weedless set up

[chris kowaleski]

I fish several ponds that have a lot of weeds near the edges, and i want to try fishing it with a weedless set up, yet i know nothing about them! what would be a good weedless set up to try?

[Leo Nguyen]

There are may weedless hooks that you can readily buy, but essentially, they're all the same. I have two methods I normally use:

 

1. Weedless set-up using live baits: Measure the angle of the hook's shaft to the tip of the hook. I use 20 to 30lbs mono, bunch them together in a bundle of 5 to 7 strands. Tilt my heated iron (set for nylon ironing), give a 1cm lead so you can tie with near the eyelet of the hook, and tilt to the angle that you've got earlier for just 5 seconds..more if needed to denature the plastic property of the mono strand. Works excellent for live baits.

 

2. Weedless set-up using plastic: try either Texas/Dropshot/Carolina rig, with the plastic laid out using Wacky Worm, shaky head with worms or plastic fish, or you can use any hook with in any style, while protecting the hook's tip from snagging on the plants.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Another idea for soft plastics is to tie a length of 20-30 lb stiff mono at the eye. You could also super glue it there.  Once you have threaded on your soft plastic bait, loop the mono back to the bend of the hook, and push it into the body of the bait. This forms a loop which fend off weeds from the hooks barb.

Another Idea Ive been tinkering with lately is the old Charlie Brewer Slider rig, seen here...

AS you can see, they are essentially a weighted worm hook with the nose bent upwards at about a 30 degree angle, just behind the weight. This keeps them upright and they slide right through weeds when rigged like a Texas worm. They come in 1/32 size heads for panfish, albeit they're a bit on the pricey side. I've made my own from long shank #6 cricket hooks, with solder wrapped on for weight.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Okay, they say a picture is worth a thousand words ( a concept which I'm only just grasping).

SO, here is what I meant...

http://bigbluegill.com/photo/weedless-jigs?context=album&albumI...

[chris kowaleski]

Thanks for the info guys! So Leo, do you put 5 to 7 strands on one hook? Thanks for the pics David, i'm gonna have to try all these out soon.

[Leo Nguyen]

Depending on the brand of mono, and thickness of each line. I tried 3, but didn't work too well. Minimum of 5 works great. 7 is awesome when you deal with small floating algae like the one I face in the mountain's lakes.