What's up Bass Resource? John Crews here, talking to you more about wacky rig worms. The fall of the year, that's right, most people don't even think about wacky rig worms. Don't even think about it. But me and you, we're on the same wavelength. We're going to talk about wacky rig worms because they still work. They have a couple instances where they can really work. So I'm going to tell you a couple of my top secret, that's right, they're secret, wacky rig worms, setups, and situations for the fall and kind of why those fish get in those places to be susceptible for the wacky rig.
Number one, we're going to go with this happens a lot in the southern impoundments. It can happen in other parts of the country as well, but in the fall a lot of times you have water situations that the water may be sinking or dropping a little bit in some of these areas, but yet the shad and or the baitfish in the area seem to start going shallow. So what you end up having is not a lot of cover in the water. So you might have some floating docks that are dirt shallow. You know, we're talking a foot to three feet of water. You go back into these pockets, there'll be some presence of baitfish. A lot of people are beating up the points with topwater. They might be throwing a shaky head on some of the points, things like that, but a lot of these very shallow docks, and I'm talking they might be in the back of a pocket. They might be on the sides of a pocket. The stuff maybe on the points might be getting fished some, but they're probably not throwing a wacky rig worm.
And those largemouth will set up under those really shallow docks waiting for the baitfish to come by. Then they'll sneak out there, grab them, and then they'll go back to their little hiding spot in those shallow docks.
So I kind of have a one-two punch depending on the depth of the water of what I'm going to be throwing. So on the ones that are really shallow, the ones that are really shallow, I'm going to go to something that doesn't sink quite as fast and probably have a little more of a baitfish type color. So my setup here is going to be a Missile Baits Magic Worm in a baitfish color. This is Passion Shad, hands down my favorite wacky rig color in the fall. And as you can see, it's pink and white. It is a bright color. They tend to identify that and see that a freaking mile away. And so they just run out there and grab it if you twitch it a couple times anywhere near those docks that they're hanging around.
The hook that I'm going to be using is really my favorite one for when I'm fishing shallow, and that's the Gamakatsu Inline Octopus Number 1 size. And I'll just go straight braid with this setup, 16-pound Sunline X Plasma, a 7-foot to 7-3 Cashion medium-heavy spinning rod, and then a 3,000-size Daiwa, a Tattula or similar-sized spinning reel. And I'm going to take that and I'm going to try to get that bait quietly next to the dock. I don't want to like bloop it, splash it. I want to try to, like, get it in there as quietly as possible because those fish are in real shallow water and they will definitely, they will spook. So if you throw something in there too heavy and splash it, a lot of times those fish may spook, not come out.
So if you throw in there, let it kind of gently land as best you can and then just start slowly twitching it, keeping it real close to the surface, I'm telling you right now, if that fish is under that little shallow dock or that little shallow piece of cover, overhang and cover, little clumps of grass will be the same way. Those dirt-shallow, isolated clumps of grass, same way in the fall. Those fish will be right next to it waiting on those baitfish to come by. You throw that wacky rig over there, twitch it two or three times and all of a sudden, whoosh, you see that big boil. Next thing you know, you're hooked up with old big lips having a good time yucking it up with your boys. So that's the number one.
When you get to the docks that have a little more depth, like you might go to the back of the pockets or the side of the pockets and those docks may just be hanging over like six or eight feet of water, the same situation is going to be happening. I feel like sometimes you have the baitfish presence, but sometimes the brim presence is there as well.
So don't be afraid to mix it up. If you're not getting good looks or not catching them on the passion shad like you think, don't be afraid to switch to something that emulates the brim a little bit more. That will be a green pumpkin weighted stick bait type worm, like a Missile Bait's 48, Senko, something along those lines. I'm going to have the Gamakatsu G Finesse number two weedless stinger hook. That is a great hook. So if you're skipping that around docks, that little weedless portion helps keep any clumps of grass or light sticks, something like that from hanging up, really helps getting it through some cover.
With this setup, I'm going to go with 10-pound Sunline Sniper leader. I really like that. Little bit bigger than some other times of the year, but remember, we're going up under docks, we're going into lay down type areas. Need a little bit bigger fluorocarbon. That 10-pound Sniper is super, super tough. You can horse some big fish out of those areas.
Then the setup is very similar to the other one. This is a 7'3" medium, Cashion Icon spinning rod, 12-pound Sunline X Plasma Braid, and then a 3000 size, this is a Daiwa Ballistic, but any kind of 3000 size or similar spinning reel will absolutely do the trick.
Then this one, you're going to skip it over there. What I do is when I skip it over there to the docks with this setup, as soon as it gets over there, I'll twitch it once or twice real quick, as soon as it hits the surface, once or twice, and then I'm going to just let it fall.
I feel like what happens is the skipping bait gets those fishes' attention. And so when they look at it, and then you twitch it once or twice, like right off the bat, those fish, they are already tuned in to the bait. And then it twitches once or twice, they can't stand it. Like there's no need to let the bait fall all the way to the bottom without even imparting any action.
So when it gets over there, it skips, choo, choo, choo, choo. Like the second that it gets there, I'll just go, doo, doo, doo. Maybe one, two, three real quick twitches, causes that bait to undulate real quick. And man, a lot of times I'll like, I'll twitch, twitch, twitch and then by the time I reel up, my line's just sizzling on out towards the middle of the pocket, the middle of the cove. So that is absolutely an amazing way to fish a wacky rig in the fall. And that's kind of the way I do it around those little bit deeper docks, little bit deeper lay downs, things like that.
But the setup that we showed you earlier for the wacky rig, don't be afraid to throw this around active schooling fish. You might have those active schooling fish and you're throwing your Zara spooks, you're throwing your poppers, you're throwing your swim baits and stuff like that. And you can't buy one. Don't sleep on the wacky rig.
Wacky rig, especially even a brighter color like this, I'm telling you, I've done it a number of times. Those active fish, they're boiling, they may be busting, they just won't hit your topwater baits or your other active baits. Don't be afraid to throw that Missile Baits Magic Worm. The mini Magic Worm, the little four-inch version, absolutely can be a great option for them as well. When they're real finicky on those schooling fish, get real finicky, you gotta give them something a little bit smaller sometimes. So don't forget about the Wacky Rig on those schooling fish as well.
So those are my top ways to fish a wacky rig in the fall. I know there's some other instances. I mean, if you get one of those river systems that has grass and grass lines in the fall, it can be, things can get really tough in the fall on river systems. But if you have those grass lines, those fish are going to be relating to them. They're absolutely going to be relating to them. Don't hesitate, try your wacky rig along those grass lines, real slow twitches, something that's subtle, something that's gonna bring them out of that grass, but it's not gonna be overbearing because those fish probably have been beat on all spring and all summer. In the fall, they're still there. They're just in a little funkier mood.
So I grew up fishing the James River, Potomac River, some of those tidal rivers. I caught a lot of fish on a wacky rig on those grass lines that time of year as well. So don't forget about that other alternative for the wacky rig in the fall.
If you have any other questions, comments, or you have any other ways that people out there may be wanting to fish a wacky rig or should be fishing a wacky rig in the fall, please drop it down there in the comments. As always, we appreciate you guys watching.
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