind, a jighead is not a lure per se, but describes a Weighting System.

Instead of using a loose hook and a sliding sinker, the jighead is a glorified weighted hook

that provides a fixed union between the two. Pegging the slip sinker with a toothpick

merely simulates the behavior of a jighead.

During the descent of an unpegged T-rigged trailer, the bullet sinker always beats the trailer

to the bottom, which leaves a loose loop of line above the lure. Normally this is no big deal,

but sometimes that loose loop can be a problem in dense pondweed, hydrilla or tapegrass.

More importantly, the T-rigged trailer may not reach the bottom during a slack line descent.

Unbeknown to the angler, the lure may be suspended in weeds above the bottom

during his long pauses. This isn't possible with a jighead, because wherever the jighead goes,

so goes the trailer. Although a T-rigged plastic may land gingerly on a tussock of milfoil

above the bottom, the trailer on a jighead will crash thru the vegees as it's dragged to the bottom.

Just food for thought

Roger

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When do you peg your T-rigged and why? 2025

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