Free rig: setup, sinker and retrieve

pescaday

When the free rig fits

• Perch in cold water After every lift the bait flutters to the bottom and rests there briefly. Many bites come during that pause.
• Open water and flats Best on open flats, plateaus and drop-offs without much cover. In thick cover the Texas rig is better.
• Fishing spots precisely The sinker drops fast and almost vertically, the bait follows slowly. That way you fish drop-offs and spots precisely.
• Zander on the bottom With heavier fluorocarbon and bigger baits the rig also catches zander.

How to build it

1. Join braided main line to about 1 m (3 ft) of fluorocarbon. For perch 0.20 to 0.30 mm, for zander 0.35 to 0.40 mm.
2. Slide on a rubber stop. It later sits about 30 cm (12 in) above the hook and holds the sinker in place on the cast.
3. Thread on a sliding pear or stick sinker with an eye, not a drop shot weight with a clip eye. Usually about 5 to 11 g (3/16 to 3/8 oz) is enough, lighter in the shallows, heavier in deep water.
4. Optionally add a bead behind it as a knot protector. With sinkers that have a plastic insert you can leave it out.
5. Tie on a light-wire offset hook matched to the bait size with a Palomar or clinch knot.
6. Rig the bait: craw, creature, worm or shad, with the hook point buried in the plastic.
7. Lift with the rod tip, not with the reel, then pause briefly. The bait flutters to the bottom, where most bites come.

Variants

• Free rig with a nose-hooked bait Hook the bait only through the nose as on a drop shot. It moves more freely but is not weedless.
• Floating bait A buoyant soft plastic hovers above the bottom once the sinker has dropped, staying clear of mussels and stones.
• With a titanium trace Where pike are present, put a short titanium trace in front of the hook. See wire trace.

Quick questions

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Rules of thumb from practice, strengths as guide values, no products.