02-09-2014, 10:00 AM
<br /> I&#39;ve been out the past couple months trying to learn the rig bite and my buddies and I have been having a ball. I figured I&#39;d stop by and drop a report.<br /> I got to do alot more fishing in December than in January, mainly due to weather and my boat being down, unfortuantly. We&#39;ve had a great past couple months using 3 and 5 wire rigs with a variety of baits. The water was alot warmer in the first half of December than it is now and the way you have to fish the rig between then and now has changed of course. <br /> In December we were having good success fishing the rig with a pretty fast retrieve using Yum Money Minnows and Cane Thumpers. But towards the end of the month and into January as the water tempurature dropped, the retrieve had to slow down with it. Now we are fishing it pretty slow with the water temp. being in the upper 30s/low 40s. Since we are fishing it slow but wanting to keep the bait around the same depth of the water column, we just adjusted to lighter weights. With the slower retrieve you want a bait that will still kick and put off good action. Cane Thumpers have been working well lately. But if you are having to fish it extremely slow, a fan tail type bait has been hard to beat. <br /> We&#39;ve been using Hog Farmer rigs all winter so far. The thing I like about them is the wire runs shorter than most rigs, the wires and baits rarely get tangled. The shorter wire also makes the rig more compact instead of having your baits spread out so much, which seems to make a big difference. <br /> As for the hooks, which you&#39;ll see in some of the pictures. Just a swimbait type hook with a screw lock. I&#39;ve been experimenting with them the past couple months. Mainly trying to keep from getting hung up. That is going great, haven&#39;t been getting hung up much with these hooks. But, I&#39;m still trying to figure out if I&#39;m missing more fish than I would be with regular jig heads. I&#39;ve missed my share of fish using these hooks, but then again I hear that others are getting short bites too. As long as the fish loads up and I set the hook into them, I haven&#39;t lost but a couple fish using these hooks. I would reccomend them, especailly if you&#39;re afraid to lose your rig and baits. Another plus is, since you&#39;re not getting hung, it keeps you from having to troll the boat over what you&#39;re fishing to retrieve your rig. So even if you do miss a few fish, it may help in getting more bites if you look at it that way.<br /> Our biggest key to finding the bass this winter has been to find the baitfish. If we find some bait, we know there will be bass somewhere in the area. So pay attention to your graph. Once you find the bait, work your way around the area with the rig. This way you know you&#39;re not in dead water. <br /> Now it&#39;s February, I can&#39;t wait to see what unfolds on Chickamauga. The big girls should be filling up with eggs and it should start getting crazy again soon. I hope to get my boat running soon and get back on the water more, the bite seems to be picking up!<br /> I hope the tips and report come in useful to some of you guys, good luck!